looking up!

I've been a bit lax in writing lately, because there hasn't been much to write. It seems like every day is a rerun of the previous day. Rachel only turns the lights on in her bedroom when I remind her to. She doesn't really play with anything, or even look at anything. She eats what I put in front of her if I prompt her, but needs to be reminded frequently. She dresses herself, but again she has to be reminded what she's doing. She is just as likely to take off the shirt she just put on as she is to put her shoes and socks on unless I physically remind her what the next step is (she hasn't been listening to verbal prompts very well). Frequently she washes her hands and then just touches the towel, instead of actually drying her hands. I noticed over the course of a few days that she went from turning the light off, to just touching the light switch, to motioning in the general direction of the light switch. I'm not sure how to stop this trend, because I don't know what is causing it. On the up side, however, this time I know she can/will come back. The first time she did this I thought it was permanent, and it lasted nearly a year. Since then she's had a lot of ups and downs, but I can weather them a lot better when I know it's not forever.

Yesterday when she came home from school she immediately went to her room. I went in a few minutes later, expecting to find her staring at nothing, but she had gotten a few magazines out to look at. I talked to her for a few minutes about pictures she was interested in. She had a picture of a mom and dad and a little girl. She pointed to the little girl and said "That's a girl. That's Rachel." Every time I checked on her she had more magazines and papers out, and she was usually willing to talk about them. When it was time to eat, she came right away and ate well. When I asked her if she wanted more she said "yes" and ate that quickly also. I tried to get her to talk to me, but she was in a hurry to get back to her bedroom and her magazines. Her brothers had a basketball game last night, and so we went to cheer them on, which was really fun. I'm not sure she really enjoyed it, but it was good for her to get out and see some people. When we got home it was a little late and she still needed to be bathed, and then there was this huge pile of magazines and papers spread all over her bed that had to be put away (which was awesome, not annoying), so she got to bed a little late. I am so glad that she is doing things again. I hope it will continue. I've missed her.