How Quickly They Catch On

I just wanted to share with you a couple of breakthroughs we had this week with Josh. Since his speech assessment a couple of weeks ago I have started introducing some signs (sign language) to help assist with his communication. He had already started to use a couple on his own -- he had created a signal to indicate that he was hungry (he brings his hand to his mouth) and a signal to indicate that he's all done (both hands out in front of him, palms up). I started using the sign for more whenever I asked him if he wanted more to eat and it's amazing how quickly he caught on. Last week Josh and I were sharing a timbit (a donut hole for my American readers) and when the timbit was all gone he looked at me with the saddest puppy dog eyes and signed for more. I asked him if he wanted more and he gave me the biggest smile and kind of nodded his head. He doesn't nod his head yes yet, but he came darn close that day. I can not even begin to explain how happy and proud I was of him, and he too was proud of himself that he was able to express himself in a way that I could understand. By the way, he absolutely got another timbit :)

The second breakthrough came yesterday when we were at the grocery store. Josh was sitting in the shopping cart and I was in the process of digging out an animal cracker from his diaper bag. Robb had just left to go grab an item we had forgotten a few aisles back. As Josh was waiting for his snack he was sitting there watching the people walk past, then when all of a sudden he chirped 'hi' to a young man walking by. He has never said hi before and as I was standing there dumbfounded, wondering if he had just say, hi the young man replied, "oh, hi." So he did! He did just say hi! And then he went on to say hi to three other people before biting the head off his elephant animal cracker. It was really awesome to watch and I felt bad that Robb had just missed it. It's funny how we get so excited about the little things. But then it's the little things that make life so special :)

I'll leave you with a picture that I took of Josh the other day eating his afternoon snack....and yes that's broccoli. I gave him a choice of either broccoli or graham crackers for his snack and the crazy boy chose broccoli. I sure hope his love of vegetables continues!



Thanks for checking in!