The Alligator Story

It seems when you have a child with special needs you look at everything they say or do as an accomplishment, or mastering a skill, or reaching some milestone ... things that you wouldn't notice otherwise. Things that you would just take for granted as happening in the natural progression of growing up.

Such was the case the other day when Kayla and I were driving back home from the store.

Publix always has balloons available for the kids with a clip on the end to keep them weighted down. Kayla was playing with the clip, making it open and close (fine motor skills! strengthening her finger grip!) when she said "chomp chomp" (imaginary play!) and continued with "The alligator ate you up mommy!" (storytelling!)

I said, "It did?! Oh no! If the alligator ate me up then who is driving the van?" She told me "no one." (Good awareness about what just happened in the story!)

I continued the conversation with, "That's not good. If no one is driving the van then it might crash."

I really don't think I was expecting an answer from her; at least not some logical answer that would follow that train of thought.

She responded with, "Chomp chomp! The alligator ate the van."

Me thinking to myself: great logic there! If there alligator just eats the van then the van can't crash! Analyzing! Thought-processing skills! Following through with a made-up story! Logic! Drawing a conclusion!

These are the things in my day that make me smile.