Bug's New Year!

Well Bug started out his year on the right foot yesterday! We had TWO new skills pop up and I'm thrilled!

1) Bug got tickled by Wiggle and Daddy, and Bug tickled back! HUGE. No, HUGE. I was so happy to see a positive interaction between the boys! We still have a ton of pushing, whining, and general distress when Wiggle even gets near Bug, so a positive interaction where everyone is laughing and happy is a really good thing. Also, this is good cooperative play. We can build on this, they can tickle back and forth, take turns, gang up on Daddy, etc. I'm hoping that we can lay a good foundation of silliness between the boys and that will help foster friendship as well as social skills for both of them.

Then, almost right after the tickle episode,
2) BUG KICKED A BALL! Several times. Do you know how looooonnnnngggggg we've wanted him to do this?! I could do a happy dance right now! He wouldn't kick it to Daddy, but he kicked it, went after it, kicked it again. Yay Bug!!!!!

I'm still seeing a good, slow but steady increase in Bug's social awareness and comfort in social situations. He is definitely more aware of others and wants to be around others. Not all the time (which is totally fine) but sometimes. Today we went to the park, and while he normally would run straight to the swings, he opted to go over to the playground first, where other kids were. He wasn't too sure how to deal with others, but just that he deviated from his normal routine is just. so. stinkin. great!

Verbally, Bug's making good solid progress. His words have become just SO much clearer, with consonants at the end, multiple syllables and decent usage. From here, we'd like to see him start combining them into phrases (more than just the rote ones he knows now) and sentences. Our therapist said that by around 3, you'd like kids to be pretty conversational.

Bug turns 3 in one month. We have 4 more speech sessions and 2 OTs before he ages out of Early Intervention. This is kind of nerve-wracking for us. We are going to pursue private therapy, so our speech therapist suggested that we start our search now, so we can find out about waitlists or what evaluations need to be done. Hopefully we won't have to have a big lapse in therapy. Adam and I would really appreciate you keeping us in your prayers as we make decisions about therapy for Bug.  Our hope is to find therapists who Bug can really connect to so we can really maximize our time with them! :)