Changes

** May 22, 2015 - Edited to add:  This is my most popular post and it continues to get hits almost daily close to a year after I posted it.  I'm assuming it must be linked somewhere that continues to bring people to my site to read this.  If you are reading this after finding my blog through a link, I would love for you to leave me a comment and let me know how you found me! **

Yesterday Evie and I went to the Miracle League baseball game (the baseball team for kids with special needs that I help coach) and then to Moe's for lunch.  Four weeks before (which was four days after I got Evie), we did the exact same thing.  As I sat there eating lunch, I was remembering how things went last month and realized how different things are now. 

The biggest thing that stood out, and that made me even begin thinking about this, is how UTTERLY EXHAUSTED I was sitting and eating lunch that day last month.  I was in a fog, just existing - and barely surviving - with this little 4-year old who had shown up on my doorstep.  A friend of mine joined us, and at that point I was so thankful for another adult there, and those moments with other people were what kept me sane (both for the opportunity to have an adult conversation, as well as to have someone else interact with Evie so my mind could take a mental break). Yesterday, I could actually enjoy lunch, with just me and her.

Lunch was so much less messy yesterday!  And we actually used manners!  Last month, Evie ended up with cheese dip ALL OVER her shirt; yesterday, she was completely clean when we left.  This was partly due to Evie's improved eating skills of leaning over her plate, wiping her mouth, and eating more slowly; and partly due to my increased ability to remind her to do these things when she didn't do them on her own.  She also was mostly chewing with her mouth closed, and held up her finger to tell me to wait a minute before she answered a question I asked her because she had food in her mouth at that second.  (She would have NEVER done that a month ago, and it's still a work in progress.) 

At the baseball game yesterday, Evie was laughing and playing with other kids, seeking attention from one of the other coaches, and sometimes standing on the other side of the fence from me (by her choice).  Last month, she wouldn't leave my side (I specifically remember a situation where she wanted to get a pom-pom what was about 15 feet away from us, when hardly anyone else was around.  She would not go get that pom-pom by herself; and I finally got her to do it by telling her to see if she could get it and get back before I counted to ten.)

It has been fun to see Evie blossom into a more confident and secure - and socially adept - little girl!