The small things

If I have learned anything over the last year, it is to appreciate the small steps forward. It is so easy to look at Teague and think of all the things he should be doing at his age and to get discouraged when he does things that he should know is wrong. I am trying my hardest to focus on the positives, so here I go with a list of positives from lately:

1) Early this week as I was tucking Teague into bed and we were doing our usual bedtime routine which consists of me going through a list of songs he may want and he nods when I name the song he wants. I went through the list and he didn't signal that he wanted any of the songs. So I asked again if he wanted songs. He nodded yes and then held up one finger and blew on it like it was a candle. Teague is not one for imaginative play with the exception of pretending it is his birthday. That boy can constuct a birthday cake and candles out of anything, I am pretty sure it is because a dear friend made him the coolest dinosaur cake for his birthday. After he blew on his finger I asked if he wanted the birthday song and he got a huge smile and nodded. This was huge for us. Never before has he mimed what he wanted.

2) Teague has started going into speech without me. I will admit that I was a bit sad when he willingly walked away and never came looking for me. Today he walked away, a bit less willingly than last time, but still did it and was a good boy for his wonderful speech therapist. In the last month I have seen a huge improvement in the quality of his imitations. His spontaneous speech is still nonexistent, but that will come with time. He can't say words until he learns to imitate them.

3) He ate his sister's fish. I am sure that shouldn't be on this list as it was probably a terrifying death for the fish and his stomach is a bit unhappy about his choice of snack, but have you ever tried to catch a tetra with your bare hands? Those bastards are fast! I do give him credit for being able to catch one, hold onto it and get it into his mouth. That takes talent.

4) The girls and I have been reading a lot of books on Autism. They are starting to understand a bit more about why Teague does the things he does. Because of this, they react less harshly when he takes their toys or screams at them. Hailey has been so quick to learn new approaches to talking to him. She amazes me with her ability to speak to him calmly even after he has just hit her upside the head with a toy. Josie is still struggling at times to understand that Teague isn't being mean for the sake of being mean. Thankfully she doesn't know about the fish.

5) Tomorrow we start occupational therapy. I am really hoping it helps with his sensory seeking behaviors. I don't think that I can replace fish daily without Josie getting suspicious. Don't get me wrong, he has a few other sensory seeking behaviors that are far worse than fish eating, but that is the only one that would break his sister's heart.

In those moments that it is hard to hold onto those small victories, I turn on a song by Jason Mraz and it gets me back to the mindset that I need to be in. I don't think there is a better song to describe a bond between a parent and their child with special needs.