Sometimes Tyler has huge successes. I remember the day that Tyler made his first verbal imitation. After many long tries, Tyler attempting to say ball. It sounded more like "bah". But we knew he was trying. I cried that day. Not too long ago, Tyler pulled up his underwear independently. This was also after many trials and days of training. Krista and I were ecstatic. I jumped all over the room. Tyler thought I was completely crazy though he was quite pleased with himself. With his new program, he constantly achieving new goals. It started to just look like percentages on a chart. It is so easy to start taking these little successes for granted. In truth, they are just baby steps to the big goals.

Today, we had a breakthrough. It wasn't Tyler's breakthrough; it was his mama's. Some autistic stims look like a kid annoyingly turning the light on and off 30 times in row. There are other stims called verbal stims. I learned today to NEVER take these stims for granted. Sometimes they are trying to communicate something BIG. Tyler repeatedly says, "What ya doing ma?" He also says "Plug!" constantly. He started going to every plug in the house and pointing it out. Eventually, I had to tell him, "Tyler the plug hurts!" I also said "Zzzzz" as I pinched his arm to remind him of what "hurt" means. So Tyler went on to point out every plug and say, "Plug! Hurt! zzzz zzz zzz." This was cute the first 3 times. Now he does it constantly. Today, while having a conversation with the nanny, she said to me, "He is wanting to know more." I thought about that a minute. "You mean like when he says, "What ya doing ma?" and I respond, "I'm sitting" and he replies "Couch!" He is wanting to know MORE! He wants me to elaborate! I should be saying, "I am sitting on the couch for 5 minutes. Then I am going to go outside and mow the grass with the lawnmower. He doesn't know how to say, "Mama! These plugs are fascinating! Every time you put a cord in it, something starts to go! What do you call what the fan is doing? What is this item you just plugged in? What is it used for?" His mind is aching to know more and more and more. He doesn't have the natural communication skills to ask all the questions rolling around in that little mind! So I am making my new mama goal to teach him EVERYTHING that I can about whatever fascinates him. If the extent of our conversation one day is that my son tells me every minute detail of every power grid in this world, well, that's one conversation I can't wait to have. :)