Initiating Playtime

I LOVE how Griffin is initiating playtime.  I'm just so proud of him!  Today, during lunch, he intentionally stuck his 2 soothing fingers into his mouth, made total eye contact with me, and I saw the corner of his mouth turn up into a smile.  I cut my crazy eyes at him and then he threw his hand out of his mouth and tried to put it in my hand.  Usually, when he puts his fingers in his mouth, I take it out and say "no, no, no!"... well, he enjoys that a lot, it seems, because he's considering that playing.  He did that a few times during lunch.  And let me add, he is playing during FOOD TIME.  This is huge!  He is happy when he eats now.  Huge victory.  So stinkin' proud of him.

So as far as food frustration goes, it seems that he only fusses when plates are removed from the table.  I intentionally scrapped the bottom of his fruit cup today and got no reaction from him.  I really want to try oatmeal again to see what kind of reaction I get.  I think that will tell the tale on how far he has come since that food seems to be a huge trigger for him.

Yesterday, after church, we took Griffin to Chilis for the first time on base!  He loved it!  He snacked on chips until our food arrived.  He turned around a few times to greet the other customers and they smiled and waved at him.  Very sweet.  When our food arrived, he ate a cheese quesadilla very calmly and signed 'more' for every bite.  The server kept coming by, asking if she could remove things from our table and finally I just had to tell her that Griffin will scream bloody murder to see the chip basket go and I think it's best to wait until we are gone.  She finally understood.  Might I add, the server also dumped honey mustard sauce on him and sat my bowl of soup right in front of him.  tsk tsk.  Griff didn't seem to mind, though.  Little G was on her best behavior, too!

I have been working with Griffin on signing 'please'.  He has caught on like a champ!  I took food out of the equation and started making him sign please before each song we would sing together.  He takes my hands and uses them to do the motion of the song he wants to do.  His choices are Itsy Bitsy Spider, his orphanage song, Griffity Dut-ka, or Rock Rock Rock the Griffin.  He cycles through all of these all on his own and when he chooses, I'll say something like, "oh, Griffin wants to do Rock the Griffin, please?" and then he will sign 'please'.  And away we go.  He's so smart!  I think that we have only spent a total of around 1 hour of time across 3 days or so on learning this new sign. 

Little G is on the mend.  I am still unsure if she has had a stomach virus.  If so, it wasn't a bad one at all, but her appetite is just gone.   For about 4 days, Griff ran a low grade fever but nothing ever presented itself.  Praying that my littles get well soon!

Love and Hugs!