"I want to watch..."

This is what Lu looked like yesterday after she told me with her Tobii that she wanted to watch Despicable Me 2. She was so tickled to be watching the movie of her choice. I have been modeling in her Tobii the sentence, "I want to watch..." And then she fills in the blank. Because I know that eventually she will create that sentence on her own, instead of just essentially shouting out the names of movies and tv shows that she wants to watch. 

The other day she told me that what was happening (which was that she was waiting for me to give her a snack and was watching Peter Rabbit) was "boring".  Being bored must be a feeling she is exploring lately because she also told Chad a month or so ago that she was "bored" when he was reading to her one night before supper. 

A week or two ago Lu and I were planning a small shopping trip. I read the list of things I needed and then I asked her if there was anything she wanted me to add. This is what she said:

That night for supper I made grilled cheese sandwiches with salami in them, and she was in love! We had blueberry pancakes the following Sunday, and we haven't had sloppy joes or lasagna yet, but we will.

Lucy's buddies Miles, Chase, and Isaac stopped by for a quick surprise visit after Christmas to meet Olive, her new kitty. She loves those boys, but look what she said when they left:

She often asks where her Dad is during the day when he's at work or makes this suggestion:

I asked her if she missed him and she nodded "yes". She followed up in her book by saying, "not see him". 

And during speech the other day, she and her therapist, Roxann, we're making a story about a picture of Lucy dressed up for Halloween. They had started the story the day before, so Roxann brought a picture of herself dressed up like Tinkerbell a few years ago to show it to Lu and talk a little bit about it too. In Lucy's picture she is with her dad and her Poppa, so as part of the story Roxann asked her what her Poppa thought about her costume, and Lucy said, "everyone, silly, yours" obviously referring to Roxann dressed like Tink, since she was a grown up! It was very funny!

Just like any other five year old, Lucy makes requests, shares her feelings, makes observations, expresses her opinions, and likes to watch the same movie over and over again, and can tell me she wants to do so. I have a pretty strong belief that because she can do these things, and has control over it, is why she is generally a happy little girl. She certainly can have bad days as we all do, and sometimes we go through periods where certain parts of the day incite an inexplicable unhappiness in her, but in general, I feel like in spite of all of the parts of her life that she has no control over, and in spite of her physical limitations, she is content, happy, and thriving.

I'm just so grateful for the technology of eye gaze, and the creation of the PODD. I know this isn't new information, and that I'm like a broken record about it. But I often wonder how different Lucy would be without her ever-increasing ability to communicate with us. Fortunately, we will never know.