leaps and bounds

(This post has been sitting in my draft file for weeks now. Every time I plan on posting it, Noah does something else new. So there may be a few "the other week" or "the other day" references, when really... it probably was 2 months ago. lol. But in any case, I need to brag on my boy. If anything, to document how far he... we all... have come).

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Noah has totally amazed me with how far he's come in the last couple of months. I give most credit to his Occupational Therapist, Kim. When we first started going there, Noah spent the majority of his sessions sobbing. It was absolutely heartbreaking. Even his EI coordinator wrote me after she witnessed it and offered to find another option. She couldn't take it either. But I'm so glad we stuck with it. It's obvious why he was crying... she was drawing him out of his world and into ours. For a child with autism, that's a really uncomfortable process.

Now? He loves it there. When we're waiting on his turn in the lobby-type area, he often peeks around the corner to see if she's coming. And when she does, he giggles and runs off, ready to play their transition game.

Before we started there, Brad and I both were feeling helpless.
We were sad, because even though we desperately tried, there wasn't a huge connection between us and Noah. Of course we knew Noah loved us, and he would sometimes play with us. But for the most part, it was as if he couldn't care less if we were there or not. It was breaking our hearts, especially Brad's. Noah mostly came to me for help, because I was the one who was with him all day. He didn't care if Brad left for work or came home. He was just there.

Now? If Brad is around, he asks him for help. He plays with him. And after Brad takes Noah out for a daddy-son date, Noah is always super clingy to him. It's so sweet.

Noah gives kisses freely. In fact, he made a game out of it recently, where he'd walk to Brad at the end of the couch, kiss him, then walk back to me and kiss me. He thought it was hilarious. If I ask him for a kiss, he'll usually give me one.
He's learning to follow directions (simple stuff like "push the button") and is understanding language way better. When I ask him if he's ready for a bath, he'll either get upset or excited (depending on his mood). If I ask him if he'd like a popsicle or milk or whatever, he'll go to the appropriate place to get it. He still doesn't understand a lot, but he's made huge leaps from a few months ago.

Noah's social skills are growing more and more every day. He gets excited to play with others now. At Chick-Fil-A a couple of weeks ago, he played with these two other kids in the play area, and he was having so much fun. The cool thing is that most kids are really patient with him. I'm not sure if they figure out he's "special" quickly or not, but the bigger kids typically follow him around like he's their baby. Little girls adore him, mostly because he's not wild. He's quiet, so they can be as chatty as they like without anyone interrupting them. haha.

Last night, he tried to drink his bath water out of a cup (which is both gross and awesome, since he still mainly uses a sippy cup). I told him it was yucky and made a face, saying, "Blech!" He thought it was hilarious and wanted me to do it again. So he copied the exact face I made. While looking me in the eyes. I wanted to call up his OT and give her a big hug over the phone for helping him get this far.

My family keeps making comments about how he used to never interact this well with them. He actually wants to play with everyone. At Thanksgiving, he walked up to family members and "chatted" with them. He's playing with (all) of his toys in the way they were meant to be played with. He's recently become enthralled with Mr Potato Head, building train tracks, and putting together simple jigsaw puzzles. He no longer mouths objects or does lots of visual play. He still flaps his hands sometimes, but it's gotten much better.

Noah's eating habits are improving too. In the last few weeks, he has reintroduced to his diet: popcorn, peas, lima beans, Annie's noodles, Greek yogurt, and grapes. He also tried some tomato soup but wasn't too impressed. I really think most of this was sensory related, since he used to eat peas and lima beans like candy.

His eye contact is AMAZING. With us, with family, with strangers... doesn't matter. If someone talks to him, his eye contact is almost always spot on.

The most exciting part though? His language development.
Part of the issue, I wholeheartedly believe, was just bringing him out of his world. It's hard to learn something if you're not even aware of it.
The best part... I'm the one teaching him. He hasn't had a speech therapist since he was a baby. We can't afford one, so it's all on me. Now that he's more aware of his surroundings, it's SO MUCH EASIER to teach him!

We've been so amazed at all of the words he's picking up. Not only can he count from 1 to 10, he now counts back down. From what I hear, this is a really big deal. I didn't realize this, but turns out most typical kids a year or two older than him don't normally get that concept. But he really gets numbers. They make sense to him. In fact, everywhere we go, he's always looking for them. He'll count the numbers on the aisles at Target, clocks, the radio... if he sees them, there will be a little voice counting them. He couldn't find the number 10 with his bathtub foam numbers the other night, so he took a 1 and a 0, put them together, and said, "Ten!". He says, "Ready, Set, Go!" almost perfectly and uses it in the proper context. He says, "Da-da" still for Daddy. Any kind of round object he sees gets labeled as a "Ba-ba" (ball). He called the onions at the grocery store a ball the other day. lol.

The other night, in the bath tub, I started signing "Jesus Loves Me" to Noah. For the last 3 years, I've always signed it with him in my lap. That way he could understand how the signs were supposed to go, and I could do the hand-over-hand thing with him, if he needed help. However, since he was in the tub, that wasn't an option. We also hadn't sung it in awhile... like months... so I wasn't sure he'd even remember it.
But he amazes me with his memory. He proceeded to sign it, completely on his own, watching my every motion and copying when he couldn't remember exactly. After we were done, and I applauded, Brad and I started talking about how awesome he's doing. Then... THEN... Noah shocked us and sang, totally unprompted, "Je-suh uv ee, Bi-uh teh ee soooo...." (translated: "Jesus loves me, Bible tells me so...") while doing the signs.
I thought both of us were going to lose it. Brad and I both held back tears and made a massive deal over him. And the look on Noah's face told us how proud he was of himself.

 

It's been so amazing watching him grow and make such huge strides. It gives us so much hope that he's going to be okay.