On the 12th Day of Giving... and the Best Christmas Ever
Sorry I haven't been blogging lately... I've been spending a lot of time with my older son who is now... BABBLING!!
Remember how I told ya'll that a few years ago I believe God told me that Noah would start talking around 8 or 9 years old?? Well, babbling's the first step, right??
Hallelujah!
So, let me tell you what we did for the 12th Day of Giving. We gave Noah the gift of normalcy.
You see, for the last 7 1/2 years, I've babied Noah. Some for good reason (he still relies on me to meet most of his basic needs like dressing, changing, bathing, etc), some for selfish reasons (while my other "babies" were getting bigger, it was nice to know that I could still cuddle and rock Noah and baby him) and then some reasons were purely because I'm lazy (it's easier to carry a child than have him throw himself on the floor in the middle of a parking lot and refuse to move).
But on Christmas Eve, we decided that we had to do something about it.... and the main reason was because Noah had started biting me. I mean, he's a pure sweetheart, but he's totally nonverbal and he gets frustrated.... and he started to take it out on me.
Now, I'm used to being bit. Nandi is the queen of biting (although she's getting much better), but Noah. Oh my word. He is strong. His bites hurt so bad that I thought for sure he's part Kujo. And so you know what we did? We put his hiney in time out.
Time Out.
I made him sit in the Time Out chair while I kneeled in front of him so that he wouldn't move and he stayed there the entire time.
Of course, I'm a wimp and it was only for 2 minutes, but it felt like a lifetime because, you see, Noah has never been in time out before. Ever.
He's my baby.
But Sim and I both noticed that Noah actually seemed relieved to be treated like a normal kid.
Isn't that amazing? He was actually glad that we gave him a consequence for biting me. And you know what? He hasn't bit me since.
He just wanted to be treated like any normal child.
So, we decided right then and there that we are going to give Noah the gift of normalcy. We are going to do our best to give him a normal childhood and help him learn to do things on his own. It's not going to happen overnight, but we are going to work towards it.
And the first thing we did... on Christmas Eve... was have Noah write a letter to Santa. Because most kids write letters to Santa, right? See, Nandi and Eli wrote letters a few weeks ago. Sim says in England that you write a letter to Santa and then throw it in the fire and that's how it reaches the North Pole (not sure if that's what all households in England do, but Sim grew up doing it) and so N & E wrote their letters and Sim burned them awhile ago. But we never did one with Noah.
So, I sat down and did RPM with Noah (where he makes choices and spells by pointing to a letterboad). And this is what Noah's letter to Santa said. Seriously. No, really. Seriously.
Remember how I told ya'll that a few years ago I believe God told me that Noah would start talking around 8 or 9 years old?? Well, babbling's the first step, right??
Hallelujah!
So, let me tell you what we did for the 12th Day of Giving. We gave Noah the gift of normalcy.
You see, for the last 7 1/2 years, I've babied Noah. Some for good reason (he still relies on me to meet most of his basic needs like dressing, changing, bathing, etc), some for selfish reasons (while my other "babies" were getting bigger, it was nice to know that I could still cuddle and rock Noah and baby him) and then some reasons were purely because I'm lazy (it's easier to carry a child than have him throw himself on the floor in the middle of a parking lot and refuse to move).
But on Christmas Eve, we decided that we had to do something about it.... and the main reason was because Noah had started biting me. I mean, he's a pure sweetheart, but he's totally nonverbal and he gets frustrated.... and he started to take it out on me.
Now, I'm used to being bit. Nandi is the queen of biting (although she's getting much better), but Noah. Oh my word. He is strong. His bites hurt so bad that I thought for sure he's part Kujo. And so you know what we did? We put his hiney in time out.
Time Out.
I made him sit in the Time Out chair while I kneeled in front of him so that he wouldn't move and he stayed there the entire time.
Of course, I'm a wimp and it was only for 2 minutes, but it felt like a lifetime because, you see, Noah has never been in time out before. Ever.
He's my baby.
But Sim and I both noticed that Noah actually seemed relieved to be treated like a normal kid.
Isn't that amazing? He was actually glad that we gave him a consequence for biting me. And you know what? He hasn't bit me since.
He just wanted to be treated like any normal child.
So, we decided right then and there that we are going to give Noah the gift of normalcy. We are going to do our best to give him a normal childhood and help him learn to do things on his own. It's not going to happen overnight, but we are going to work towards it.
And the first thing we did... on Christmas Eve... was have Noah write a letter to Santa. Because most kids write letters to Santa, right? See, Nandi and Eli wrote letters a few weeks ago. Sim says in England that you write a letter to Santa and then throw it in the fire and that's how it reaches the North Pole (not sure if that's what all households in England do, but Sim grew up doing it) and so N & E wrote their letters and Sim burned them awhile ago. But we never did one with Noah.
So, I sat down and did RPM with Noah (where he makes choices and spells by pointing to a letterboad). And this is what Noah's letter to Santa said. Seriously. No, really. Seriously.
Yo! Wassup? I would like a G-L-O-B. Love, Noah
Isn't that hysterical? No Dear Santa. No Hello, Father Christmas! But Yo! Wassup?
And, uh, yeah I do homeschool him. What of it? ;-)
Anyway, of course I panicked because it was Christmas Eve and turns out all Noah wanted was a globe that he could spin (never mind that he already had 3 of them in his room that he'd already broken). The boy wanted a globe and I was determined to spend our entire retirement in finding him one at such a late date. Thankfully my parents (who sell things at First Monday) had one and we picked it up and put it under the Christmas tree in the wee hours of the night.
I have a video of him on Christmas morning and I'll try to upload that later today or tomorrow.
So, this blog post is getting really long winded and boring and I'm not even nearly through. So let me condense it and say that since we've started requiring things from Noah (making him do things himself, making him utter a sound in order to get a toy or watch a video) he is actually starting to babble. Oh my gosh, it's beautiful! And he babbles in crescendo. Really! It's amazing.
He also has the best eye contact and is really wanting to hang out with us more. Wherever we are in the house, he wants to be near us. And this is the first Christmas that he was actually interested in his presents. He didn't open them himself, but he sat in our lap and was very interested in what we were unwrapping. And he played with his toys this year!
That, plus just letting go of expectations and keeping Christmas really simple, well, it was the best Christmas ever. It really, really was.
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, too!
Comments
Amazing. :)
p.s. did you get my email? DR plans fell through and I am thinking of going to India... would love some feedback!
Totally amazing.
Noah's letter to Santa made me laugh out loud....I think he's totally your boy! Too, too funny! Celebrating this progress with you!
Lisa H.