Communication Breakthrough!

Tomorrow is our 18th wedding anniversary.  Since it occurs on a Monday, we decided to go out and celebrate on Saturday night with a nice dinner at a new Italian restaurant and after went to a movie. 

We hardly ever go out.

And never to eat and a movie.

So my friend Jo came out to keep the older two from fighting and to watch little Ben, and we had a wonderful time enjoying our rare evening out.

We got home about 10 and Ben came running up to me sniffling like he was crying.  I asked what was wrong, but he just clung to me.  We sat down and he was instantly on my lap trying to tell me something.  It sounded like he was saying something that started with an "s" but I just was not getting it until I noticed his hands.  He was signing scared.  I said were you scared when you woke up and Mommy and Daddy were not home.   Ben got the biggest look of relief on his face, screamed YES and gave me a big hug.

This was huge for Ben.  While most parents of Kindergartners have kids that come home from school and chatter on happily about their day, I usually have to read about what happened and then prompt him by asking questions.  Most of the time the best answers I get are yes and no to my questions.  Sometimes Ben goes off on long orations about his day, but is speaking so fast and not clearly enough for us to understand what he is saying.   Often he uses signs to help us understand a few of  his words and sometimes we can get an idea of what he is trying to say.  This was the first time he ever came up to me completely unprompted to tell me how he was feeling and kept at it until I figured out what he had to say.   

I asked later if he had fun playing with Jo and he very enthusiastically said "Yes Mommy!  Thank You."  So glad he had fun with Jo even though he was scared when we were not home when he woke up.

Ben is also developing quite the little sense of humor.  The other day he walked up to me with the container of strawberries and said, "strawberries, please".  However, he had one of my price tags across his nose.  I asked him, "Ben, what is on your nose"?  He said and signed, "hurt, Mommy".  I said, "Oh Ben, did you hurt your nose?"  He said yes and skipped off with his strawberries giggling as he went.  Silly boy.