A great day

Yesterday, Ava made some great strides that just made me feel hopeful. We had a great day in total starting with a visit with early intervention. When Ava saw Teresa her whole face lit up. Since getting her glasses this is what she has done when meeting 'for the first time' familiar people in her life. Her glasses seem to be helping. The day she got them I was trying to figure out if she could indeed see better and held up a small block with a funny monkey face on it. Her eyes passed right over the block stopped then flew back to the picture and she let out a guffaw kind of chuckle. Teachers are definitely seeing an improvement as well. I think it is a move in the right direction but still think it could be stronger.
Yesterday she made me so proud. (But she does every day) She sat at her high chair and fed herself an entire meal of apple chunks and ham. She was a bit nervous of the apple and kept spitting it out until she learned to eat it with her front teeth (back ones are still emerging). She grabbed at that food and put it in her mouth like she was doing it all along. She still has to work on letting go of the food. It's like she's thinking it took me so long to learn to pick this up there's no way i'm letting it go :-} She still has a difficult time with the bottle while sitting but she picked up the bottle and jammed it toward her mouth and I propped her elbows on her tray and she happily drank away. I was so impressed when she finished her meal and realized I had only assisted on about three bites. Huge milestone.
Lately Ava has been slapping her knees or the table repeatedly. She usually does this when I try to give her food when she already has a mouth full to let me know 'hey mom i'm still eating'
I tried to teach her to slap her knees when she wants more.
That night when I lay her down and sang her a good ole rowdy drinking song to bed, she started laughing and slapping her knees. I kept singing. Suddenly she shook her head no. I stopped mid-verse. She laughed and looking at me teasingly slapped her knees and off I sang again. Laughingly we did this about ten times and I felt my spirit soar. She was teaching me a game and showing me the rules. It was amazing. It was awesome communicating. When I spoke with my mom later that night she said they were doing something similar where they were tapping their toes and playing and stopping the music while dancing Ava around the room last week. They stopped when the music stopped. I wonder if she was showing me that game? I hope to see this kind of behaviour continue. It's hard to know because sometimes we get a great milestone like that and won't see it again for months but hopefully if we keep at it and make it satisfying to her she will keep it up. What a great day for Ava!