Eee!

Ben has made so much progress with communication in the past 2 months it's hard to believe. He learned sign language, learned how to request what he wants with a picture exchange system, started mimicking gestures with certain songs (Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, etc.) and now he has finally started mimicking vowel sounds! In the past week he went from not mimicking sounds at all to doing ee, ah, oh, he and ha. His speech therapist said she got chills today during our session when she heard his new sounds. In this video the first sign he makes is for milk and then he does his sign for cookie right before he says "ee".

Happy New Year!

Hanukkah pictures

Christmas pictures

Football

I have to post pictures from Christmas and Hanukkah, but in the meantime here is a cute video that Popi took with his phone today. He and Ben went to the park and Ben had to run on "his" football field. There were a couple big kids throwing a football around and they were nice enough to include Ben.

Signs

In the week since Ben learned the "more" sign his sign language has really come along! He now knows help, all done, eat and oh no! He also does a sign for pirate (his favorite snack is Pirate's Booty). We're trying to add a couple every few days. I don't want to overwhelm or confuse him, but I also don't want to lose the momentum!

Ben seems to really enjoy signing and having a way to communicate better. This morning he came to me asking for help. I followed him and he showed me his toy cars had gone under the couch and he needed help getting them out. What an amazing difference!

Unfortunately his signing has come with some sleep regression! He just can't fall asleep on his own lately. I think his brain is processing so much new information it's hard for him to calm down and fall asleep.

Ben signing "more"