1-20-09

As usual Lily is doing very well! She is still having trouble with her speech, which I believe will be a long road of struggles for her, but over all she is making great progress. She has been tantruming less (but to me it felt like anything would be an improvement, lol). She has been doing much better with her separation anxiety....finally! She seems to do well with a 10 minute good bye notice. She gets upset when I tell her I'll be leaving, we have some hugs and some playtime, then a reminder that I'm leaving, a few more minutes of play and then a sad goodbye...but no tantrums now (or at least for now, she's a day to day wonder, lol). She is starting to grasp the concept of time, which is great.

Lily has been showing improvement in her interactions, her comprehension, and her overall mood has been better. We have increased her dosage of one of her vitamins and it seems to have helped in a lot of areas. I think her teething has stopped for the time being which would account for her being less irritable. Her schedule for therapies has decreased (due to cancellations and the holiday) and she seems to be happier for it, but she didn't have OT today and I could definitely see a major increase in stemming behaviors. She has been spinning a lot and staring at her hands, so I am really looking forward to wednesday when she has OT again and see if that makes a difference.

Her speech therapy is decreasing to 3 times a week now, which I think is fine. I'm thinking about putting her in a mom's morning out program to see how she does playing with other kids without me around for a couple of hours, but I'm still on the fence about it. She has such a hard time communicating that it would be hard for her to be understood. As it is I have a hard time with it, but it would be impossible for someone who doesn't know and understand how she is. I know I'm probably being overprotective....ok...I AM being overprotective, but I can't help it. I watch her struggle to even still understand the concept of yes or no, which is hit or miss most of the time. I watch her frustration of not being able to get her point across, struggling even with gesturing. I just want her happy and I hesitate about putting her in a situation that might increase the anxiety that she so often feels. I know I'll have to do it at some point, but I'm not sure she's (Ok, I'm) ready for that. I'll keep mulling it over and let God decide what's best and at what time. He's done an outstanding job of guiding us so far!