“Are you hungry?”

I want to make sure I share some of the really amazing moments to help balance out the really hard moments. Last night we had a really amazing moment that gave evidence as to how far we’ve already come.

I went down to bed a bit early because I was so tired. DoubleShot and Jeff stayed up longer working on the puzzle. DoubleShot came down to use the bathroom and saw that I was still awake. She went back upstairs but came down a couple minutes later and threw herself on the bed right next to me. I could hear Baba upstairs, making DoubleShot’s before bed ramen.

“Are you hungry?” she asked me.
“Yes, a little.”

She grabbed my hand. She grabbed my hand! She’s done it before, but this level of contact is huge for her. Normally, when I touch her, she yells “yucky!” She will voluntarily touch me, but it’s usually not skin to skin contact. And even her touching me will sometimes elicit a “yucky!” comment.

“Go!” She pointed upstairs and started dragging me out of bed.

We went upstairs, where she stopped right in front of Baba.

“Hungry.” She pointed at me.

Baba gave me his ramen so that DoubleShot and I could sit and eat at the table together. She scooped out a spoonful of noodles and gently put them in my bowl. Another HUGE step forward. In Taiwan, sharing your food with someone is an act of caring. Giving them something off your plate and putting it on theirs is a sign that you care. I have tried to feed DoubleShot before, but she has always pulled her plate away so that I cannot. She has offered me food before but always snatches it back before I can eat it. So for her to share her ramen meant a lot to me. I ate her noodles and made appreciative sounds. I very slowly took some of my noodles and transferred them to her bowl, watching to see if she would reject my offer. She didn’t.

“What are you doing?”
“Sharing my noodles.”
“Oh, ok.”
And she ate them. Huge, huge strides.

Afterwards, when I went back to bed and DoubleShot and Jeff came downstairs for bed themselves, she snuck in her first “pig!” of the day. *sigh* I thought I was going to go a whole day without being called a pig.

But she asked if I was hungry. She made sure that my needs were met. She shared her food with me. She let me share in return.

A beautiful moment and it does show that we are making forward progress overall.