Music hath charms

Maria seems to be responding even more to music lately, though maybe we are just playing more of it. We got her one of those personalized CDs where they use her name in the songs and, though the songs are just awful, she seems to enjoy them. Not only does she get quiet when the music is playing, but she moves her feet and arms like she's dancing.

She sees a music therapist for the first time next Thursday. There's a larger therapy place Cathy is trying to get her into so this person might just be temporary, but I'm curious how this will go. I'm glad it's one of my Maria days so I can see how this person works with her. The advantage of this therapist is that she comes to the house; the larger agency means we'll have to take her there.

Maria MIGHT be finally starting to respond to her name. We hate to get our hopes up, but I've certainly noticed several times that she will calm if I say "Hi Maria". Then again, sometimes she doesn't. Manolis say he has seen her turn toward him if he says her name, and I think others have started to notice things. Her signals are so subtle and intermittent that it's always hard to tell if something is real or just coincidence, but (for me at least) I've seen it enough times that I think she's starting to make the connection.

She continues to be very stuffy and we are pretty sure it's allergies rather than a cold. We think that when her sinuses drain into her throat she chokes and that's what makes her cough so much. I haven't found that Triaminic makes much of a difference, but we try different things. She has been keeping Cathy up pretty much every night with her coughing since they got back from Oregon.