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.​

​As some of you know, we inexplicably misplaced Blue Green Yellow Doggy. It has to be somewhere in the house, and yet it’s location remains a mystery.

She has now accepted, as a replacement, the Doggy formerly known as Blue Doggy (or Doggy #2). I colored his nose yellow and his tail and mane green with a permanent marker. This doggy goes by the name: Greentail Doggy. In recent days, Noa has spent a lot of time asking me to confirm the doggy’s colors for her: Nose Yellow, Tail Green, Body Blue.

We do not mention Blue Green Yellow Doggy. 

​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.
​
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.)