I just had an amazing 2 hour Son-Rise therapy session with Ka’eo, Jr. What’s even more incredible is the session started with him crying his heart out when Mommy left the room. When he cried I just loved and accepted him and let him know it was okay to cry and Daddy was right
there when he was ready. He cried for about a minute or so, then he started to play with his marble game.
As I enthusiastically joined him in his marble game, his frown grew to a smile and he started giggling as we played with his “kick ball”(marble game). After he was done with his marbles, he led me to the closet and asked me to “open please” so I could take out his Mr. Potato Head set. We played with all the different eyes, ears, noses, mouths, as I labeled “big”& “small” for him. He actually said “big”with me a few times.
I started sorting the pieces into like parts, ears together, arms together, shoes together, etc. He looked at me and, almost as if to show me who’s room it was, he threw everything up in the air, mixing all my sorted piles around, pieces flying every which way. I celebrated his act of dominance. “Yey Ka’eo! It’s popping like popcorn! Pop! Pop! Pop!” He smiled and continued to toss pieces in the air as I kept feeding him more and more pieces to pop up like popcorn.
He said, “Pop! Pop!” with approval of our newly changed game. Then he smiled and twirled some plastic teeth between his fingers. I relaxed and joined him by twirling a nose or two. He looked down and grabbed the big moustache and searched the pile before picking up the small moustache. Was he matching?
Next he grabbed a small red tongue and looked at me, “help me”. I was astonished. I looked down to see he was indicating he wanted me to help him find the other tongue.
“Okay, you want this one?” as I handed him the pink tongue.
“This one,” he said as he gladly took the matching piece. Not a few moments later he picked up the small set of teeth and matched it with the bid set of teeth.
He was matching! Only a few minutes earlier I was trying to show him how to match and it seemed he was ignoring me. So awesome! He then decided to show me that he could take his marbles and send them rolling and twisting down his slide. I said, “woo hoo! That looks like fun!” and positioned myself at the end of the slide so the marbles would roll down the slide, across the carpet, and up against my leg. He rolled the marbles down the slide and I gathered them up for him. We created a new game!
This went on for 15 minutes or longer and by the end of it, he would roll the marbles down the slide, I would gather them and ask, “again Ka’eo?” To which he would reply, “again!”and come and pick them out of my hands. After he filled his hands with marbles, I asked him, “where’s my kiss?”he said, “kiss” and give me a sweet peck before return to the top of the slide to make his next roll. I swear I must have gotten 15 or more sweet kisses this way. What a game!
After the first hour, Mommy brought his favorite dish to the door, turkey bacon and brown rice, yummy! I pulled out his chair and asked him to “sit down please” to which he eagerly complied while grabbing some bacon bits and devouring them. I looked at the plate and saw that Mommy had given us a 3 inch branch of cooked broccoli. “Oh my, this is going to be a challenge.” I thought to myself. So I cut the broccoli up into little pieces and gave him a few pieces with each big bite of bacon and rice. Lo and behold he ate the entire meal! All the broccoli, the mountain of brown rice, his juice with supplements, and of course his crispity crunchity bacon! Woo hoo again for team Griffin!
Ka’eo danced around the room for a while, singing Old McDonald, celebrating his delicious feast. He then pulled me over to his bookshelf and said, “up please!”
“Oh, okay Ka’eo, let’s go up, up, up!” I said with excitement.
“I want book.” He said as he reached up toward his Little People book. We pulled it down off the bookshelf and he started to flip the pages with great interest. I pointed at one of the pages and he pushed my hand away.
“Okay, no problem Buddy. I’ll read my book too.” So I grabbed my fish book and read next to
him.
This was a regular occurrence because Ka’eo Jr has never let anyone read his book with him, except Mommy. I remember that morning talking to Jackie and telling her about the fact that he never lets me read with him. She said just that morning they were reading a book together and he was telling her who Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird and Zoey were. She said, “next time he gets a book out, take a pillow of the bed, lay down with your book and invite him to read with you…you never know!”
Remembering her words of wisdom, I slid a pillow off his bed, laid down next to him and started reading my fish book. Amazingly as if by habit, he left his book and laid down right next to me on the pillow and started to look at my fish book with me. He was laying down and reading a book with me for the first time in his life!!! I was so excited, I thanked him for reading with me and I started to flip the pages as he pointed at the different fish (he pointed!). I said, “see there’s Max Ka’eo, he’s looking for his friend. Purple fish. Yellow fish. Max the fish.”
In agreement he then said, “fish. Hello. Max.” Oh….My….God!!!! Really? I couldn’t believe it!
I was so happy I couldn’t stand it! Three E’s??? Oh yeah, I was definitely feeling the Energy, Excitement, and Enthusiasm today Baby! After about 3 minutes, he got up and started looking at his book again, but what a three minutes it was! Yee hee!
I looked up on the shelf and realized there were some new fuzzy toy balls that Mommy said he played that morning with her. I took them out of their bag and showed them to Ka’eo. He jumped up and grabbed them out of my hands and ran to his slide. “Oh, cool! Let’s play our game Ka’eo!” I said. He started to roll the new sillies down the slide and I gathered them up for him. We fell right back into our routine of “Again please.” Gather the balls. “Kiss Daddy” Sweet kisses. “Ready, set, go!” Down the slide they go! He was smiling and laughing as we played this game for more than 10 minutes together.
We just hung out and enjoyed each other’s company for more than 2 hours today. It was so much fun. I had to write about it. This week Ka’eo had more than 22 hours of 1-on-1 playroom time! Our best week yet! We are charging forward with our Son-Rise Program and Ka’eo Jr continues to show us its exceptional effectiveness.
It seems like there’s a new miracle everyday in our house. We are so blessed! Thank you Lord for my wife and little boys, for Ka’eo’s autism, and for Son-Rise :o)
there when he was ready. He cried for about a minute or so, then he started to play with his marble game.
As I enthusiastically joined him in his marble game, his frown grew to a smile and he started giggling as we played with his “kick ball”(marble game). After he was done with his marbles, he led me to the closet and asked me to “open please” so I could take out his Mr. Potato Head set. We played with all the different eyes, ears, noses, mouths, as I labeled “big”& “small” for him. He actually said “big”with me a few times.
I started sorting the pieces into like parts, ears together, arms together, shoes together, etc. He looked at me and, almost as if to show me who’s room it was, he threw everything up in the air, mixing all my sorted piles around, pieces flying every which way. I celebrated his act of dominance. “Yey Ka’eo! It’s popping like popcorn! Pop! Pop! Pop!” He smiled and continued to toss pieces in the air as I kept feeding him more and more pieces to pop up like popcorn.
He said, “Pop! Pop!” with approval of our newly changed game. Then he smiled and twirled some plastic teeth between his fingers. I relaxed and joined him by twirling a nose or two. He looked down and grabbed the big moustache and searched the pile before picking up the small moustache. Was he matching?
Next he grabbed a small red tongue and looked at me, “help me”. I was astonished. I looked down to see he was indicating he wanted me to help him find the other tongue.
“Okay, you want this one?” as I handed him the pink tongue.
“This one,” he said as he gladly took the matching piece. Not a few moments later he picked up the small set of teeth and matched it with the bid set of teeth.
He was matching! Only a few minutes earlier I was trying to show him how to match and it seemed he was ignoring me. So awesome! He then decided to show me that he could take his marbles and send them rolling and twisting down his slide. I said, “woo hoo! That looks like fun!” and positioned myself at the end of the slide so the marbles would roll down the slide, across the carpet, and up against my leg. He rolled the marbles down the slide and I gathered them up for him. We created a new game!
This went on for 15 minutes or longer and by the end of it, he would roll the marbles down the slide, I would gather them and ask, “again Ka’eo?” To which he would reply, “again!”and come and pick them out of my hands. After he filled his hands with marbles, I asked him, “where’s my kiss?”he said, “kiss” and give me a sweet peck before return to the top of the slide to make his next roll. I swear I must have gotten 15 or more sweet kisses this way. What a game!
After the first hour, Mommy brought his favorite dish to the door, turkey bacon and brown rice, yummy! I pulled out his chair and asked him to “sit down please” to which he eagerly complied while grabbing some bacon bits and devouring them. I looked at the plate and saw that Mommy had given us a 3 inch branch of cooked broccoli. “Oh my, this is going to be a challenge.” I thought to myself. So I cut the broccoli up into little pieces and gave him a few pieces with each big bite of bacon and rice. Lo and behold he ate the entire meal! All the broccoli, the mountain of brown rice, his juice with supplements, and of course his crispity crunchity bacon! Woo hoo again for team Griffin!
Ka’eo danced around the room for a while, singing Old McDonald, celebrating his delicious feast. He then pulled me over to his bookshelf and said, “up please!”
“Oh, okay Ka’eo, let’s go up, up, up!” I said with excitement.
“I want book.” He said as he reached up toward his Little People book. We pulled it down off the bookshelf and he started to flip the pages with great interest. I pointed at one of the pages and he pushed my hand away.
“Okay, no problem Buddy. I’ll read my book too.” So I grabbed my fish book and read next to
him.
This was a regular occurrence because Ka’eo Jr has never let anyone read his book with him, except Mommy. I remember that morning talking to Jackie and telling her about the fact that he never lets me read with him. She said just that morning they were reading a book together and he was telling her who Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird and Zoey were. She said, “next time he gets a book out, take a pillow of the bed, lay down with your book and invite him to read with you…you never know!”
Remembering her words of wisdom, I slid a pillow off his bed, laid down next to him and started reading my fish book. Amazingly as if by habit, he left his book and laid down right next to me on the pillow and started to look at my fish book with me. He was laying down and reading a book with me for the first time in his life!!! I was so excited, I thanked him for reading with me and I started to flip the pages as he pointed at the different fish (he pointed!). I said, “see there’s Max Ka’eo, he’s looking for his friend. Purple fish. Yellow fish. Max the fish.”
In agreement he then said, “fish. Hello. Max.” Oh….My….God!!!! Really? I couldn’t believe it!
I was so happy I couldn’t stand it! Three E’s??? Oh yeah, I was definitely feeling the Energy, Excitement, and Enthusiasm today Baby! After about 3 minutes, he got up and started looking at his book again, but what a three minutes it was! Yee hee!
I looked up on the shelf and realized there were some new fuzzy toy balls that Mommy said he played that morning with her. I took them out of their bag and showed them to Ka’eo. He jumped up and grabbed them out of my hands and ran to his slide. “Oh, cool! Let’s play our game Ka’eo!” I said. He started to roll the new sillies down the slide and I gathered them up for him. We fell right back into our routine of “Again please.” Gather the balls. “Kiss Daddy” Sweet kisses. “Ready, set, go!” Down the slide they go! He was smiling and laughing as we played this game for more than 10 minutes together.
We just hung out and enjoyed each other’s company for more than 2 hours today. It was so much fun. I had to write about it. This week Ka’eo had more than 22 hours of 1-on-1 playroom time! Our best week yet! We are charging forward with our Son-Rise Program and Ka’eo Jr continues to show us its exceptional effectiveness.
It seems like there’s a new miracle everyday in our house. We are so blessed! Thank you Lord for my wife and little boys, for Ka’eo’s autism, and for Son-Rise :o)
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