First of all, Adam seems to be making more progress every day. Our first few months here, we did not see any big improvements. And then we ran into all his sleep issues (which he hasn't ironed out completely, but we've seen HUGE improvements the last few weeks, thank goodness!) and now we are starting to see some real progress in some areas. Proper requesting, actually saying "no" instead of just screaming in protest, his eye contact, and there are a few very specific things he did this week that he hasn't done before. For his birthday last year, our friends Bobbi and Jer bought him a microphone on a stand. He has never done more than just take the mike off and shake the cord, we have never heard him talk into the mike. Yesterday, he picked the mike off the stand and said "Helloooo Adam". We told him to say hello to Mom, Dad, etc. and so he started saying hello to all of us in the mike! And he gave all of us turns talking into the mike, even Nathan, who has been sort of his nemesis as of late. It was very interesting to see him try something new, and then include us in his game! Another thing that stood out to me that he hasn't done before (at least not this clearly or without prompting) was when I asked him if he wanted to wear his coat, he said pretty calmly, "No coat". Normally his response would have been a scream or a growl to let us know that he didn't want to wear his coat, but he caught himself before any of those reactions and calmly told me "no"! I know they are working hard on some of these things at school, and it's fantastic to see some fruits of their labor! I continue to feel like he is in just the right place for him:).
Nathan has, just over the last few days, started talking like crazy! We always knew his word explosion was coming, and I think it started this weekend! He started putting a few words together this last week like, "Der it is" when I asked him where the police car was on the picture (his latest obsession by the way is police cars!) or "Der poe-ca (his words for police car). And yesterday, Brian thought he smelled something suspicious from him, so he asked him if he could see his bum. Nathan runs off saying, "No see bum". He brought me Adam's bus today and pointed at the driver and said, "Stuck", so I pulled it out for him. This kind of verbalizing is VERY recent and very exciting! We love to hear him be able to express himself more and more, and hope that it will result in less tantrums and frustration for him. Such a cute little guy!
Lynsey's reading has been coming along, albeit a bit slower than I would like (how can I be SOO impatient when she is reading to me! I turn into this Nazi, I hate it! Really need to breathe and figure out what issue is coming to the surface there, good grief!). Anyway, she really struggles with staying focused and is very easily distracted (I may have mentioned this before, it is a bit of a problem for her at school as well). Well, tonight, I asked her if she wanted to read me a book before bedtime and she picked a book she'd read many times before. She breezed through it, no pauses, she just kept reading. I was so impressed! But I thought, well, she has maybe almost memorized it so that could be why, so I didn't think too much of it. She then picked a book for me to read to her, a fairly simple book but not one of her reading books that she has practiced with us. She said she wanted to read it and inwardly I'm thinking, "nooo it's bedtime and this will take a half hour!" but she was on a roll so I let her give it a try. She read each page easily and with confidence, getting stuck only on a few tough words. I couldn't believe it! This girl has been holding out on us! I asked her what we could do to make her home reading during the week go this smoothly and she just said she didn't know, she was usually tired, so who knows how it will go this week. Now that I know how well she can do, it might make me even more impatient when she struggles through it (will have to be very conscious of that this week!). In any case, I am so proud of how much she has improved!
Another thing I wanted to mention about Lynsey is that I often ask before bed if she wants to say prayers and she always says no. I haven't read too much into that, I don't want to overreact to it, but just keep giving her opportunities to pray if she wants to. Well, today she said yes, and her first prayer was all about praying that she would have fun, and that her friends would play with her, etc - the kind of prayer you would expect from a 6 year old. But then when she was done and I was about to start, she said she wanted to pray again. This time, her prayer was all about giving thanks to God for numerous things! It sounded like maybe they had done some of these prayers in Sunday School because of the specific words she used, but it was so great to hear! Especially after a bit of a difficult day in which she was very emotional and had a bit of a behavior episode that was very frustrating. I thought we handled it better than we have in the past, and I made sure to try and connect with her afterwards and I think it was really what she needed. Parenting is such a journey of ups and downs, and the rewards come when you least expect it sometimes!
Brian and I had a date night in Seattle yesterday evening and it was a lot of fun! We walked around, browsed some stores and had some delicious seafood at Etta's. The kids did amazing! When we were leaving, Adam came over to us with a distressed look on his face and gave each of us a hug and a kiss. We said good bye and walked downstairs and we heard him go back to the table. It is the first time he has been able to say good bye to us, knowing that we were leaving him with a baby sitter, and go on with his day. He was definitely not thrilled about it, but his coping skills when it comes to sitters have steadily improved over the last while, and he really nailed it yesterday! I was so proud of him for being able to contain the panic and anxiety I know he feels when we leave him! It's like he is finally able to understand that yes, Mom and Dad are leaving, but they are coming back so everything will be okay. Yet another sign to us that his understanding of what is going on continues to expand!
