"I lo ooo" and other progress

Julianne had a good birthday. Tonight as I was tucking her into her crib I slowly said "I love you" just like I do many times a day and every night. She always giggles and sometimes moves her tongue like she might make the "l" sound that we work on every day. Tonight she said it though! She said "I lo ooo" with the biggest smile on her face. She knew I'd be thrilled and she was very proud. To say that I was happy would be a very large understatement.

I went to get Jacob ready for bed and he was dry. That means that he didn't pee his pants all day today! That is huge progress. He's been trained for bowel movements for quite some time (except for a few times that he's done it just to be mean), but has refused to not pee in his diaper. He even gave me five! He as made eye contact several times today and willingly let me hold him two nights in a row.

* For those who don't know Jacob is 7 years old. He was diagnosed with autism before he came to us, but I'm not even sure if he has that. He has Reactive Attachment Disorder. I have kids with both and he is definitely RAD. He use to throw some major tantrums, but when he realized that I ignore tantrums he decided to be a "selective mute". I mean for a RAD kid, if you can't control the world with words then surely you can without them right?? He was non potty trained and in an autism facility when he came. We've made a lot of progress but we started at below zero. He had no skills and a lot of bad behaviors. God is good though and we are excited to see what He is going to do with Jacob! *

There were other great things today and some rough moments as well. Those were two of the most exciting and I am already looking forward to tomorrow. I think I'll get some sleep first though!