I wish my son, Tristan, could talk. I want to understand how he processes life. It is one of the great mysteries of raising a non-verbal son.
Sometimes I can see in his eyes small glimpses oh how he thinks. I have to watch him very carefully to pick up on different facial expressions- usually very subtle.
We had a great family day with Tristan at Santa’s Village! What I love about raising Tristan is how he lives in the moment. I wish I had this gift naturally.
Tristan loves to watch YouTube on his tablet. It is always the same genre of videos. Videos with songs on Abc’s, colors, shapes, and counting! I am grateful for all the creative video content on these topics. He is developmentally a toddler/preschooler, and he thoroughly enjoys choosing his videos. Lately…he has discovered you can watch the same topics of videos in other languages!
I got a school news report that Tristan attended Prom on Friday! He rode in a limousine and ate dinner at a banquet hall. I never thought in a million years that he would be attending Prom. I love the fancy clothes he is in! I am glad he got to experience this event at his residential school with his peers. Just wanted to share.
Our son Tristan is 16 years old but developmentally a toddler in most areas. Some days I wonder why God gifted me with a forever toddler! Other days, I am grateful. I am thankful because toddlers are fairly easy to entertain. I know toddlers need many activities to occupy their day. However, they do not necessarily require a lot of money.
On Sunday we took our son, Tristan, to the Indianapolis Zoo. We love spending time with him and seeing what catches his attention. Having a non-verbal child means we watch the subtle cues of his face for expressions to discern if he likes something.
This is what he liked about the zoo…
All the locks on the gates! If you look at the picture, you can see him trying to figure out the lock. Never mind we were trying to point out the tiger!!! We couldn’t get him to look at the tiger.
The bird aviary experience gave us a good laugh. Tristan thought opening and closing the doors was the best part. We stepped in one door and had to wait for it to close completely before going into the center where the birds were. Then he raced through to the next door. We stopped him and tried to get him to notice the birds, but he only paused for a mere second. Once at the exit, we waited for that door to shut before we could exit the aviary.
The birds did not get his attention, only the challenge of entering and exiting the aviary!
There was a low- level shark touch pool. Tristan leaned over to touch the water. Then he sat on the edge Then he looked at Brian wanting approval to get in the water! Brian immediately said, “No let’s go find something else to look at.” Tristan didn’t care about the sharks in the water he thought it might be nice to swim.
Tristan’s top 3 favorite things at the zoo: locks, doors, and water!
Enjoy another healthy dose of laughter from our home!
The other day a conversation in my house went like this…
My seventeen-year-old son looked at the counter and saw some bags from my shopping trip.
He asked, “What are these for an Easter egg hunt?”
