Put Your Hands Together

Meagan's hospital stay 2 weeks ago took a lot out of her.  She has obviously been more tired than usual and in some ways, even still seemed to be recovering this week.  Because of her fatigue, I'd been letting her rest more than I usually would physically, and spent a lot of time talking to her and working on communication.  She continued to seem pretty serious, and I was getting a bit concerned what her change in mood meant.

Meagan smiles on demand. That is just "her norm."  So it is a great tool to gauge her mood or if something might be bothering her.  Whether it's a good thing or bad thing bothering her always remains to be seen, but, it is a good indicator for me.  If she isn't smiling as much, I know to keep a close eye on her.  Well, this was the case last week.  Even when I would get down in her face and talk to her, there would be no "happy" reaction, which was very different than what she'd normally do.

A few days after her "stoic" appearance, I noticed her playing with Reilly.  To my surprise, this is what I saw, so I grabbed my camera:

I was so excited to see her trying to clap! I couldn't believe she was trying to copy Reilly.  Because of this, I started to play "Patty Cake" everyday with Megs.  I would ask her, "Meagan, do you want to play Patty Cake?" .. and then I would take her hands, and clap them together in between mine.  Following that she would usually clap them together herself a few times. I could see her mind working every step -- 'move arms outward, extend fingers, bring arms close together, touch hands together with a more rapid movement than normal, repeat....' 

Imagine my surprise when yesterday, I looked down at Meagan lounging in her Nap Nanny.... I said ":Meagan, do you want to play Patty Cake?"  Before I could reach and grab her hands, she looked up at me.  I could almost SEE the process going through her mind again....and then she picked up her own hands and clapped them together! She did it on her own.  In response to my voice command.  This was big.  Meagan was showing me she could hear something I said, and relate it to an action she could do.  

So Meagan has been serious this week.  But I guess she's just been seriously concentrating on learning Patty Cake!  I feel incredibly thankful for this moment. God keeps dropping little surprises in our life through Meagan's progress.  It may seem small to some, but every little step, is a huge leap for Meagan.  I know she will continue to surprise us in her own ways and in her own time.  Until then, I guess we'll be putting our hands together and playing a lot of Patty Cake!