Spicy Dragons & Dinosaurs

I said to David yesterday that I felt some sort of shift in Julia -- not that she is doing anything incredibly different and not that she is easily complying with instructions but she is a fraction more compliant, she can be pursuaded, can be talked for rocked down from the precipice of anger into a gruging copliance that sometimes results in working with another person. It is interesting to watch this from inside and out. I can almost feel at least my perception of her emotions.

I think about where we have been and I can see the very strong wall that Julia had built between herself and any person who gets close to her. And I can see that the wall is coming down, but painfully slowly, brick by brick.

An amazing thing I saw today! This morning when I took Julia to school and settled her into her work space, she started sketching. Using short lines that advanced her picture little by little, with a softer pressure on her pencil. She has been using the eraser for the last few weeks, in fact, everyone at school has noticed this because it is so different from what she has done previously.

I don't know if someone has told her about sketching, or if she has watched it. Her art teacher is pretty incredible and some of the line therapists draw as well. I don't think that she has received any direct instruction, or frankly, if she has had any instruction at all because she rarely does as instructed. But whatever, Julia is sketching!