Week 24

It's been a little over 6 months since Ryan was given an official diagnosis.  We're thankful for that happening because without it we may have never jumpstarted his road to recovery.  But the fire was lit and we're on our journey.  There have been ups and downs but the child we see today is a very different child than the one who frustrated and confused us a mere 6 months ago.  This week I want to share with you just a few of the differences...

Just today I watched Ryan sit at the kitchen table and play a game of memory with my mom and Julia.  I thought back to the times when his speech therapist would try to work with him at our kitchen table.  She would pull out a game and try to teach him to play.  He would lose interest in less than 5 minutes, and it would frustrate her.  But today he stayed interested in the game and participated for about 20 minutes.  He even made several matches and was very excited.  Each time he got a match he would get to go again.  Of course this would upset Julia because she didn't understand why it wasn't her turn.  A couple of times Ryan actually refused to have a second turn and let Julia have her turn.  This shows me that he is learning how to be sensitive to others' feelings and he can learn how to be compassionate.  The social aspect of Ryan's life is one of the things that Phil and I often worry about, but this incident is certainly a step in the right direction. 

Ryan has never liked anyone touching his hair.  While he's come a long way letting me cut his hair every once and a while, he actually let my mom try a hat on his head this week.  She's crocheting a hat for him and wanted to measure it on his head half way through.  He actually let her try it on his head, and not just once, but several times that day.  I'm proud that he let her put something on his head, but also that he is learning to be accommodating to others' requests.

Ryan has been obsessed with trains for a long time.  During the past couple of weeks his new thing is to take his train set off of his train table and reassemble it across the living room floor.  He comes up with a new design everyday and will play for hours.  Sometimes it's a simple straight line or circle or U-shape.  But on other days he creates these intricate setups that are very impressive.  Here's a picture one of his designs from this week:

We were at a birthday party this week and Ryan did a nice job playing with all of the kids.  At one point he was pretending to be a the ping pong bandit from an episode of The Backyardigans, and didn't want to break character.  He walked around the room reciting lines and acting out scenes from the show.  He certainly stood out from the other kids and drew attention to himself.  When it was time for cake Ryan was upset that we brought him one of his special cupcakes.  He so badly wanted the birthday cake with blue frosting that everyone else was eating.  Phil brought him outside to explain to him that it wasn't his special cake.  I put his special cupcake on a cake plate and cut him a tiny sliver of the regular birthday cake.  Although it was only a forkful, Ryan's eyes lit up when I showed him the cake.  He asked me a half a dozen times if he was allowed to eat it; he wanted to be absolutely sure that it was okay.  I think he was shocked that it was on his plate.  Did I give him mixed messages?  Sure.  Will he demand a piece of regular cake the next time we are at a party? Possibly.  Should I have given in?  Not according to the GFCF egg-free diet police.  Do I regret my decision?  NO.  For the thirty seconds that it took him to eat the forkful of contraband cake, he got to feel like he was just like every other kid at that party.  And he went on to eat his cupcake and enjoy the rest of the afternoon (with red cheeks, of course).

On a different note, I made Ryan turkey meatballs and he loved them!  They were GFCF and egg-free, and we all found them very tasty.    

Ryan's teacher has the kids doing a lot of art projects.  We are impressed with the progress of not only his artwork, but also his ability and willingness to explain things and tell us stories.  I have been trying to upload a video of Ryan explaining some of the projects but after numerous hours of attempts, I'm giving up.  Maybe the file was too large.  I'll try a different video next week.

DC