A simple conversation

Yesterday Caroline had a very simple conversation with Levi.  The girls were coloring in the playroom.  Levi was in there too and looked to be interested in coloring as well.  Caroline asked him if he would like to color.  We usually ask him questions based on his hand gestures or when he signs.  He doesn’t usually respond verbally. We just put him in position to do whatever it is he asked for.  This time when Caroline asked him if he wanted to color, he said “yeah”.  She asked him again.  Again he answered, “yeah”.  Needless to say this caught Caroline a little off guard. She said ok and told him to go sit in a chair.  Levi promptly went over to a chair and sat down.  Caroline gave him a piece a paper and crayons and he began to color.

This little conversation was so awesome. Caroline and I both know that he understands a lot of different things but it is usually a case of us acknowledging him instead of him acknowledging us.  Also for him to verbalize it is very exciting.  I hope this is the beginning of many little conversations with Levi.

It was a great Christmas

Santa had arrived!  Our living room was filled with toys from the man himself and presents from our family.  Our morning started a little after 6 am when Levi woke up.  He doesn’t get the concept of Santa or Christmas so for him it was just a typical morning.  The girls wouldn’t be up for another hour. We didn’t want to set Levi loose in the living room as we thought he might just tear through all the toys that Santa had spent so much time setting up.  So we fed him some breakfast to buy us some time.

Shortly after, he was done and ready to get out of his high chair.  We took him over to the pile that Santa had left for him.  He was curious but not overly excited.  We have found it very difficult to shop for Levi.  You just never know what he is going to be drawn too.  Last year, we tried to pick out things that we thought a typical 2 year old would like and that could help him with his therapy.  That pretty much backfired.  He hardly played with anything that he got last year. So this year, we just took a stab at things we thought he might like. We just wanted to find things he would enjoy playing with. So this year’s list included a dream light, a doodle board and Leap Frog Explorer 2 among other things.  Yes, we realize the Leap Frog is a step backward from the iPad but we had hoped it would be a good substitute.  We were wrong.  He hasn’t had much of a chance with it but the one thing we have noticed is that everything loads a little slow.  Levi gets impatient and starts to move on to the next thing.  Hopefully with a little more time, he will learn to like it a little more. By the way, this year’s favorite toy…. a stuffed buzz light year.  Go figure.

Soon after, the rest of the house was up and our living room was filled with the sounds of laughter and littered with wrapping paper.  I think Levi was a little overwhelmed at times but seemed to enjoy all the excitement.  We are hoping next year he will understand the concept of Santa so he can take part in the anticipation.  It was a great day.  I hope everyone had a great Christmas as well.