Little Boy, Huge Steps

This week, our little boy made a huge step forward. At 42 months of
age, he finally has begun to feed himself finger foods! Praise be to
the Lord!!! Until now, I have had to feed him everything he eats.
Though he had fed himself a single bite of a gummy bear or chip on the
very rare occasion over the past 8 months, it only happens a couple of
times. Today, he actually fed himself a dish full of his favorite
cheese crackers. He is still reluctant to feed himself at the dinner
table, but this is progress towards that. I am so proud of him!

On the preschooling, he has finally started to use a crayon and try to
color. I got a coloring book and jumbo crayons for him at a dollar
store. We tear a page out of it and use a small piece of poster tape to
hold the page down on the table so it won't shift around and frustrate
him. I now have his first coloring page on the refrigerator. He used
several colors and colored small areas just a bit larger than a quarter
in size, but this is an awesome beginning.

Other progress made this week was his signing "more" to me when he
wanted more water. He had set his cup on the table then came to me
signing the word "more". I asked/signed what did he want more of. He
then showed me his cup. I asked if he wanted water or milk. He walked
over to the pitcher of water and stood by it. Yep! He wanted a cup of
water and was all smiles when I got it for him.

The relaxed approach I am doing with him now is working. Instead of
having a lot of structured therapy based activity, we are simply finding
ways to work therapy into the daily routine. I include him in as much
as possible. If I am kneading bread, he is right there and wanting to
touch the dough. For a kid who didn't like play dough, this is funny.
I break off a piece about the size of an egg and he plays with it. He
also has helped me to mix pancake batter by hand. He stands in front of
me and I place my hand over his as we stir the batter in the bowl. It
is little things, but I am seeing much more progress this way. I still
am teaching him. He is learning to sign, for example. The difference
is, he now has more time in between new things being taught in a
structured manner. This down time in between is giving him time to
process the new information. End result is that he is responding far
better than before.

I am so grateful to the Lord for the guidance He is giving us and the
blessing He is giving to our son. You can see His hand in each step
forward.