Helen Keller communication

We finally have a breakthrough! This morning for the very first time Amelia told me she was hungry. Oh, how relieved I am.

Amelia is a bright child - a lot of people tell me that and on most things I would agree, humbly of course. ;-) But one thing that has driven absolutely crazy is the way she will run to me out of the blue and scratch my hand. I finally figured out a few weeks ago that she was telling me she was thirsty. I had been telling her, "No, we don't scratch Mommy! That hurts Mommy!" Then I would wait a little bit before offering her juice so there wouldn't be an immediate cause and effect connection and I would nonchalantly offer her juice, which she would immediately take and drink.

Sometimes if she wasn't very hungry at supper (since she takes a long afternoon nap and usually wakes up just minutes before supper), she'll get hungry before her 7:30 "yogurt before bed" (I put this in quotes because that's what she calls it, too. so cute.) I usually feed her fruit and leftover supper, too, so sometimes she eats more before bed than she did at supper. On the evenings where she becomes hungry before 7:30, she'll find me and scratch or pinch me. VERY annoying but definitely attention getting. The hunger thing doesn't happen as much but every time she does scratch me lately I will say, "Are you thirsty? Are you hungry? Just tell me what you want." And this morning she did. Hallelujah.

On mornings where I don't go into work I usually feed her around 8:30 am, but she announced at 7:45 that she was hungry, so we made Cheerios and had banana and peaches. Then she told me she was done and ready to "get down" as she proceeded to take her own tray off. She is definitely growing up.

It seems like there's always something to figure out on this journey called motherhood, and I have to admit it is one of the harder parts of motherhood for me.