Building Trust

Just wanted to share some of the amazing progress we've seen in our kids in the last couple of days. When we started seeing some of the signs of RAD in Alex we did a little research and found an exercise that is supposed to help build trust. So, during snack time we've implemented this exercise which basically just entails some version of us feeding our kids (as opposed to them feeding themselves) and promoting physical contact during this "feeding." So, we each take a kid on our laps and then offer them food (mostly apples or bananas) that they eat while we hold them and talk to them. It's made an amazing difference in just a couple of days! Already, Alex is less frantic about grabbing the food for himself and he even tries to share his snack with us and with Ethan. The first time we tried it Alex was so squirmy and it was a real challenge to keep him from running off with the snacks but since then he really seems to enjoy this time with us. So, we are slowly building trust with our little guy and it is so rewarding to see even a little bit of progress.

It's also been interesting to learn some more about Ethan. We initially thought that because he was eight that he wouldn't want to be coddled too much or treated like a little kid but we were wrong. We started to notice that Ethan would act up everytime we started to overfocus on Alex and we realized that he's probably missed out on getting to be coddled and would probably eat it up. Bingo! Turns out our Ethan is a little cuddle-bug and we have made a concerted effort to make sure that one of us gives him some extra love if the other one is busy with Alex and it has made a world of difference. He just eats up every moment of focused attention from us. It so incredible to be learning about our kids personalities and to discover new things that make them just blossom.