Patricia @ 3years and 7 months

It's been 7 months since my last post. So many things happened. Some good, some bad, but thank God they're mostly good. Patricia has been having her Speech Therapy once a week, since there's no available additional schedule yet. She's also in her junior nursery class now in Kinderhaus. She's still having her once a week Occupational Therapy sessions. We stopped her GFCF diet 6 months ago. It was accidental and unintentional. We had to stay in the province for 2 months to campaign for her grandfather, and since there's no way that we can get GFCF supplies there, we were forced to give her non-GFCF food. We observed her and nothing has changed except that she became more hyperactive. Maybe it's because she can eat everything she likes and in effect she eats more rice and pasta. She gained weight too. She also became healthier. She never became sick since then. I'm not discouraging parents to try GFCF diet, because it really doesn't work the same on everyone. At least I can say that we at least tried, for 1 year and 3 months. I'm still glad we did it.

Patricia has improved a lot since my last post. Finally, some words!! We were so shocked when on our way home from her speech therapy, she got thirsty. And when we gave her the juice and asked her to show the gesture for "open", she said the word clearly. We were in the car then, my husband and I almost cried. We made her say it several times, she did. It was one of the happiest moments for us. That was 4 months ago. Now she can say few words, like open, blow, mommy, daddy, give, bye. It's still not so clear and consistent. Sometimes we still had to prompt her. Like saying "bar.." and she says "..ney" or "el.." and she says "..mo" She can count, but only numbers 3,4,5,8,9 and 10. And that still depends on her mood. Well, that's good enough for us. Slowly but surely. She also socializes more now. She even hugs her classmates a lot. She plays with them and even holds their hands. She also sits longer now. She still doesn't like to glue but can tolerate it more now. Oh, and how she eats! Her teachers are so amazed because she eats her food with gusto, and with almost no assistance. She also sings and follows the movements better now. Her attention has improved too. According to her teachers and therapists, she's their most improved student, and we couldn't be prouder.

There were still some low times. I think that will always be part of it. She's still scared of the elevators, so we're forced to use the stairs all the time. She freaks out when she sees it, running away or just sits on the floor refusing to move. There was a time that she was also scared of the escalator, which she used to love. We had to go up and down many times to get her used to it again. She's addicted to her Barney videos nowadays. When she wakes up, comes back from school, she wants to watch it right away. And for a time, she loves to press the pause/play button all throughout the video. Good thing that now, she does that only to some parts she doesn't like. She only selects the people that she wants to interact with. She has her favorite persons and for the others, she ignores. But other than that, she's a happy child. She still has tantrums but are now rare. When she's mad or frustrated, she cries or shouts, claps her hands and stomps her feet. I'm thankful that she doesn't hurt herself and others.

There's still a long way to go. We're so proud of our baby. We know that she also gets stressed and tired sometimes but she's trying. We know she's trying really hard. And that makes us really happy. Praise God.