Never, Ever, Ever Give Up!

My kids are so amazing sometimes.....lately they have been leaving me more than a little speechless with some of their progress. We have been working really hard with Max on requesting. For awhile, we let him get by using only one word to request drink or "dink" and taking "help" for most other requests. I started to make him say, "I want ______" and it was pretty slow goings at first. Now though, he is starting to understand that he must use those 3 little words to get what he wants. For instance, yesterday he grabbed my arm, pulled me in the direction of his cup and said, "dink." I picked up the cup and said, "What do you want?" I could see the little wheels turning in his head and then the light bulb moment...."I.......want..........dink!" It's not always easy to understand, and a lot of times I have to parrot the words for him to repeat, but I am so proud of this progress!!! I know he's trying so hard to say new things, but sometimes those darn words just won't come out no matter how hard he tries!

Another rather inventive thing he's been doing lately involves the use of his I-Pad. The first time he did this was a couple weeks ago....we were sitting in a chair watching t.v. together and he started saying "cookie." I ignored him because it was close to dinner and he was NOT getting a cookie. He kept repeated "cookie, cookie, cookie" and pointing in the direction of the kitchen. I pointedly ignored him and he ran off to get his I-Pad. He pulled up the pictures we had loaded onto it and located a picture of himself eating a cookie. He looked at me, pointed at the picture and said "cookie!" I sat there in silence.....shocked. Apparently he thought I was still missing the point, so he scanned through the pictures, pulled up one of Nick eating a cookie, looked at me and insisted, "Cookie!" Well, how could I really ignore that? Yes, I gave the kid a cookie before dinner :) Just yesterday, he used the I-Pad in the same way. He tried to say something to me, but it was unintelligible and he realized I did not understand. He got the I-Pad, pulled up the pictures again and found one of him on a swing at the park. He pointed at the picture and said, "That" and then walked to the back door and stood there. I didn't move fast enough for him, so he walked back over, pulled up another picture of Nick on a slide and said, "that" then went to stand again at the backdoor while pointing outside. He REALLY wanted to play on the swing set in the backyard! I am so unbelievably proud of this new development!! I think we will be adding a lot more pictures to the I-Pad so he can make more specific requests!

Nick has also been doing some amazing communicating lately. He's doing such a good job using multiple words to request items. Our interactions usually go something like this......Nick will open the refrigerator door, pull out a package of pepperoni and either come hand it to me or say, "pepperoni." I will either ignore him or say, "I don't understand what you want?" He lets out a big sigh, looks me directly in the eyes and says, "Miss Mama I want pepperoni!" It's a little obvious that he has been going to school, huh? He has been putting a "Miss" in front of everyone's name lately (including Daddy and Papa) :) I know that Nick wants to stay in his own little world of Autism, but I'm determined to burst that bubble and pull him into our world. Some people might think it's mean to force the eye contact and multiple words, but it's just what we have to do. Someday I hope it will come naturally for him and his Autism won't be so obvious.

Nick and I had a mini conversation last night that just about left me with happy tears. He went to Ocean's of Fun ALL day yesterday with Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Briley, Daddy and Max. I had to work, but we sat down to have dinner together after I picked him up from Grandma and Grandpa's house. I asked him, "Nick, what did you do today?" He looked me in the eyes and said, "swimming, pool, life jacket, slide!" I said, "Oh my, did you go swimming? Did Grandpa go with you?" He said, "Papa and Briley." I reminded him that Grandma, Daddy and Max were also at the pool and then asked, "What was your favorite part?" He told me, "swimming slides!" I started to tear up just a little and couldn't say much else than, "good for you, Nick, good for you." What can I say? This is probably the closest thing to a real give and take conversation that Nick and I have ever had! He might not have explained things to me in full sentences, but he sure got his point across. I know the important things....he went swimming with Grandpa and Aunt Briley, wore a life jacket and enjoyed the water slides the best.

Autism might be a really tough thing to deal with as a parent, but it's also really beautiful. These type of interactions happen all day long for parents of typical developing 3 and 5 year olds and those parents think nothing of it. On the other hand, each word, conversation, request, eye contact and every tiny interaction I have with my children makes my heart soar and reminds me to never, ever, ever give up on them.