CHECK, CHECK, CHECK...

Yep, we are checking "tricks" off of Mighty Maxwell's goal list every day! So fast that it is hard for his therapists to keep track of all his accomplishments! I am absolutely stunned with his progress...so proud of my lil' man!!!

His sign language teacher (who also helps in general communication skills) checked off FOURTEEN tricks. How cool is that??? She was completely blown away! And she was so impressed with how attentive he was being with me. :) (Love that!) Every time he does his trick, he looks to me for his praise. Sooooo cute!

Some highlights from his latest tricks include...

1) Putting things IN a bucket. This is HUGE! He has been able to take them OUT for quite some time, but he wasn't moving on to the next milestone very quickly. And now he loves doing it. I told him that once he can walk, he can help me clean up his toys! hee hee :)

2) Rolling TO me. If I sit about five feet away from him and encourage him, he will happily roll to me. So cute! This purposeful rolling is big progress.

3) Taking turns in conversation! I love this trick so much! I will "Ba ba da da" and he will then make sounds...and so on and so on and so on. He won't necessarily imitate the exact sounds but he will converse! And sometimes he will actually imitate the "ooooooohhhh" sound or the raspberry making.

I love this trick because it is so reassuring that he wants to communicate...he is a VERY social boy! That is important to me!

4) Initiating a game. This is one of my VERY favorites!!!

When we drive to Seattle, it is supposed to take less than two hours but often times, but often times it takes much longer because he is cranky or needs medical intervention (i.e. oxygen, tube feeding change, etc.) To calm him down, I will pull over and play with the lights above his seat...he is absolutely fascinated with lights (most hard of hearing children are). I cover the lights on and off with my hand and make a firetruck sound. He LOVES this. Well on our latest trip to Seattle, we had many, many stops and soon enough he decided he could tell me to do the light game. He would raise his hand (imitating me) and I would then do the lights. We did this over and over and over again. It was awesome. This is the first game he has ever initiated.

This trick continued when we arrived home. As soon as he noticed our ceiling light, he raised his hand for me to do the game. (Generalization is another important milestone.) So of course I have spent much time now flicking the light switch on and off. I called over Eliz and several friends yesterday to show off our new trick!!! :)



This was on our way home from Seattle and he was absolutely exhausted and not very happy. But yet he still played the game with me. Not with much spirit as you can see...but still he got the concept!













* We have many more tricks to share, but I have a lot of things to do this morning so I best run. Have a great day everyone and who knows what new things Max will do today!?!? :)