Fabulous Day with Samantha

What a great day.  If you monitor this blog, you can tell it's a great day, because I've posted more often today than in many weeks.

I took Samantha to the mall at lunchtime today.  I didn't bring or buy food for her, because our next stop was her OT for a feeding session.  I bought myself a slice of pizza and we sat down by the carousel in the middle of the mall while I ate and we waited for a hair appointment for Princess Sam.  She was very excited watching the carousel, but after a while I could see she was also checking out the pizza.  And then, she ASKED FOR SOME.  Seriously.  So I gave her a little bite (she wouldn't bite it herself, but she opened her mouth for me to pop some in).  She chewed it, swallowed, thought about it, and I ignored the whole thing.  A few minutes later, she asked for more.  This happened twice, then I made the mistake of proactively offering a bite to her, at which point she would have nothing further to do with it.  Oh well.  Someday, I'll learn.

Her OT appointment went incredibly well, also.  Samantha signed "eat" before we started, and she ate peach chunks off of a spoon (in the past, we have cut them up smaller and "hand fed" them directly between the teeth so she didn't have to manipulate the slippery fruit into chewing position).  And, she let us guide her to put food into her mouth on a spoon she held herself. 

So today I'm saying prayers of thanks and also want to thank my Bible study ladies and Sam's much loved Germantown TN prayer group, who've all been praying for breakthroughs like these.  I know they may sound small to many people, but I count today's experiences as yet more small miracles in the amazing story of Samantha's progress. God has shown such mercy and generosity with Samantha, and we are so grateful.

Not to trivialize, but I must say that her hair looks great too.  I'll see if the hairstyle survives her nap so I can get a picture.  I was a bit skeptical when the stylist brought out the spray.  She put hair product in Sam's curls and pinned them up in front with a couple of bobby pins.  Very cute.  I'd consider doing it that way again sometime, but she doesn't smell like a baby with all the stuff in her hair.  I'm really not all that eager to have a "big girl".