This past week we have experienced some ‘Did that really just happen moments’ with Ethan.  The funny thing is they weren’t moments that we had been working towards, they were small steps, steps that Little E initiated.

The Chinese Takeaway

On Sunday night we decided that we would have a Chinese takeaway for dinner. Being the fussy eater that Ethan is we would normally buy him chips, but he has even started turning his nose up at non McDonald’s chips. So we didn’t bother ordering him anything extra knowing that we could make beans on toast for him as a last resort.

There was a bit of a mix up with the order meaning Darren had to go back to the restaurant. This meant I decided to try Little E with prawn crackers to keep her going until the dinner was complete.

I offered Ethan a cracker and he turned his nose up at it as expected, Little E didn’t and happily took bites out of the crackers. It turned into a little game where she would walk over to me, take a bite and then go back to her toys. Soon Ethan joined in, taking bites of the crackers and running away. My children created a relay of taking bites and running around the room. Between them they ended up eating quite a few of the crackers.

The trying new food didn’t stop there.

We always plate up Ethan a dinner, even if we know it won’t be touched but this time Ethan tried the sweet and sour chicken without any complaints. This really was a step forward for him all thanks to Little E. We hope that the next time we have a takeaway Ethan will be willing to eat the same as us again.

The Trumpet

Ethan has a toy trumpet, it plays music when you press the buttons but it also makes a noise if you blow into the mouthpiece. Ethan has never been able to get the mouthpiece to work, it wasn’t that long ago that he was finally able to blow out the candles on his birthday cake.

We have tried, and showed him many times how to make the sound but he just couldn’t work it out. It ended up causing more stress than was necessary.

Little E has discovered this toy trumpet and we have been showing her how to blow into the mouthpiece to make a noise. Well yesterday she got it to work, she made the trumpet squeak. Lots of cheers and clapping followed and to my delight Ethan picked up the trumpet to have a go. He only got it to make a noise and then both Little E and Ethan took it in turns to make the noise. Isn’t it funny how we have tried to teach him this for years and a sibling can teach him this skill in a few moments!

Spelling His Name

Ethan has been singing his own version of Tommy Thumb for a while. He has found different videos and versions on you tube but now uses our names, our full names too. Little E started to hum this tune today so when Ethan got home from school we told him. We then sung the song with our names for him.

After this an amazing thing happened, Ethan stood up and spelt out his name. We couldn’t believe what we were hearing. He also tried to spell out our names, we had to help him and I really need to learn my phonics!

Three very special moments over the past week.