"like Bakey and Naten"

We've been working with Isaac for quite some time to go potty. He has probably gone 3 or 4 times, but mostly they've been after swimming and he's struggled to find a consistent pattern. Even so, we still ask him all the time, especially as we're changing his diaper.

Just the other day, I asked him again. He was willing to go to the toilet and I thought we would begin the normal routine of me helping him to sit on the toilet. That night, however, he sternly told me that he didn't want to sit down, but that he wanted to go potty "like bakey and naten". He watched his brothers urinate standing up and wanted to do it just like them. It was so cute! He really seems to be more aware of his surroundings -this is just one example.

In the middle

Isaac has a "mickey mouse" puzzle. He can put the puzzles (mickey, donald, pluto) together and has now learned that their eyes are actually little circles, that their heads are big circles, and that we have circles (eyes/heads) on our bodies as well.

In addition, Isaac has learned what "middle" means. He can consistently/reliably put one of the puzzles (whichever one he/I wants) in the middle, moving it from the "outside". It is another exciting concept he's learned.


Working with him to not scream whenever he doesn't get his way. He seems to know how to get a reaction out of us on this.

counting, asking, both - pick two

Isaac was able to sit in my lap and count (with my help) in the tadpole book. He has rapidly progressed from sitting by himself, miscounting, and loosely pointing, to sitting in my lap, being willing to allow me to guide his hand, and patiently pointing with me. He seems to be understanding the expectations of counting and reaching those expectations. He's getting closer to doing it by himself, but I still have to hold his hand and guide along with emphasizing the last tadpole. He can tell when we're done by the inflection in my voice; otherwise he would just keep going.

In the past, we've taught him how to ask for help, ie, "I want help". Then we tried teaching him to say how he needed help (ongoing with his first therapist and others), but it never really stuck. We were reading through a picture book where I say "where's the hat" or "where's the monkey".
On his own, last week, he all of the sudden had the ability to say "I need help to find the monkey". He was able to make the connection and append how he needed help. It was amazing.

Also, he has been able to say longer sentences. I would like to keep track of the length of his statements and quantify his progress. Today, for example, he constructed a sentence of 11 words.

Anne and I often hold two objects up and say "pick one". He has surprised us more than once and said "I want both of them", demonstrating the ability to go beyond the current concept.

In the midst of his progress, I notice that he still struggles on the simplist of exercises. For example, I've tried to work with him in choosing 2 puzzles out of his animal puzzle box (monkey, lion, alligator, hippo, etc). He can happily pick 1, but he struggles with the concept of not picking one, but two animal puzzles.