Merry Christmas!

For the past two years, just before Christmas, Thomas has done something amazing which always manages to lift my mood and restore my holiday spirit.

Two years ago he began using the walker.

Last year he figured out how to crawl. (yes, he's backwards lol)

This year I fully expected him to start talking. Nothing big, just a single word would do. It is now December 11 and still no words. However, he has once again done something truly amazing. This year for Christmas Thomas has decided he would start to "get it". He is suddenly understanding everything being said around him. He is listening, understanding, and complying (when he feels like it!).

There are three other things he has started doing in the past week. The first is that he has become a puzzle master. I took a puzzle to therapy with him last Friday. It is one of those wooden ones with the big chunky pieces with the wooden knobs on them. It has three large shapes, a circle, square, and triangle. In the past he has shown a mastery of the circle, a pretty good grasp of the square, and troubles with the triangle. He hasn't touched the puzzle in months. Well, I pulled it out at therapy on Friday and set it in front of him while his therapist twisted and manipulated his body into the proper kneeling position. Like an expert he grabbed all three pieces and put them in their proper spot. After proving to us a few more times that this was not a fluke we challenged him with another puzzle. This one had smaller wooden shape pieces with smaller knob handles. It also had more shapes. Again he shocked us and put all the pieces in the puzzle with no trouble at all! It was truly amazing to watch him work those puzzles.

The second thing is last night (Monday) he took a hot wheel car, held it wheels down on the table, and began scooting it back and forth in front of him! He PLAYED with a car just like those boring "normal" kids do.

Finally, the third thing is he has a leap frog book that is in the shape of a barn. It reads the story about farm animals, counting them as it goes. Along with this book is a block, which has an animal pictured on each side. For each page of the book "Tad" the frog is looking for one of his missing animals. The object is to find the animal on the block and put it in place with the correct animal facing up. Then when you push the block down it congratulates you on finding the animal. Thomas has had the book for almost a year, and has never used the block with it. The other morning I got the block out and showed him what to do with it AND HE DID IT! He has trouble getting the block in the hole, but he can find the correct animal each time. He will hand it to me to put in the hole after he has tried to do it himself.

I can't say enough how amazing this kid is. I am so in awe of him and all he has accomplished and I wait with baited breath for his next great accomplishment.