And with my next $600M

We had Mya's annual IFSP (Individualized Family Service Plan) meeting today. That pretty much means we set a bunch of goals for her next year and went over her latest developmental milestones. Nobody asked me how I would describe her personality so we were already off to a pretty good start. I hate that question. A coordinator and 4 therapists stare as you fumble to define your child in a word. And I get to answer it 3 times a year, or I guess not anymore. Maybe they changed the criteria again. But anyway. What a great meeting! I have been feeling like Mya has been doing some pretty great things. Especially now that the latest round of sickies has passed us by and she is (mostly) sleeping through the night again, (mostly) not choking or gagging on every meal, and (mostly) more alert than she has been in a while. This morning in therapy we had her sitting on her bench in her support vest and she was (mostly) propping herself up with her arms and lifting her head to see a toy. That is really great stuff. So when the meeting came around and they asked about the kinds of things she has been doing the list started to grow. Things like responding to voices, picking out faces, pushing off with her arms, vocalizing for 'more', consistently activating her switch for music, sitting completely upright in a high chair AND holding her head, and understanding simple commands (!!!).

So then we started to modify her goals. And this is where the disappointment that I did not in fact win $600 million dollars in the Mega Million drawing started to surface. Because as the list was growing the number of times I heard 'every day', or '4 times a week' started to multiply and I started to hyperventilate just a little bit. The absolute first thing I would buy with my winnings: a full time therapist. What kind of great things could this child be doing if I could focus on all of this stuff as much as she deserves for me to focus on all of this stuff. But we do our best and we live in a world where you can't win hundreds of millions of dollars if you do not in fact buy a ticket. And either way I am super excited about some of our goals for her and I am starting to feel like they are just maybe attainable. Things like communication: making a choice between two toys with her gaze and maybe eventually with switches. And sometimes those things feel very far off and very unattainable but I am starting to feel like she is learning again. And even inching forward feels a whole lot better than stepping backwards. So I feel very encouraged. And that makes me nearly as happy as millions of dollars would. Oh and our mystery winner, whoever you are, Epilepsy could really use some money for research. And if you want to buy me a therapist I would be cool with that too. I already have her picked out.