Inch by inch

(New goal: Blog 3-4 times a week for Mary - minimum! Unless I am sick or on vacation. Or any other excuse I can invent. Just kidding on the last 2 sentences.)

Progress has been slow, but even small increments count as long as we are moving in the right direction.

Here's some of Mary's progress over the last few weeks.

- Painting. We have gone from mindless drawing (now I DO mean mindless! She would sit and draw without looking at the page and with a blank stare on her face.) A few weeks ago we had her start doing water colors. She is now painting consciously - making a design, choosing her colors, all the while fully engaged in what she is putting on that paper.

L to R: May 15, 2010, Sept 7, 2010, Sept 30, 2010
The cool thing about the last one is that she started with that shape and continued it in different colors. Completely engaged and aware!!! Yippee!! (BTW: her name on the first one was written with us holding her hand)

- Vocalization. I am calling it this to dress it up a bit. It's a nicer name for screaming "NO!" at us at an ear-splitting decibel level. The experts tell me this is a positive thing. When you are being screamed at - it doesn't feel so positive. But, it is what it is, and she is trying to communicate with us. This is different than her previous tantrums when she would lose control. She is forcefully telling us she doesn't want to do something now. On a more positive note: she is also making new "humph"-ing noises when she is happy. (Much better than screaming in my opinion)

- Creeping and crawling. As a young mother - I thought this was a crazy notion invented to make moms paranoid about getting their babies to crawl. Turns out I was wrong. The assertion is that crawling is an essential developmental milestone for brain development. You see, Mary never crawled. She just scooted on her bum. We have, in past months, tried to get her on her hands and knees, but she would have none of it. But, these past 2 weeks, she has been crawling. Yay! She has even - just yesterday - tried to "belly crawl" - another important step in brain development! (Interesting how this coincides with her painting!)

Mary in front of her new "school". The Children of Hope NACD center for Southern Utah.

Well, that's it for now. These are the highlights for Mary this last month. Again - these things seem small and insignificant to the observer. But for us, they are HUGE! When we look at the long range - we have a lloooonnnnggg way to go. But, inch by inch, we'll get there!