Peanuts and Straws
I am so excited. It has been about 8 months or a bit longer since Daniel gave up the bottle. Well gave up is a bit of a lax saying but I will use that. In my post The Bottle-My Nemesis it explains how much we had to work to get off the bottle. During all of this time I have been trying to teach Daniel how to drink from a real straw. He has not been able to comprehend how to suck up, the only thing he has been doing for all of these months is blowing bubbles. Now blowing bubbles in itself is very good and I have praised him for this accomplishment but since his sensory issues have not made it possible for him to drink from a normal cup, we have had to continue the Honey Bear cup. (I put the link of where we found them so you could see a picture.) The Honey Bear cup is squeezable and allows the child to be in control of the amount of fluid that they retrieve into their mouth. The straw is a flexible clear plastic tubing like instrument. It looks much like the tubing for ice makers on refrigerators. The secret is ensuring to keep the seal between the straw and the hole on the lid.
So what caused Daniel to finally be able to drink from a regular straw?
I cannot answer that question. He makes huge strides all of the sudden and they always come after several weeks of not so good times. Yes, indeed since the first of July Daniel has been having some rough days and he has gotten very frustrated on several occasions. Now when he starts to have a rough time I just continue to remind myself that he always has a big breakthrough with something after wards. The reason I have to remind myself is because when he starts to do behavior that he has done in the past I get a little scared. I see all of his progress and then to have him seem to go backwards for a time puts a little doubt in my mind. It’s my own issue, it throws me. I do the same thing with everyone, with David if he is slightly out of character, I begin to ask questions. What is wrong with you? Why are you doing that? What is going on?
I can’t help it.
I do the same thing with Daniel. If he begins to act differently, I begin to have all of these questions flood my mind and then begin to fear that I have not done enough for him. I have gotten a lot better with this but the thoughts and doubts still come, they just don’t last as long. I focus my energy on observing our current situations and if there have been any changes. I have learned to support Daniel through the situations and wait. This time his frustrations were not everyday, they were off and on. They only lasted for short periods of time. What is funny is that during these times I feel this need to push him to try new things too, maybe because the pattern has been that he does something major while he is having these hard times. The day he drink from the straw he had a couple of moments that day. However, it did not stop him from playing with Ariel and Joshua.
He plopped right down in the middle of them playing and joined right in.
Either Ariel or Joshua had an extra cup on the floor and Daniel was playing with it. I said “Hey, Daniel why don’t you take a drink?” He started laughing and Ariel said “Yeah, Daniel take a drink.” I said “Daniel watch Ariel do it then you do it.” Ariel showed him, which she has done time and time again, but this time he did it. I started jumping up and down and saying “Yea! You did it, Daniel you did it!” Everyone joined in and he was so excited. He kept drinking and then said “I did it! I did it!” He has now given up the Honey Bear cup and is drinking from a straw cup. Not only did he do that but at the store the other day, Ariel insisted on getting peanuts….in the shells.
Let me just tell you, I do not like peanuts to begin with but in the shell is even worse!
We got them because she doesn’t usually ask for specific food items and I decided I could sacrifice shelling these darn peanuts for my kids. I guess. 
We got home and I put a bunch of peanuts on the table and we all worked on trying to shell these nuts, Daniel wanted some too. He tried to crack the shells but was having a bit of a hard time. He asked me to do it and as I opened them he ate them. He loves them! They all do. And now for the past three days I have been shelling peanuts and thinking to myself “How am I going to get these guys to eat peanuts already shelled?” I think I have a plan, I can use the lack of patience in 4 and 5 year old to work in my favor, I hope. It is all worth it though, Daniel trying new things and Ariel and Joshua having fun. The peanuts are actually a great family time kind of thing.
We all sit at the table and talk while we work on those peanuts.
I love it when my kids surprise me with their accomplishments and help me to break out of my own mode. The straw and peanuts are two other examples of how I never know what they will try next or what is possible. They remind me that we should always try new things and challenge ourselves always. It is very easy for me to challenge our kids and think of new things for them but they help to remind me that I need to do that for myself as well. Challenge my thinking, my molds, the foods I eat, and the places I go. I find it very easy to stay in my secluded world, eating the same thing everyday, doing the same things and forgetting that there is this whole huge world out there for all of us to explore. I go through explore spurts myself, sometimes I want to consume everything I can about this world we live in and other times I never want to leave the screen of my computer.
It is a good time for exploring and when I feel I have explored too much, I will come back to my screen.
