He Really is Trying but It is so Hard

Today our friends came over to join us down at Myrtle Beach. Vanessa and Jonathan have been playing all these days quite nicely, but when Nico and Christian showed up today, Jonathan separated himself from the group. He always does that so we were not surprised.

He has been a bit fixated on the GPS, playing with Google Map on my PC and with a Blue's Clues video. His conversation and pretend play are based on those 3 items. But he has been in a great mood and easy to talk to. He will go to every place we mention. He is excited about new places, new experiences. That to me is a great accomplishment. It has made our vacation more enjoyable.

I noticed that this week he has been asking us to repeat questions to him. He never said "what? What Mommy?" so much before, but I had to repeat myself many times before without feedback from him until he did the tasks or answered my questions. So although I know he still has some severe auditory processing issues, at least I know that his input/output mechanism is working better. He is not ignoring our words anymore.

When Nico (3) and Christian (5) came, we went to the pool for a while. Vanessa, Christian and Nico teamed up for everything, and Jonathan was a loaner most of the time. He played with me and Daddy, but really did not want to play with the other 3 kids. After a while, we came back to the apartment, fed the kids and they went out to play. Christian asked Jonathan to go play with him and he went. We were excited to see that. He followed Christian and imitated him in everything he did. They tried to play Basketball with a couple of young kids and then among themselves. After a few minutes, Christian asked him questions that Jonathan could not answer. Jonathan's look in his face implied that he knew the answer and he really wanted to talk, but the words could simply not come out. That depressed me a bit. It is hard to witness that.









Vanessa joined a bit later. Went downstairs with Nico, Christian and Jonathan. Jonathan ran out to the basketball field excited to play ball again and when he turned around, no one followed him. Vanessa looked at Jonathan and at Christian, and even though Christian called her up, she ran out to Jonathan and played with him for a few minutes until he led the way back to join Nico and Christian. That really brought a big nut to my throat.


He really tried to play with the kids for a while today. He tried very hard and I give him enormous credit for that. Perhaps when RDI starts, that will help us teach him how to play better. He got tired and came back to watch TV about 45 minutes later.


We went out to see fireworks and eat ice cream to end a very mellow but nice day.