Happy Thanksgiving!

It has been over a week since I updated the blog. We are keeping very busy. My brother came to the US with his family and we went on a short vacation to a town near-by. It was very nice.

Jonathan is doing great. He is interacting with everyone, he is curious, he wants to help me with everything. But at the same time some of his old obsessions have returned. The past 2 week he has been putting DVDs and music CDs in DVD players for just a few minutes and then finding another one to put them on. He is also humming quite a bit.

I have actually been thinking about him all week. On one hand, many people have been telling us for the past 2 weeks that Jonathan acts like a normal child. Mainly because they see him playing with other children in playgrounds or moon bounces, or even playing with swords and hide and seek. But then when he wants to communicate what he is thinking or experienced, he has trouble putting the sentences together. And if you don't know him, it is hard to actually understand what he is telling you. I find myself translating. I understand him. I have learned to communicate with him in such way that I understand 95% of what he says. I believe Dad and Abuita do as well. And now even my father is getting better at it. But tonight he came to tell me that he had bumped into the door and hit his lip and even though I understood enough to help him complete the thought, my brother told me that he would have never understood what he was trying to say. He can repeat the phrases that he hears at school or on TV without problems and they are clear enough that anyone can understand him. So it is not a vocal or motor problem. It is his apraxia. It is very pronounced still. I am glad that today's event with my brother took place so I can refocus. Sometimes, since I live with him, I feel that he is more advanced that he is because I understand him. But he still has a very severe communications problem. I need to focus on that this year or else the first-graders are going to give him a very hard time next year.

Here are some pictures from this week. He has been very happy and playful and also alert. We went to a birthday party (moon bounce pictures). Then we went to a ski resort for a couple of days. It was cold but not much snow to ski. He also played chu chu train with Vanessa and his cousin. We also went to a great colorful park. And in the last picture you'll see Jonathan helping my brother blow his birthday candles. He wasn't into birthdays until this year. It was a full and fun week.