Another Milestone

Adam lost his first tooth today while eating his chocolate ice-cream bar for dessert. Were it not for his wisdom in passing it to me -- this hard thing the size of a kernel of corn that I thought was a foreign object in the ice-cream, I would have never been able to store it in the silver-case-for-first-teeth someone gave me when Adam was born. I keep every first -- first pair of walking shoes, first outfit, first lock of cut hair and now, first tooth. Of course, I was excited as Adam lolled his tongue around the empty spot, then his finger -- the feeling so foreign. I showed him his lost tooth in the mirror and he smiled. We wrote a story about it and that the tooth fairy that leaves money under the pillow to buy candy (so he can lose more teeth), in the morning. Then, I pulled out the Brother label maker and we had a little bedtime conversation I wish to share. While Adam's verbal ability increases little by little, he has a difficult time with conversation and full sentences.

"Adam," I proceeded to ask, "what happened today?"

He typed, "I lost my tooh."

"How does mommy feel about that?" I asked.

"Mommy is proud," he wrote -- all on his own.

He then typed out some other "feelings" he has been learning on the computer such as sad, angry, ecstatic. I realized these were the feelings he is learning from this particular program to which I said, "that's right, we were talking about mommy's feelings and those are feelings too."

Adam had spent the day playing at his friend's house -- with Daniel and his brother Brandon. He had spent nearly five hours there and I had left him there to play. He did not wish to come home (nor did I blame him after four days being cooped up at home with the flu). So, of course I had to ask,

"How do you feel about Daniel?" to which he replied, "I like duno." I guess names are a little more difficult to spell.

I've been watching Adam play on his computer, read books since he has been nine months old, copy words from reading to paper (even though his hand-writing is still difficult to decipher). And all it has taken is a little concerted effort, some directed questions, a Brother label maker, and a child's electronic dictionary. Okay, and a literacy program, and a good inclusive school, and some great people who work with us every day.

For this mom anyway, having conversations no matter what the form, is just as exciting as the lost first tooth.