In Which Connor is a Kitty

Today Connor made us very proud!

He had feeding therapy and physical therapy today, and he did a fantastic job at both of them! He ate more for Julie in one session than she's ever seen him eat before-- and it was a food with a thicker texture, which is pretty exciting! Connor doesn't chew so he only eats purees, and he has trouble coordinating tongue movements and swallowing, which combined with his sensory issues makes him very guarded about what goes into his mouth. We've been trying to get him used to thicker textures of food for a long time, and so it's really gratifying to see that after two years of trying the work is finally paying off! The fact that he's learning how to sit and is much more stable through his core muscles is probably helping-- everything ties in together like that.

Speaking of sitting-- check out what he was doing at physical therapy! The little guy sat totally on his own for thirty minutes without falling down once! He was even reaching for and touching his toy to get it to play music again; this one is one of his favorites so it's always a pretty sure bet to hold his attention. Evidently sitting is still very serious business-- I don't think he cracked a smile during the entire half an hour. When he did fall over, it was very obvious that it was deliberate. We tried to switch toys and he was having none of it. Silly little guy.

The most exciting thing that happened today though was that Connor showed the first signs ever of imaginative play! The little guy was a total chatterbox in feeding therapy. He's been obsessed with cats for the past couple of weeks and he likes to try and distract me during meal time so I won't put more food in his mouth, so I wasn't very surprised when he started signing "Kitty." He was very persistent, though-- looking intently at me and signing it over and over again. Finally I asked him about it and we had the following conversation:

Connor: Kitty! Kitty!
Me: Are you talking about your kitties at home?
Connor: No. Kitty! Daddy!
Me: Is Daddy at home with the kitties?
Connor: No. Kitty! Daddy!
Me: Hmm. Is Daddy a kitty?
Connor: Yes! Kitty Daddy!
Me: (shocked and delighted) I see! So daddy is a kitty. Is Connor a kitty?
Connor: Yes! Kitty!
Me: Daddy is a kitty and Connor is a kitty. Is Mommy a kitty too?
Connor: No no no! Mommy no!
Me: Oh. But Daddy and Connor are kitties?
Connor: Yes! Kitty kitty!

So apparently not only is he starting to show signs of imaginative play, but Mommy is not cool enough to be a kitty. Can you guess who the favorite parent in our household is?

Connor and Daddy were kitties all through the rest of the afternoon. We established that Mommy was not a kitty, bear, dinosaur, or any number of other animals. Mommies are just plain old boring Mommies. Oh well.

I'm so excited about this, for a number of reasons. Not only did I have a lengthy and successful on-topic conversation with Connor, which doesn't happen very often as he is easily distracted and often chooses to ignore questions, but he demonstrated a very sophisticated cognitive skill. Because he doesn't always respond appropriately or even make any indication that he's heard you, it's easy sometimes to forget just how sharp he really is. Every once in a while he'll remind me out of the blue just how much he understands!

So I guess I'd better start putting together a dress-up bin. First on the list: a set of kitty ears!

~Jess