Joshua Wants to Play!!!!!!

Joshua plays Candyland with Mom

Anyone who knows about Autism knows that children with Autism have to be taught how to play.
I know it seems ridiculous, but it is not natural in them.
We have been working with Joshua for years trying to teach him how to play appropriately.
Usually he just uses toys to visually stim.
Being almost 10 I figured it didn't really matter anymore.
Kids don't really play with toys anyways at this age and plus I just wanted him to be happy and playing with toys or games did not make Joshua happy.
Well the last 2 weeks this boy has surprised me.
I knew they played board games at school sometimes to work on social skills, taking turns, appropriate play, etc.
Usually Joshua turns us down if we try to include him in our games.
Sometimes he will play on the Wii or computer, but rarely.
I was a bit surprised when I saw Joshua rummaging through the game cupboards.
I thought he might be pulling out a game to look at.
You can imagine my surprise when he asked me to play Candyland.
It was AWESOME!
And he was the best sport when I won.
Then he wanted to include Kate and her friend.
It was so hard for him to ask them and he was so nervous to even ask his own sister.
This was a new thing for him.
I had to whisper the words to him.
Kate kindly told him that her and Macy were playing pet shops, but that she would play with him later.
That night they played one game of Mancula.
It was just so neat to see him play appropriately.
It was another little miracle.

Joshua and Jacob playing Toy Story

Then last night I went to check in on the boys during their quiet time.
Jacob usually is reading and Joshua is usually stimming with clicker or some other stick toy.
Well these 2 boys were playing Toy Story.
Pretend Playing!!!!!!!
I was shocked.
Joshua has been watching the Toy Story series again and I guess he started acting out the story and Jacob decided to join him.
But the really cool thing was that he wasn't just repeated the movie lines, they were making up their own story with the characters.
It just made me so happy to see him so happy.
It only lasted about 20 minutes, but that is like hours for Joshua's attention span.
This boy just keeps surprising us.
He is taking his own time, but he is determined to follow the path and learn what all kids learn.
Joshua is an amazing boy!
He is so patient with his typical family who sometimes aren't as patient with him as we should be.
He is such a light in our family and teaches us all how to be like the Savior and to truly love and accept others.
This year just keeps getting better and better for our big boy Joshua.
(I'm not allowed to call him little or cute anymore.)

*After watching Toy Story 3 the other day Joshua came up to me and said with a frown on his face-
"Mom we are growing up too fast."
I started frowning too.
My little boy has grown from 3 to 9 way too fast.
We talked about all the fun he had when he was little and all the fun things he gets to do now that he is  a bigger kid.
That made the frown and puzzled look go away--- at least for the moment.