This is Amazing!

Well, I think it is amazing :-)  As most of you know Jedidiah is a bit behind in many ways.  Mostly with physical growth, but also in social aspects.  I don't think we will have issues with learning, except possibly reading due to his apraxia.  There have been many things that we take for granted that our children do that Jed just has not done in a normal time frame.  The one I am about to show you may seem small, but when compared to the other small things that he's been doing lately, I think it really adds up.  I want to say that I have no idea if this is a coincidence or not, but I've definitely noticed small changes in Jed's social behavior in the past two weeks.  It could be the diet, or just a coincidence.  But I do find it odd that we were not seeing a change in these areas for months, and now we are.  Again, I can't say for sure.  What I do know for sure is that Jed is getting a plentiful supply of healthy fats, which are very necessary for his brain development.  We also know for sure that most of Jed's issues begin in his brain.  So, again, maybe coincidence, or maybe the diet.  Either way I'm pretty happy about it.  So just what is so amazing with Jed these days?

One thing I have really noticed lately is his interaction with his siblings.  He is seeking them out to play.  He is really being involved with the baby.  He will be concerned about things on the floor that Aubrey may put into his mouth.  He will play with the baby, trying to make him laugh.  He's also doing a lot more talking with his siblings (and us), and they are understanding him more, so there is more of a 2 way communication going on.  This is all amazing.  We have been concerned about Jedidiah's tendency to be want to be alone.  We would have to coax him to be involved in what we were doing.  This has gotten much better, but with some room for improvement.  He started to do some pretend play a while awhile ago, but it has really blossomed these past few weeks.  And today I saw another milestone of sorts (at least for our family), Jed drew his first recognizable picture!  I'm not really sure at what ages that children start drawing certain things, but I know that Jonah, who is 3 has already started to draw people (with a body and appendages sticking out of the body, no head).  Jed has done his share of coloring pictures from a coloring book, or coloring a blank piece of paper with a lot of different colors and strokes.  But today, he came up to me to show me his picture he drew and I was blown away.  Here it is, not very good quality, so I took separate pictures of the different things he drew:

At the top right is a banana, in the middle (in red)  is a snake, and the bottom right (in green) is a turtle.  I'm really impressed!

Here is his banana, with the brown at the top and bottom, plus a brown line along the contour. 

I really love his turtle.  It is hard to see from this picture, but he has one big eye on its head :-)