Why does she keep giving me bananas?

I had a revelation yesterday. G. did what I thought was his sign for banana, and then said "Chugga, chugga, woo, woo!" (the woo, woo is a new accomplishment, and I'm thrilled about it). He ran across the room and got a train. A light went on in my head, and I finally understood why he'd been signing banana in strange contexts and refusing the bananas I offered him (when they make a request, I fall all over myself trying to respond, thinking it'll encourage them to keep requesting). Overall, G. is much more interested in trains than bananas, so it all makes a lot of sense. I wonder how many other of these misunderstandings we're having. It's got to be frustrating for him, but I think he's getting a lot more motivated to make us understand, which is so great. Yesterday he said "hot" and "backpack"--two new words in one day

On the B. front, I'm meeting with a woman who may provide us with ten hours of ABA a week, just for B. She seems very experienced, and is really reassuring to talk to. Really, I felt so relieved talking to her that I think I'd pay her just to come to our house and hang around.

Tomorrow is G's MRI. Now this is a child who has never drunk a clear liquid in his life. And the MRI is at 12:30, so he is going to be like an angry grizzly cub at that point. My plan is to give him apple juice in a medicine dropper and see how that goes. B.'s MRI came back totally normal. it almost seems that we could cancel G's, since they're identical twins, but I don't think the doctor would go for that.

I signed up for a scrapbooking retreat in July. I'm not that much of a scrapbooker, but I am definitely ready to retreat. I have never, ever been away from all of my children since the day J. came home.

A few notes

Today I mentioned to the director of the nursery school which the twins are signed up for next year that they've gotten their new diagnosis. I was pleasantly surprised how well she took it. She said that they were willing to try and see how things work out. And everyone in the office chimed in with hopeful things they've heard about autism lately (this happens to me a lot these days)

J. and B. have a new game to play together. J. holds the hose, with a sprinkler attachment and waters the grass, and the deck and parts of the house. B. stands in the spray with a huge grin on his face, laughing out loud. J. is thrilled to be able to make B. smile. We aren't sure but we think we heard B say "wawa" for the first time.

G. is in a funny stage where he acts as if he's forgotten most of his signs. But he did use the sign for "mom" (in reference to his large toy duck, not to me, but we're getting closer) and he did kiss me two times in the last two days. He's kissed his toys before, but never me til now. I am going to assume that G. hasn't really forgotten all those other signs, because whenever I freak out about one of these stages, so far they have always passed.

I have GOT to download that browser that will let me load photos. We still have dial-up service which seems to be the internet equivalent of using carrier pigeons or the Pony Express, and the download says it will take three hours. I am going to start it downloading this evening, because I've got some great pictures.

Seeing Progress

It's funny, I would normally feel uncomfortable "bragging" about my kids' achievements, but since they're so far behind, it feels okay to go on at length.

Tried to get G. to wear rainboots for the first time. He threw a big fit, and kept pulling them off. I heard J. say to him, "You want to wear boots or shoes?" G. then signed "shoes", which he's never done before. J. answered him by saying, "Good choice," which sounds like an echo of my special ed. teacher-y way of speaking.

G. later allowed me to put the boots on him when he realized it was the only way to get to splash in puddles with J. Luckily the pants I was wearing were essentially mud-colored to begin with.

Other recent G. triumphs:

I said, "This is a book about hats", and he patted his head.

He pretended to sleep on a pillow on the floor, and imitated our fake snoring.

He falls down on purpose, and laughs when we do it together.

I hate to ignore B. in this post. His progress is a little harder to track, because we have a lot of "Did he just say that?" moments. The speech therapist heard him say "Ready, set, go!" very faintly. He also said "Q,R,S", after we paused in an attempt to get him to sing "P". He uses a few signs, but very tentatively, often when he thinks no one is looking at him.

On the other hand, he is definitely the only boy in the house ever to have urinated in the potty! This happened last night at bath time, and I think it was an accident of timing, but we cheered like crazy. Now if it would just inspire some competitive feeling in his big brother.
A funny J. moment: After having a toileting accident, J. apologized to the character on his underpants-- "Sorry, Benny!"