Gavin's friend?

Last week after speech therapy, another mother and I were talking about how our kids loved "Cars" movie. We discussed characters, and she said they had some duplicates at home, so on Tuesday, she brought a couple of them in for Gavin. So he asked me later why the other boy brought those cars to him. I said we were going to swap them. I was going to bring in Fillmore the bus today for him. So today, we brought Fillmore in for the other boy. After they got there (after Gavin's therapy was over), Gavin went right up to the boy, who he's only seen a couple of times before and we don't even know his name. He went right to the boy and handed him Fillmore. The boy showed his mom and said "look what that boy gave me!" The mother asked him (as she was looking at me) "Did he REALLY give you that?" (Apparently she figured the boy took it from Gavin.) So I said yes, he really did give her son that. She told him to make sure he thanked Gavin. He did, and Gavin gave him a hug. It was so heartwarming! Later, they were playing together on the floor with cars when the boy's mother said they had to go to the store. Gavin insisted we go to the store too. He started whining because he was sad that the boy left. He sounded like a puppy! I kept telling him I didn't know what store the other boy went to, so we couldn't go too, but he was really insistent that "We'll go to Walmart too!" (even though we didn't know if the boy and his mother were going to that store. He was really quite sad that his new friend left. It made me sad for him, so I just held him and rubbed his back for several minutes before agreeing that we could go to a thrift store to look for more "Cars" characters. I was just so pleased that he felt that much of a connection to this other boy. It's not the only one he's played with at therapy, so I don't know what it was, but we'll have to see if we can find time to see this other boy (think his name is Mason) more often, I think. Gavin will probably demand it.

Sympathy!

Gavin has apologies down! The other day after therapy, he had been taking a toy from another boy sometimes, and I kept having him give it back. After he gave it back one time, I noticed the other boy crying and holding his head. I didn't THINK Gavin hurt him, but wasn't sure if he had thrown a car back to the other boy, and the other kid hit his head or what, so I told him I knew he hadn't meant to hurt the other boy, but I thought he did, so he should go say he was sorry. He crossed the room to where the other boy was sitting, knelt down and said "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you." The other boy tried to push him away, and Gavin repeated "I wasn't trying to hurt you. I'm sorry." Apparently the other boy was pretty much ok after that, because he started slowly going back to playing. I could see Gavin hadn't gotten up, but looked confused, and I wondered why. Not for very long though, because as soon as the other boy bent his head down to play on the floor, Gavin kissed the spot where the boy had been holding his hand to his head. He ended up kissing the boy's head 3 times. He had just been trying to find an opening to do that! His mother turned to me and asked how old Gavin was, and how long he had had that ability (apologies). I told her that we had been working on sympathy recently, but had just started to really get it. Truthfully, it's just been in the last few weeks I think that he heartfeltedly apologized to us, and never had to another person. I know the school would sometimes tell him to say he was sorry to another kid, but I don't know as I believe in teaching kids to just go and say they're sorry. I think teaching them about the real reason they should apologize is better, like to say they didn't mean to hurt someone else. I think that's why Gavin understands it a whole lot better than some kids, to whom "I'm sorry" are just empty words. I was so proud of his apology!

Why/Because

Today, I was working with Gavin on learning the why/because type of question and answer. I gave him simple examples, so hope he figured it out. We also read the short version of "Pinocchio" that he took out from the library. He really seemed to like the name "Gepetto" since he repeated it multiple times. I think he got the idea of what a lie is, because I gave him simple examples of that also. We talked to Nate earlier, and he said he and Jenn used to tell Ari that when you lie, a red dot shows on your forehead that your mom and dad can see. He said she used to cover her forehead with her hand for several years when she lied. That must have been pretty obvious! Sounds like a good idea to use with kids! Although, Gavin's not really lying at this stage yet. He did once, but hasn't gotten really into it yet.

The Opthamologist called today, and said he should see Gavin every couple of months, to keep track of how much his eyes are crossing and if they're getting better. (We noticed it in October, but once he started wearing glasses, they didn't cross quite as much. He's been wearing glasses and these little pieces of tape stuff on the inside of them, called intra-nasals, I think, for months, and his eyes have gotten better.) He had an MRI a few weeks ago just to make sure he didn't have a tumor or anything, and that was fine.