1. Ben made a friend at the park-it only lasted a few minutes, but they ran around together and Ben stopped to see if the other boy was ok when he fell. This is a first!
2. Ben sang all the words to Twinkle twinkle little Star. another first!
3. Ben did all the motions to Head and shoulders, without prompting!

All big milestones for Ben, and things he's not supposed to be able to do. YAAAAAY Ben!

We havent' been trying anything too new-we are making some progress on potty training, which makes us all so happy! However, Ben is once again in a regression phase. This one is hard to handle, he is making less eye contact and some of his "stimmy" type behaviors have returned. Again, this is part of the process, but is heartbreaking. Add to that he is completely hyper again which keeps me tired. Good news is he is showing more emotion, talking a lot more, is more obedient, and has more cognitive understanding(can do what he is told-i.e. pick up your shoes) Next week we start the school process!

Teena

Things are coming righ along-much, much slower than we want them to, but our little Ben is moving forward. This week he speech therapist stated that Ben seemed to be typically developing to her, just very late. This is great news, Thank you SCD! With that in mind we are changing the focus of Ben's ABA to potty training and learning to come/answer when called.

We also heard from the school district this week. they have placed Ben in the classroom we don't want him in, but we also have a chance to meet with the powers that be before school starts, so we'll see!

The Vitamin K protocol is coming right along-Ben is responding in a "typical" manner at a much lower dose than it takes for others. He's currently regressing, which means going back in order to go forward. We're seeing more hitting, biting, hyper activty and some head banging. On the other hand, he's got improved eye contact, is sleeping much better, and is using more sophisticated language. This phase is supposed to last 2 weeks, we know from experience it will last four for Ben. Please pray for us, this is frustrating!

His speech therapist continues to be impressed by what Ben can do, and is excited about the progress he's already made. Strangely, we are teaching hiim to stick his tongue out-Ben needs the muscle control. Apparently he forms his words way back in his throat instead of at the front of his mouth for clear speech.

We're trying to make decisions about therapy for the school year-should we put him back in the district therapy preschool? The school district wants to put him in the same class as last year-we don't want that because he has made incredible progress over the summer and needs to be with typicaly developing kids to learn his missing social skills. However, we can't afford the same therapies ourselves, and it takes a great deal of effort to do the at home project I'm doing now, plus I will be homeschooling the other two. The line between what's best and what's managable gets pretty blurry here, so thanks for all your prayers.

We're hoping to get some pictures and some recipes up soon, so keep checking back!