bebe and "skoo"

today was the start of the forth week of school for beatrix. i walked her to her classroom and for the second week in a row there were no tears. she got out her breakfast and sat right down at the table with the rest of the kids. i told her i loved her and said i would be back soon to pick her up and she waved at me and said clear as day, "bye. mom!"

her language is definitely growing. she spent the weekend telling me she had to go, "pee and poo" and that her favorite colors were "boo and een". she said, "bu-ble" when i filled her bath on saturday with bubble bath and she talked about her favorite movie "eo", which translated is the movie Rio. to the average person this might not seem like much, but for me, well, they are the beginnings of words and even more important than that is the fact that beatrix is trying to communicate. this was our main concern when she started school almost a month ago. i was worried, scared even, that she wouldn't even try. but her teachers have done such an amazing job building up her confidence that she is actually saying "hi" and "bye" to strangers. she waits until they are walking away so she won't have to engage them any more than what she feels confident in saying, but the point is that a month ago she wouldn't even do that. it is exciting and just the kind of result that we were hoping she would have.

rhonda, her private speech pathologist, has been coming on wednesday afternoons. she is optomistic as well and very encouraging of bea's progress. she is especially excited about bea's use of the vowel sound "eo" which rhonda told us is one of the harder sounds to get. it seems if the words beatrix are trying to say are emotionally connected to her then she will try harder to say them.

we feel so thankful that bea is getting the help she needs and that she is excited about learning. the process will be slow, but the small changes we have seen already help to keep us all motivated. bea's teachers recommended that she attend 5 weeks of summer school in the middle of the summer so that she doesn't lose momentum. so last thursday, i signed her up for that as well. she loves, "skoo" (school) and we are so very very thankful for all of the prayers that have been uttered on her behalf.