Will is at home in Calgary

Willy is loving Calgary! I am sure that if Will had the words, he would tell us that he is loving life out here. He is a happy little boy. Still into a lot of mischief, don't get me wrong, but the tantrums have really been reduced. One main reason for that could be the fact that we moved all of the televisions out of his reach so they could no longer be the object of his wrath. This means no more bruises on the back of his hand from smacking the tv screens. Thank goodness.. it was painful to watch.

When we first arrived and unpacked Will's fuzzy Winnie the Pooh blanket from a box, he clung on to that thing like he was Linus. It really was adorable, but it caused a few little fits when we would make him leave it behind before going outside, or into the therapy room. He seems to like the feel of its softness and we'll often catch him stroking it against his cheek. But I have noticed in the past week or so that he doesn't seem to care about it as much anymore, although he does like to sleep with it.

Linus and his blanket

Will seems to love every minute of being with Diane in the therapy room. Not only does he love the reinforcers and the one on one time, but he loves the toys that he has rediscovered since they've all been unpacked. The beauty of this new house is that we have lots and lots of storage space. In particular, we have a closet in our basement that is just perfect to store all of the kids' toys and games. The kids must think that they are in a toy shop because never before have their things been so readily available and not stored up in bins and buried in overstuffed toy boxes.

Will won't let me take a picture without sticking his face in the lens

Will seems to be making great gains and to think that this is happening over a summer without any formalized therapy, it makes me very excited to see what is coming next! Will is really coming along in his imitation skills. This is a skill that is very important (obviously) to assist the boys in learning new skills and especially acquiring speech. One particular example of this is an interaction between Diane and Will. He LOVES to be tickled and often bumps his body against you to request to be tickled again and again. Diane noticed that he has learned how to make the "t" sound so she wanted to teach Will to say the "t" sound as a request for "tickle". By making the sound, she would also point to her teeth to teach Will where the sound comes from. The plan backfired a little, but it proved that Will understands. He now points to his teeth whenever he wants to be tickled. :) One area where Will is not doing so well, is his eating habits. I'm pretty sure it is leaning towards more of a behavioural problem (or at least, it's a choice that he's consciously making) as opposed to sensory aversions to foods, but he is not eating well at all. We were so excited a few weeks ago because he started eating hot dogs (excited because he had entered the meat group.. if you can call hot dogs meat), but now he'll only eat the skin off the wiener. BUT just the other night he ate 4 whole bites of a sirloin burger, so we're happy that he's trying a few new things and we'll try to expand on that. He still loves his nutrigrain bars though. Will is doing a great job of drinking out of a cup at the table. Unfortunately, he will ONLY drink water out of it (not his milk) and he still will not take any juice at all. He's also started to enjoy the habit of dumping the last sip of water on his lap before declaring it finished. He'll never change. You can always name every food item Will has eaten all day by reading the signs from his messy clothes.

All in all, he's doing great. We believe more than ever that we made the right choice to come out here for the boys. Soon, I believe, we'll have great accomplishments to share with you!

Will connecting with Lisa (mom to Owen and Ella)