Blossoming boy

I posted recently about Truman's added signs and words. He seems to be adding more signs all the times and more sounds. He's not really adding words, but sounds in an effort to mimic us. For example, when the timer goes off for time out, he now makes an "S" sound when we tell him to tell us he is sorry.

He's blossoming in so many areas. It's hard to describe, but some examples are that he's negotiating more and more on the playground, figuring out to get to all the things he wants by moving things to stand on, actually "using" the play tools we got him, playing with us more. He got an alphabet puzzle for Christmas, and he already knows how to put each piece in without any turning around in the space or choosing between spaces.

Eating seems to be improving, too. Even though we are still having lots of vomit (due in part to yet another cold and the resulting phlegm), he made it through 3 ounces of stage 3 chunky fruit yesterday without incident. Over the last few days, he's even starting grabbing a bottle out of the fridge with water in it and at least pretending to drink on his own from it.

I don't even know how to explain what we've been seeing over the last few weeks other than just blossoming. His therapists are seeing it, too. His OT told Ben that Truman seems like a different child over the last 6 weeks. We're even starting to hope that we can avoid actually going to in-patient therapy once July rolls around. It's funny. He's done this before where he sort of stagnates for months or regresses and then just starts to take off and advance in multiple areas at once.

Maybe it's Parent's Day Out; Maybe it's new age-appropriate toys for Christmas; maybe it's Sesame Street or Signing Times on TV; maybe it's just time. Whatever it is, we know there is still a long way to go, but Ben and I are both just on cloud 9 about all the things we're seeing lately.