Some Little T Firsts

We spent some fun quality time with our Little T at the local zoo. It's not very big and it's one you could easily walk through in about an hour without stopping to look at anything. This is the perfect kind of place for a grandparent to take a grandchild. There are lots of picnic tables, benches on which to sit, and play animals on which to climb. You can take a very leisurely walk around and feed or pet some of the animals, watch them play, stand in awe of them and so on.

It was beautiful yesterday and we figured it was the ideal place to visit. The first new thing was that Little T willingly put on a cap! This is nothing short of a miracle as it takes a great deal of effort to get him to try new things. If you are reading for the first time, I should say that our grandson is on the autistic spectrum and so things go very differently with him. He experiences language and sensations in ways that we don't understand because he's not able to tell us.

When the seasons change, it can be an issue: putting on a new autumn coat, wearing mittens or a hat, putting on boots, etc. Last winter, he finally began to wear a ski cap but has always adamantly refused to wear any other cap...until our trip. Could it be that this hat is particularly comfortable or that he likes it because it's white or is it that it says his name on the bill? We're not sure.

Is he too cool or what?



Little T stopped by the tapir pen and called our attention to it. He's begun to communicate with us this way more and more to our absolute joy and delight. Sometimes he'll use a sign, like 'bridge', and sometimes he'll point and try to make a sound.

The next time he's here, I'll have a clip of a tapir making a sound thanks to a commenter from the official world tapir day, which we just missed. What's the big deal with tapirs? They appear a lot in Little T's Go Diego Go video game. He has a microphone and is supposed to imitate the sound of a tapir. He'll hold the mike up to his lips and open his mouth but so far no sound has come out. Now he's got something to imitate.



Many times in the past, Little T has just ignored animals but now he's beginning to interact with them more and more. He runs with Buddy, pets our cats, and now he wanted to feed the monkeys! He even dared to stroke a pony at the zoo although I could tell he was really nervous about it. He did enjoy feeding the animals, giggling and smiling when they'd take the food and put it in their mouths.



Another thing Little T did was imitate the behavior of the animals. I wasn't sure what he was doing at first when I began taking these pictures but once I realized, I was very happy! It's telling me that T is in tune with what's going on around him more frequently!




And best of all ... as I was walking toward him from the ladies' room, Lttle T smiled and began to run to me and called out, "Nana, Nana!" I nearly fell down in a faint, it was so distinct! I swept him up and hugged him and nearly broke down and cried. We had such a wonderful morning!