Progress.

When I was in high school, my family started babysitting for a little baby named Megan; she was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen, and she quickly became my "little sister." I did all those sisterly things, like teaching her how to mosh (ah, those were the days!). I will always remember sitting in the back seat of our car when she was about 4 years old. I was probably a senior in high school or freshman in college. She turned to me out of the blue and said:

Mailee- what is "progress"?

Uhhhhhh.... I couldn't explain it. What a little smarty pants! That conversation came to mind tonight all these years later, as I sat watching my four-year-old (almost five!) eating cornbread. That's right. He was EATING CORNBREAD! THAT is "progress." In fact, he's done some pretty amazing things in the last few days. After an urgent care nurse diagnosed bronchitis on Saturday, he was given a prescription for a antibiotic in pill form. She thought we could crush it up and slip it in ice cream. I appreciated that she listened to me when I explained that Moses DOES NOT take medicine, but I could tell she thought I was just being a wimpy parent. So I kinda wanted to punch her.... But ANYWAY. You can't sneak things like that past a child with sensory issues. It's like the princess and the pea. It doesn't matter how minute the amount of medicine, he can taste it, and it tastes more extreme to him than it does to us. I was SO proud of him. He tried to take the pill three different ways: crushed in pudding, whole with milk, and crushed in milk with sugar. He tried so hard, but he just couldn't do it. He cried, "It BURNS!" The fact that he tried WILLINGLY is HUGE progress. Thankfully, we have a physician assistant in the family. She called in a different prescription that night for a liquid that tastes MUCH better. Now, he has NEVER willingly taken a liquid medicine. But we built it up for several hours, telling him how much better it was going to taste than the crushed pill. And for the first time in his life, he TOOK MEDICINE. He said, "I wanted to cry, but I didn't!" AH! Break my heart! He's taken it willingly now three days in a row. What a trooper! In the last couple of days, he has also put a green bean in his mouth (and spit it out), and taken a bite of grilled cheese (and spit it out). We will work up to chewing! I am SO PROUD of him. It is so good to see "progress." Praying that this opens a new world for him! (PS- totally annoyed that blogger isn't putting any of my paragraph breaks in... GRRR! Is there a trick to that or something?!)