Little Miss Faker, Part II

So - the visit to the speech therapist.....

I took Sadie to see the hospital speech therapist for an evaluation. We met with the speech therapist and a grad student in the speech therapist's office, which has a small sink in the corner. (And if you remember from my last post, Sadie loves to wash her hands.) They spent the better part of two hours trying to get her to say all the words she knows, and pretty much all she said the whole time were "mama" and "uh-oh." Quite a few times during the evaluation she went over to the sink and attempted to get me to let her wash her hands, but I always redirected her.

We were nearing the end, and all of a sudden she looked like she needed to go to the bathroom. Not wanting to interrupt what they were doing with her, I ignored it, but eventually decided I had better at least let her go try. We headed to the bathroom, but it was occupied. I could tell from her lack of urgency as we were waiting that she really didn't need to go, so we headed back to the office where I explained it was full and she was faking to try to get to wash her hands. They thought it was funny and resumed trying to get her to say "up" (for the one hundred and twenty-seventh time to no avail). A couple minutes later she had the look back, though it was suspiciously right after I had turned her away from the sink. However, it was dramatic enough to catch the attention of the therapists, who let me know it would be ok to take her. I turned them down and told them I thought she was faking it again.

"Are you sure?"
"Yes - she just wants to wash her hands."
"I don't know. She's really pushing hard. I think she's going."

So I begrudgingly cart her off to the bathroom, which is now unoccupied. We go in and Sadie heads straight for the sink. I make her sit on the toilet which meets with screaching, so I get her dressed again and head back to the office.

"She went, right?"
"Nope."
"Are you serious? She was turning purple!"
"I know."

We finish up our business and get ready to go. Sadie gets fussy but is appeased with a bag of goldfish. But of course before we make it out the door, she fakes it again, in front of others, so I look like a horrible mother if I deny her the right to go to the bathroom.

And we go in again. And she heads for the sink. And I stick her on the toilet. And she does nothing, other than shriek.

Is washing your hands seriously that exciting?

(Oh yeah - and that afternoon while walking up the stairs to go take a nap she looks at me and says, plain as day, "up.")