Singing their praises

You know, we spend so much time in therapy that sometimes we forget to step back and look. Look for what? Well, is the therapy working? Every child is different so what one may learn from a type of therapy, another may not. Some children don't tolerate ABA therapy, yet when my daughter had speech issues, ABA was all that would do her any good. Play therapy wasn't cutting it for her. But we are currently trying play therapy for Henry because our insurance isn't all straightened out in order for him to receive ABA yet. Thank God our therapy is doing some good.

I noticed this yesterday while out. Normally a trip to the store is so stressful that I just wait for my husband to get home and either we all go or one of us goes alone. Not yesterday. I figured that it is way past time for me to figure this out. I decided to start with a quick trip and if that went well, we would add a little more. So I went to the grocery store just for one thing. It went great! Load back up in the car and away we went to that big department store....you know which one I'm talking about. That place can inspire meltdowns in the most composed adult. I put the kids in a buggy and headed straight for the bakery for a box of cookies, just in case ya know. Didn't need them!! Then I really pushed my luck and went to that big named club store. You know the one where you can buy a year's supply of cheesy puffs all at once! One little tantrum, but Mama was smart. She had put the aforementioned cookies in the diaper bag. Problem solved. :) Henry even sat beside of his little sister in one of the store's awesome buggies that has TWO seats up front! Who thought of that genius idea?! Normally he would have hit her or bitten her....or something. And then I would have had 2 screaming children in the middle of a store. That describes almost every trip for me anyway, 2 screaming children. But I had to man up and go and it worked out for the best.

This shows me that Henry has come SO FAR in these past few months. He not only handled going into public places well (which used to be a big problem), he handled going to several places well! No, not well. Great!

In the past few days he has also picked up on more words. He is now saying "Thank you. Thank you." in the correct context. It's the cutest thing ever. I'm not sure where he picked up saying it twice and sounding like a Las Vegas Elvis impersonator, but it's adorable. "Drink" is becoming more clear, as it "Eat". It's wonderful to have some communication. It makes things much easier when I don't have to guess at what he wants.

I'm so proud of how far Henry has come in a short time. It gives me hope that in the future (and maybe not that far off in the future) he will no longer be considered as someone with "severe" problems. Because in reality, he doesn't really have "problems" at all. He has quirks and WE just have to learn to work with them.