Noa enjoyed keeping track of the days with the August calendar that she brought home from school. She also started using an alarm clock. When it rings, she turns it off and then puts her overnight toys (doggies, Bo, Electra Monkey, blankets) into a basket and then gets up by herself using her walker and goes to the bathroom to change into play clothes.

Noa spent the first two weeks of break at Putnam Literary Camp which she enjoyed tremendously, along the way, she had a visit from Aunt Pate which was also a lot of fun. Other highlights of the those first two weeks included a few trips to the local pool with Dad (she picked out a blue bucket from the dollar store to pour water on her head).

Noa was an absolute rock star when we went to get an xray of her foot. She enjoyed meeting the Xray tech, Scott, who gave her a sticker for doing such a good job, and she continues to talk about him.

We spent the third week of vacation in a rented RV on Mascoma Lake in Lebanon, NH. We thought Noa might like an RV because the compactness of the space might make it easier to deal with a new space and it would give us the ability to bring more familiar activities. She did seem to like having her usual activities and, while she couldn't navigate the space independently, she did seem to like the fact that could understand the space quickly. Plus, because we were close to Visions for Creative Housing (where Dad works), we were also able to do some respite time with her "friend" Beth which was a joy for everyone!  The 58-mile Northern Rail Trail runs right through the property where we were staying, so Noa enjoyed her long walks in Blue Stroller.

Noa enjoyed shopping on vacation. She picked out two shirts: one pink, one blue. She also enjoyed pulling herself back and forth on a hammock, reading her books on the porch, and visiting a friend's house for dinner.

Back home, the big event was the arrival of Noa's new blue wheelchair and gait trainer. She loves both, and likes to celebrate talking about her her friend Ken, the NuMotion tech who delivered them. The new chair is lighter and more agile then her previous chair. She is excited to bring it to school and say good bye to her old, heavy purple wheelchair.  She has become enthusiastic about maneuvering in her manual wheelchair.

It's hard to believe that anything could be more exciting than a new wheelchair... but the gait trainer??? Definitely the MOST exciting thing! It's more compact and lighter than the one she's been using at school. She's enjoyed using both of them every single day since they arrived. The challenge is finding space for all this new equipment! 

Noa had a great weekend at home. She clearly enjoyed all the Halloween festivities at school. She wore her big, funny glasses and bandana all the home and all through a long ride on the blue stroller. She finally took the glasses off once she was in the house, but she kept the bandana on until bedtime and then wanted to put the bandana on her walker overnight and made sure I understood that she wanted to wear it again on Saturday. She also wanted to wear the same shirt in the morning (a purple shirt with two bird embroidered on it.) She also wanted to spell bandana several times. She was thrilled Saturday morning to find that her bandana was still on her walker, and wore it around her neck all day.

Noa was also very attached to a pair of purple and blue socks that she wore to horsey on Saturday, so much so that she didn't want to take them off when we got home even though they were cold and wet. Ultimately, I convinced her that we should put them in the dryer and then she could wear them later. She even came with me to put them in the dryer and press the start button. 

Saturday night, she told me she wanted the bandana on the walker again, and wanted to wear the blue and purple socks again as well. Unfortunately, I'd neglected to wash her purple shirt Saturday night (though I should have guessed she'd want it again) but she was agreeable - and settled for another shirt - when I told her I'd wash the purple one so she could wear it back to school.

In other news - 

• Noa asked me how to spell "lips" but when I got to the letter "p" she told me she was finished with "p" (she's done this before, she seems to want me to spell it differently) - we went around on this a few times with her continuing to tell me she was finished with "p."  Usually she eventually just gives up, but this time she started suggesting other letters I could use. She suggested "n." I told her that spelled "lins" - somehow (I don't even remember how) we got to a place where she suggested L-I-S-Y. I told her that spelled "lisy" and she liked that. I said okay, we can say lisy for fun, but I can't change the way we spell lips.
• Noa also really enjoyed reading her journal for me and especially enjoyed telling me that her favorite class on Thursday was "vegetable." She seemed to get that was funny.​

Another development: Noa agreed to get out of bed in the morning with Daddy (rather than insisting on Mommy.) This is another great development for home life... especially for Mommy's home life!

Noa also did great work at Horsey this week. Last week she really didn't pay attention to directions much (it was windy and she enjoyed that), but this weekend she was more focused.

Noa had a great weekend. Overall in a good mood. She loves being back at school. On Friday, she seemed quite tired after her "good week" at school. You can see in the photo below, she is dozing off with a water bottle in her hands.

The big event for Noa this week was getting a new desk. We wanted her to have a work space that allowed her to move from one activity to another on her own a bit more. She was VERY happy with the desk and spent quite a bit of time there (mainly playing the piano and sorting coins) but I showed her around to where other items are and she helped to pick where some went. I'm brailling items for her as well so she can find them. She even has a built in cup for doggy to sit in, and she likes the star stickers. The white board directly in front of her is magnetic. ​

She did a bit better standing up out of the stroller this weekend. Of course we also started every walk with a long discussion about standing up "fast fast" after stroller. While we still had delays and mysterious demands, the situation as a whole was a bit less emotional and not as lengthy or difficult to get past. 

Though Noa continues to do well during the day, we’ve been using a double diaper at night.

Sometimes Noa will get up for a late night potty break (between 11pm and midnight, but sometime she won’t. And frankly, Mommy and Daddy needed to get some sleep. This is definitely an area where we've lost ground.

​A couple of months ago we started to time meals with Noa. Meals were getting so long that they seemed to take up most of the day. We generally set the timer for 30 minutes but she still manages to stretch things out quite a bit with multiple requests for “one more bite.” 

Recently Noa began purposely letting food drop on the floor. She finds this very entertaining, despite the fact that we've repeatedly tried to expressed that this is not funny and does not entertain us in the least. 

For most of the spring and summer we were successful in getting Noa to wear shoes with braces most days, especially if we were going to do something like APE or treadmill or PT, for which we could make a solid case. August did not fare as well and she may have only worn them a couple of times during August.
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She still seems to have a red mark across the top of each foot from a favorite pair or Mary Jane style shoes. She just kept pulling them tighter and tighter until they left that mark (more than a week ago.)

We sent a part of no-braces shoes to use as slippers.

Over the summer, Noa actually wore shorts and tshirt nearly every day until she discovered dresses with pockets (which she wears with running shorts underneath.) She doesn’t always demand socks, but when she does they much be long! Of course, she continues to prefer long pants with long shirts but we’ve been glad to see her more flexible with the types of clothing she will wear.

​She has learned to enjoy pockets.

She has been less flexible with colors. But she tends to do better with other people than she does with Mom and Dad when it comes to color. She seems to want as many colors as possible for most things (which explains the leggings we’re sending back with her.)

At home she wears the leggings mainly for sleeping. 

As you may notice, she is still quite attached to her scarves. They now have plastic shapes on on one end (the end that also has a white tag) and will tell us she wants to put the "tags on the floor" - which basically means she wants to fling the scarves so that the plastic shapes make noise when they hit the floor (or anything in their way.)