Day Eight

This morning Chandler called me “mommy” for the first time in about two weeks. This morning he woke me up by sitting next to me on the bed and pushing me. I started patting him on the back, but he pushed my hand away several times and sounded like he was saying “don’t”. I remember thinking, “is he saying ‘don’t’?”, but then I think I fell back asleep. Danielle and I also think that he called me “Ginger” this morning, but it is hard to tell.

Now when I tell him it is time to go to the car, he goes straight to the front door and tries to open it. When I open it for him, he walks straight to the car and stands by the door waiting for me. When I open the car door and tell him to climb in, he climbs into the car and into his car seat on his own. He is also taking direction from me as far as getting out of the car himself and generally going where I ask him too. He might wander left for a minute when I am telling him to go right, but he eventually turns around and goes the right direction.

As it has been officially a week now that he has been laying still and letting me change his diapers, I feel that I can say with confidence that he is a new man in the diapering dept. Matter of fact yesterday I asked him to come up stairs so I could change his diapers, I got everything out and then started to leave the room to go get him (because I was sure he would not have gotten my request and would still be playing at the bottom of the stairs) and as soon as I got to the door, he came over the top step and ran into the bedroom! I am still a little stunned and would like to see this happen a few more times before I will be convinced that it was not a coincidence.

When I left last week, Chan’s floortime therapist, Jennifer, had asked that I make sure he sits down at the table or high chair to eat instead of letting him wander around with food. I told her I would, and boy I sincerely meant it at the time, but I have not had the resolve to be terribly strict with him given all that we are doing this week. Despite my lazyness, the last two times I have given him a bowl of snacks, I have turned around to find him putting his bowl on the table and climbing into the chair to eat. And he sat there and ate the whole time.

Ok…. Very cool thing just happened. I am sitting here typing and Chandler has been walking all over the house. No one else is here and I think he is bored. He came up and pulled on me to get up. After a minute or so of trying to get him to say “up” or “mommy” I gave in and he led me to the front door. I told him we were not going anywhere and came back to the kitchen, he followed me back in, looked at me and said, “car” plain as day. So we are gonna leave a little early for his afternoon session.