Day 30

Wow! ¾ done! Today was a great dive. The air was cool, Olivia was cute, and the time flew. Olivia stayed up by my pillow today. She went to my side, which is better than right on top of me. The only thing is that she kept wanting to put her face on my face. At first it was cute, her soft little cheek felt nice, but after 20 min or so, it got old. We started playing little tickling and peek-a-boo games, sang some songs together, and then we started counting. Olivia has taken a liking to counting. She can't say the numbers, but she uses her pointer finger, points to objects, and makes the right rhythm and tone of counting. Another really good advance is that now whenever I ask her to say something, anything, she responds back to me with a sound. Its just coming out with vowels or G sounds, but she's trying! I wonder if it sounds right in her head.

Olivia made friends with an elderly lady yesterday as we were waiting to be seen for an appointment. This woman was talking to Olivia, showing her the jewelry she was wearing, and asking her questions. I told the woman Olivia didn't talk, but she kept asking her questions and to repeat words. This woman told me that 16 years ago, she had suffered a stroke. When she came out of the stroke, she thought she was talking, but no one understood her. She said it took 6 years of speech therapy to regain her ability to speak intelligibly. She said she thought Olivia was talking, but we aren't understanding her. Maybe she's right. I'll try to listen harder.