Thursday, February 01, 2007

Little Bug
For those of you who don't know, Little Bug has autism and can't talk. But, recently, he has started saying some animal names! He said "lion" and "elephant" the other day and I smiled and encouraged him as much as possible! You see, I learned a hard lesson. The first time Little Bug ever did sign language without any help I was so excited I let out a little yell. Okay, maybe it wasn't a little yell... it was more of a YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!!! WWAAAAAHHOOOOO!! This scared the CRUD outta Bug. Can't blame him. He finally did something we had wanted him to do for a long time and momma FREAKED OUT. He did NOT want to do sign language for a long time... he still doesn't sign very often... sigh. I've never been very good at controlling my emotions. :) So now, I put on my biggest, brightest smile and hope he knows how much I am screaming for excitement on the inside. He seems to understand. He always smiles back. But, for as long as I can remember, his words have always come in waves. Suddenly, he will be saying all kinds of things. And then, just as suddenly, it stops. And we wait for the next wave to come. But, he is progressing! And for the most part, he's happy. So really, who could ask for more?

2 comments:

Shirlee said...

Waves, that's a good description for autistic kids. I often refer to Cass as being on a plateau and then something will "click" and he's jumped another hurdle.
How does Bug handle an emotional crisis? If Cass gets upset or something isn't working out the way he wants, he completely shuts down.

Melissa said...

Shirlee... he won't shut down, he tantrums. Right now we are dealing with head banging. Which is bad because yesterday he gave a pretty hard knock on the table and got up this morning with a bruise. :S Hopefully this is just a phase ... blah...