Thursday, March 6, 2014

Finding Her Voice

Maggie was having a sensory sort of day yesterday.

I blame the snow.  And the cold.  I've been trapped in a house for three months with a sensory seeker who's greatest thrill is running as fast as she can into wide open space, giggling her head off.

There's only so much stimulation that can go on inside the four walls of this house.  And it still doesn't compare to this:









So her main outlet right now is climbing.  And I'm guessing when she's scaling a baby gate or attempting to climb the mantle she's picturing herself doing this:


And that means that the therapists and I find ourselves saying:  "Down!" about a million times a day.
And she'll look at me blankly or maybe not look at all until I say "abajo" and then she'll turn and smile sweetly and say "Abajo! Abajo!" in a sweet singing voice and will jump down to the ground with a flourish. Because the kid really wishes her first language was Spanish.

Yesterday's sensory outlet, however, also came in the form of wanting to come over and squeeze Mama's cheeks and then give me hard kisses all over my face.  And it also came in the form of going over and hugging her big sister as tight as she possibly could.

My favorite parts of the day, however, are scattered throughout the hours, as day after day Mae begins to discover her voice.  And in an amazing not-a-common-gift-in-our-family-sort-of-way we've found that Maggie is the only person in this house who can carry a tune.  I've been desperately trying to record her all week long, and so far have had no luck.  The moment she sees me turning my computer or camera towards her she's on to something else.

But she's been singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Row, Row, Row Your Boat.  And she was working on singing Happy Birthday this afternoon because she would love to have that song on repeat all day long.

Her favorite thing to do is to climb up onto the dinning room table and dangle her legs of the edge and look down, sometimes with her toy unicorn pegasus that she's pretending to ride and sometimes holding a little plastic star in her hand while she sings "up above the...." and trails off before beginning to sing the words again.

Little by little she's finding her voice.  And I can hardly wait to hear what she's going to say next.

3 comments:

  1. What a happy post!!! So glad she's finding her voice!

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  2. It's so interesting that she is singing. I am thinking about stroke victims- those with strokes to the right side of the brain often lose their ability to speak, but can sing! And they can remember numerous verses to songs they learned when they were well. Sometimes they can communicate by putting new words to the songs: to the tune of God Bless America they might sing instead, "I'll have some orange juice..." and so though they can't speak they can sing the thought.
    I'm very sure Mae will talk eventually. (Once she does she'll probably chatter so much you'll probably wish she would be quiet!) But I think the singing thing is great, and I hope she learns lots of songs so that part of her brain develops well.
    God Bless. ~ Bonnie

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