Food swiping, communicating, blocks and annual neurology appointment

On the rare occasion that Megan finishes her lunch before Sam I clean her up and walk her into the living room right past Sam's chair.  She has mastered the art of walking and swiping food from his tray.  She never misses a step, slows down or anything.  She just keeps going for a few steps, then sits down and eats her prize.  The other day she swiped Sam's last bite of food.  Sam started saying and then screaming "have it" while pointing at her and looking at me.  (I taught Sam to say have it as a way to ask for something.)  I couldn't help but laugh - there was no having it back for Sam.  She was chewing and swallowing.  I tried to convince Sam of this but he was sure she could spit it out for him.

Yesterday she worked really hard at school, walking a lot.  When we got home I made the kids lunch and put it on the corner of the table, while I rounded them up.  Right after I put the food on the table something distracted me for a few seconds and then I heard "num num yum" very plainly I knew what was happening.  Megan had pulled up on the table, grabbed two pieces of her sandwich (I cut it in 4 pieces) and had already shoved one entire piece in her mouth and was chowing down.  She was so happy with herself and she was seriously enjoying her food.

Megan is making great progress with communicating.  They are using a placemat at school with pictures that represent "more", "finished", "drink" and "eat".  She has been pointing to the more picture to get more snack and/or saying the word more.  She has also been telling them when she is finished or wants a drink.  One of her teachers made us a duplicate placemat and we started using it at home a couple of days ago.  She is telling us more and finished (sometimes) but she is so pleased with herself when she gets what she asked for that I imagine she will flourish with additional picture boards.

While we were waiting for the doctor to come in the room on Wednesday I was playing with Megan.  They had very small blocks and Megan stacked 5 of them.  She consistently stacked 4 blocks but got 5 twice.  Yesterday she was playing with our, much larger blocks at home and was stacking 3 consistently.

Megan's neurologist asked us to make her an appointment once a year after her last appointment (the one with the MRI).  Megan saw her on Wednesday of this week.  I believe the words she used were "thrilled, amazed and wonderful" among others.  She was completely thrilled with Megan's progress this past year.  She said it was like looking at a different child because Megan had progressed so very much.  She said that she was prepared with a list of things to instruct us to do to help Megan but that there was absolutely nothing we weren't already doing.  At one point she sounded almost giddy with Megan.  She wants to see her back in another year just to check her progress, and I am sure she will be just as astonished at our little miss at that appointment.