goldfish crackers in her water and saying "tea, tea!" (Jason was busy
making himself tea at the time and I guess Clara figured she'd make
her own version :)
Sometimes though she acts on her own, like the other night when she
hit Calem with one of my books (I'm studying for boards in September).
We suspect she did it because she was feeling a little jealous since
I was reading to him alone during her bathtime. We disciplined her
by putting her in her crib then tending to Calem who was quite upset
(probably out of shock of getting hit in the face with a book).
Either way, it was behavior I'm sure we'll see again in the future,
after all, "sibling rivalry" wasn't invented by her!
Despite that episode, Clara has adjusted fairly well to sharing a room
with her little brother. She is able to ignore him if he is crying
and stays asleep most of the time. She continues to sleep well at
night with the occasional waking in the middle to ask us to find her
Thomas the train toy (a very generous little boy named Nicholas gave
them to her during a playdate and she has held on tight to them ever
since). Her naps remain sporadic, sometimes great (3 hour stretch)
sometimes not (quietly playing in crib for an hour then demanding to
get out). Still great appetite (eats way more vegetables than I do!).
Her speech is at a plateau. She hasn't had any therapy since we've
moved and it won't be another 3 weeks until she is evaluated by the
infants and toddlers program for services (it is county dependent).
In the meanwhile, we have found a private speech therapist for her to
meet with so she doesn't fall further behind. She is making some two
word statements ("blue shirt") and comes up with new words every day
(she really surprised me when she said "bra" I don't even remember
saying this word around her) but many times she only uses the first
consonant sound of the word rather than saying all the syllables (ie.
doctor is "duh" but so is duck, diaper, and doll,so it can be hard to
know what she wants if these are all close together). One of the
challenges is that all of the speech therapists who do "prompt"
therapy (the kind recommended for speech apraxia) are only available 9
to 5 PM on weekdays. We are considering getting a second car so that
Jason can get to more appointments for her (which would obviously be a
big deal financially but it would be an even bigger deal if her speech
falls behind!)
