A little progress goes a long way

Ahhh...quiet. There hasn't been enough of that this week. If you read my last post, or have followed my blog for a while, you know that we've been having some pretty serious sleep issues for about the past year. I won't bore you with the details of the rest of this week. Suffice it to say that we've been experimenting and have had some successes and some failures. Last night, Moe got to sleep on his own without melatonin (success). Tonight, we ate our spaghetti to Moe's screaming in the background (failure).

On top of that, Jelly has been sick with a fever, runny nose, the works. And she only wants mommy. When Jeff even tries to go near her, she screams "no!" (her new favorite word) and clings harder to me. It was cute once.... Once.

Despite all of that, Moe had an interesting day at school yesterday. When I picked him up, his teacher, the Magnificent Mrs M, came running over to me to tell me how talkative Moe was! She put a list in his daily communication book of everything he said that day: stamp, morning, four, please, open please, more, more pear, and mad.

These were pretty interesting to me for a few reasons.

• "Morning" was in response to Mrs M saying "Good morning, Moe." Socially appropriate!
• "Open please" and "More pear" are two word phrases. Haven't heard those before!
• He said "mad" when he was tired of the aide, Super K, working with him at snack. He expressed an emotion! (I haven't mentioned Super K before, but she's great and I'm sure I'll be mentioning her again.)

And here is the coolest thing of all. Moe went up to another kid in his class, grabbed his hands and tried to play ring around the rosie with him. This is amazing at so many levels. He noticed a kid. He decided he wanted to play something. He initiated contact with the kid. It's just so interactive and new.

Of course, I'm so proud, but I'm also trying to figure out what made that day so great and how I can recreate it. The rest of the day, Moe continued to be happy and well regulated, though less chatty than he was at school. The only thing I know is that this fabulous day came after Moe had a full night's sleep, which is something I seem to have very little control over. I don't think this is a coincidence.

It has been a tough week, but this note was just what I needed to make it through the rest of the week. A little progress goes a long way.