Sibling Rivalry

It's been a while since we posted.  Andrew continues to do well and we get wonderful feedback from his therapists about his progress.  We are seeing more spontaneous language and even singing songs spontaneously!  His favorite songs are "The Clean Up Song", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".  He loves to sing and do any hand motions we can come up with.  SUCH an improvement over where we were a few short weeks ago.

Even now as I type, he is with his Behavioral Therapist (ABA).  They are doing an animal puzzle and she is asking him to name the animal and make its sound. This is something he couldn't have done two weeks ago, but now does with no trouble.  Truly, he is responding well to therapy and it is such a blessing to this momma's heart.

One of the big things his ABA Therapist has started working on is his interactions with his sister, Audrey.  She is a MAJOR trigger for him.  The therapist has worked with him in the past through a situation where she (the therapist) will take a toy that he wants.  She helps him through his fit to calm down and then ask for the toy.  He has done well adjusting to that.  But when Audrey takes a toy he wants, it is an explosion of tears and fussiness.  It takes a lot of work to calm him down and get him to request the toy from Audrey.  (Never-mind that she doesn't understand that she needs to hand it over when he asks "please".)

Though this season of therapy is hard for me (I hate hearing my baby boy cry so and despise seeing my children at odds during therapy), it has started to change their sibling relationship.  They are interacting more even outside of therapy and Audrey will actually acknowledge Andrew's existence to her own Speech Therapist.  (Before whenever asked about Andrew/brother, she would simply say "no".)

So, all in all, things are going well.  God continues to be faithful during this season to guide us and give us that extra measure of patience and wisdom with our children.  He is so good!