elliott and benjamin update

I'm keeping track of Elliott's progress on here as regularly as possible. I'm guessing that some of these details may be mundane but they are a big deal to us.

So...

New things Elliott did today:

1. Tried to say "jump"
2. Kissed Ryan and me spontaneously dozens of times
3. Smiled at me from across the room, waiting for me to smile back
4. Played hide and seek behind a curtain, laughing so hard he started hiccuping
5. The best one: tried to say "I love you" back to me when we got home. He tried to say it again to Ryan seconds later.

He was also tantruming pretty bad today, but this is after days of almost zero tantrums, which is saying a lot for the angry storm that Elliott usually is, tearing through the house, throwing everything in his path, collapsing on the floor and hitting his head. He did some of that today, but nowhere near as bad as usual, and this was after a lot of socializing yesterday and a bunch more today, which I'm guessing exhausts him. He was also doing a lot of sounds out of context--mimicking rather than communicating--and the only one he is really doing now is the fake sneeze. He probably fake sneezes 50 times a day. It's cute, but I'm trying not to encourage it because he replaces real communication with it. I will say "hi," and he will fake sneeze when he knows how to say "hi" already. But I think it's encouraging that he isn't running through a bunch of random sounds anymore, that this is really the only one he is still doing.

He has had no wheat or dairy for 8 days now, and he's had barely any sugar. I don't even think he's had one preservative or chemical or anything bad at all this past week. We're also doing brush therapy with him three times a day, and giving him a multivitamin and omega-3 fatty acids.

I can't stop talking about the progress he is making, wondering what new thing he will do tomorrow, hoping he will be in a different place in a month, six months, a year. Am I reading into all of this too much? Maybe, but I don't think so. I'm generally not the overly hopeful type.

So, all this attention on Elliott has been hard on Ben and he is turning into a bit of a whiner. When I say a bit of a whiner, I really mean that he whines pretty much all day, punctuated with times when he is not whining. He is a sweet and loving and funny boy but I do think he is feeling how much attention we are giving to Elliott, even though we strive to make them both feel included as much as possible. So we are going to make sure we set some time aside to spend exclusively with Ben. Hopefully that will help.