Those things he does...

As I sit here, purposely ignoring my child, he is doing something amazing.

He is feeding himself. Yogurt. With a spoon.

Yup, he is feeding himself yogurt, with a spoon no less. If you don't think that is amazing then you are among those without a special needs child of your own, especially one with physical disabilities. This is truly amazing. He has done it before, but never for as long as he is now and not usually with such little assistance (interference?) from me. Yes, I am helping. I put the spoon in the cup and get the yogurt on it. He takes it out, makes it to his mouth without dumping it on the table or himself, sucks that spoon dry, then gently sets the spoon on top of the yogurt cup.

This is actually quite huge.

Less than a month ago he had an appointment at the brain function assessment clinic. The doctor tried to get him to do all sorts of things. He was shockingly cooperative and surprised me many times with things he was able to do. But one thing he wasn't yet doing was feeding himself. Whether this is because he just couldn't, wouldn't, or because he knew mom would, I don't know. But it is just something he wasn't doing.

However, as I sit here, he is doing it. I know I said that already but I am excited and can't stop saying it!

And while I'm on the subject of that brain function assessment (to which I have yet to receive the results) I have to say that this kid really did well. There were some things he couldn't do (or wouldn't). But I had to laugh when, upon being handed a small plastic bottle which held inside a small little sugar pill, and then being asked to remove the pill, Thomas tried and tried to get that pill out with his little fingers. When that didn't work he put the bottle into his mouth and tipped his head back, getting the pill out just as he was asked. That counts right? In fact I think that was the smartest way of doing it really, I wouldn't have though of doing it that way.

Other things he did were unscrewing a lid off a bottle, matching one image to it's duplicate which was included in a group of other images, removing his socks, and pointing. These are all things he doesn't usually do, not that I've witnessed anyway.

And while I'm on this hodge podge of a blog entry I must add that Thusday we got a note home from the teacher stating that Thomas was able to take a picture of a classmate and then identify which classmate it was by immediately seeking that classmate out with his eyes. She said he did it for each of his 8 classmates and it was obvious he knew who was who. Again, HUGE!

I am so proud of my little man. Proud actually seems like an inadequate word to describe how I feel about him. He amazes me daily and I am so lucky and so blessed to be his mom.