9/8/08

Well, Lily is doing wonderful, as usual. A couple of nights ago we were following some strangers away from the pool and when they crossed the street she waved at them and said "bye bye". Unfortunately, she is my one hit wonder, so I haven't been able to get her to say it again. She now knows what a tiger, elephant and pig says and she's working on snake (elephant and pig are new today). She doesn't say words for them, she is able to make the sounds and match them up though. She's getting increasingly frustrated that she is unable to speak. I feel really bad for her. It's frustrating because I have heard her use so many words and form so many sounds but she is unable to use any of them now. She can say the "t" sound and does that quite often. Her speech therapist has given me some ideas on more ways to work with her. She was much more responsive to her today so I'm excited to try some new things with her.

I'm really going to try to push sign language more now that her understanding is elevated. She did much better during therapy today (and without a nap!). She was much more cooperative with much fewer tantrums. Lily is finally doing long distance pointing!! We practiced quite a bit more this morning and she finally got it! Sounds like such a small thing, but for her it's HUGE! I was able to ask her "where is daddy?" and she pointed at him!!! We went out to eat and she started to point at things around her. We bought her a hoola hoop and she LOVES it. We play all kinds of games with it. She's still doing great with textures and played with some play dough this evening.

She continues a little bit of pretend play. When we were over my friend's house I was holding her 6 month old and Lily picked up a baby for her to hold. It was very cute. She plays really great with her little boyfriend, who is only a week younger than her. They have been starting to interact more with games of chase and taking turns with toys. If he doesn't want her to play with something he gently pushes her hand away (over and over) and she is totally fine with that, though she's more persistent then he is, lol. Neither of them gets upset. He often follows her lead and helps her put her toys in a row.

Recently I bought her some new mickey mouse magnets because she had torn apart her old ones. Well she quickly tore apart the brand new ones to "match" the old ones (i.e. both donald ducks are missing their feet). Guess I should have thrown out the old ones first, but who knew? It took her a month to mess up the other ones and two days to correct the new to look like the old, lol.

Tonight Lily figured out how to drink from a straw!!! Yay!!! I was much more excited about this than Anthony. I get so excited over every little achievement. :) I have a sippy cup for her that has a straw component and now she will be able to use it.

Tomorrow Lily has her appointment to test exactly where she falls on the spectrum. We won't get the results back until next week.