Monday, February 04, 2008

February 4, 2008...crazy calm

VAL...GOT YOUR MESSAGE...LOVE YOU!! EMAIL ME AT JENN@WKRQ.COM AND WE CAN CHAT...



We're trucking along and life is good. Jakob and his playroom...a beautiful combination.

Ya know, I never go back and read any of my old entries so I don't have any idea if I've ever really explained what we're doing. Put simply...Jakob spends his days in a special playroom in our basement with minimal distractions. It's quiet, uncluttered and full of stuff that he loves...minus the computer, tv or any toy that uses batteries. The focus in the playroom is it's Jakob's World (even more-so than my house already was) and we do whatever he feels like doing. We join him in his world. If he feels like tearing paper, we tear paper. If he wants to jump on the trampoline, we jump. If he wants to be tickled or squeezed, we tickle or squeeze. One of his favorites is writing lists on his whiteboard. When he makes his lists of colors, we make a list of colors. We're building a relationship and it's working. He loves that we love doing whatever it is that he's doing and he's taking a sincere interest in us. We're building a bridge.

And what I'm noticing is he's looking at me so much, real eye-to-eye, engaged eye contact. He's taking an interest in everything I do. He likes having me around. He takes me by the hand and invites me to play with him. And he's so much more willing to do the few things I ask him to do without putting up a fight...like going to the bathroom, taking a bath, going to bed. There's more peace in this house and we're having so much fun.

We worried a little bit about keeping him in the playroom...would he stay in there all day?? No problem. We've done 9, 10, 11 hours straight in there. We've even come upstairs after 8 or 9 hours and he's gone back on his own. He loves that room. It has everything he needs and he loves it best when someone is in there just being with him.

Outside the room, I'm totally crazed...Christmas decorations still up, working, helping plan Walk Now for Autism with Autism Speaks on May 3, trying to find volunteers for the playroom and the list goes on. But all is well, it truly is. Jakob is in the happiest place he's ever been and that makes everything ok. The tree can stay up til June.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home