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We took this picture last summer but I had forgotten about it until I found it on a thumb drive recently.. I just love that it makes Tyler look like a giant!
Ok onto the main issue this winter... health! Somehow I managed to avoid the bronchitis that affliced Ben, Tyler and Steve. Ben seems to be the one have the hardest time recovering. He was still running a slight fever on Saturday but luckily nothing yesterday. We are really hoping this is the end of it for a while, we all could use a break and would really like to get back to our normal life and enjoy family time together rather than being in survival mode.
Tyler continues to pick up new signs. Finally got a clear "all done" out of him after dinner although he does it upside down. I've sent a message to school asking if they can help us clean up this sign while he's at school too. HE also started signing for "help" this weekend. He still requires a prompt, i.e. I say "do you need help" and sign help then he signs it. I really like this sign as I hope it begins to use this rather than the handpull he uses now.
I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the last year. One of the reasons i love this blog is that I can go back and look at previous entries compared to now and see just how far Tyler has come. I looked at blogs from January/February in 08 and at that time, Tyler had no signs at all, he was resisting being put in his booster chair. he was not feeding himself or intersetd in feeding himself, he would bang his head and drop food/cups, etc. over the side of the table. He was banging his head on the floor when he was frustrated. Compared to now.. I would say Tyler has and uses at least 20 - 25 signs regularly. Example: we were playing with a train gthis weekend and I split the cars so Ben would have some and Tyler would ahve some and he wasn't happy about this at all and started signing "train" to me pretty feverishly.. I felt bad that he was asking for something I couldn't give him but this is a strong enough sign for him that I don't have to reinforce it each time to get it to stick and i figured Ben deserved turns too :) Oh I'm gettign off track. So he signs now, he willingly sits in his chair at the table. In fact, there are times that Ben and I will be at the table coloring and Tyler will be playing with something else in the living room and then he'll come to the table with a puzzle or toy and ask to be lifted in his chair (by saying 'uh" or lifing his arms in an "up" motion). it's great that he really wants to be around us now and especially that he watns to be put in his chair cause he used to hate it. He also wants to be with us in the kitchen. whenever i'm in the kitchen cooking, Tyler will bring whatever toy he wants to play with and come in and hang out with me. It
s just so wonderful that he wants to be a part of our lives as he didn't used to care who he was around.
I think that's about it for today. So our little giant has come so far and he has giant steps to take in the future but slowly/surely he's getting it. I can't even remember the last time he banged his head out of frustration.. the more he learns ways to communicate with us, the less and less frustrated he will be.
