The Season of Miracles?

Sitting in the therapist's waiting room on Tuesday afternoon, squinting at a knitting pattern - waiting for my youngest son to finish up his session - when it hits me...
my youngest daughter has been sitting on the floor at my feet, playing with a toy truck and a bunch of crayons who are the people going for rides in the truck.

For almost ten minutes, she has been doing this.
Telling a story aloud to herself about what is happening, using different voices for the different personalities.
And I hadn't even noticed!
For the first time since I have known her, possibly for the first time in her life, she was playing - happily and appropriately- on her own!!!!!

Oh My God.
I cried.
Both then and when I told my husband about it later.

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Wednesday night, I am lying abed upstairs with some icky version of the flu, my husband is out doing an errand and I can hear something erupting downstairs between my two youngest children.
Careful, thoughtful parent I am, I yell down the stairs that it is time for bed for both of them,
which is evil, because it has only just hit 7pm.
They both come up and disappear into their rooms.
Followed almost as quickly by my oldest son who tells me quietly that youngest son was blameless. Unbeknownst to youngest daughter, I apologise to youngest son and send him back down to watch MASH dvds with his older siblings.
Almost an hour later, she appears in my bedroom door, tears in her eyes - "I feel bad that Alex has to go to bed when it wasn't his fault."

Yeah, it took her an hour to figure it out and to take responsibility - but she DID IT!!!!!!
She made a connection, thought about someone else and took steps to correct the wrong!!!!!
This is the first time without prompting, without having it explained, without having something outside of herself act as her conscience.

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I am so very hopeful.
More so than I have been in a long, long time.

Maybe, things will look up for my oldest daughter soon?