Progress Feels So Good!

We had a lot of progress as a family this weekend.  Emotionally, we are recovering, and enjoyed some normalcy.  We took Parker to the O.A.R. concert at Ravinia Festival on Sunday, and to the pool one last time today.  We are thankful for the time as a family-- especially with one extra day to heal our hearts and feel the sun on our faces.

Today, Parker made HUGE progress.  First, we have been working SO hard on drinking from cups. I wrote about this in a post over the summer-- but Ms. Deanna's aquarium tubing straw idea has officially caught on.  Parker drank at least 4 ounces of chocolate Pediasure tonight at dinner...in less than 5 minutes!  He was even breathing in through his nose so he could continue swallowing without a break.  Proud Mama!  Now, the trick will be getting him to do this with water :)

Secondly, Parker has been obsessed with books at night for the last few weeks (the teacher in me is swooning at this).  Every night, we end our book reading with "Parker's Night Night Book" that was customized for him by Grandma and Grandpa Preis.  We LOVE it.  It has simple, rhyming phrases, cute illustrations, and is customized to fit Parker's life.  One night a few weeks ago, Parker surprised us by recognizing the illustration of a slide on one of the pages.  He bounced his little finger up the ladder and down the slide, saying "two...three...gooooo!" We were stunned and so excited.  Parker has been identifying a new illustration each week.  After slide was ball, then "bep" (bed), then star, and tonight was house.  That elated feeling of him "getting it" will never go away for me.  Matt and I are SO proud of everything he is accomplishing.  And the fact that he does it all with this mischievous, sweet smile is a lesson for us all about how to live life.  Love this boy.