The Other Benefits of Therapy

When we went to Tyler's first OT appointment, Stephanie (the therapist) taught Tyler to squish peas with his finger. And then we played with pieces of an apple.

Tyler doesn't like anything that squishes or sticks to his hand. So he doesn't really like peas. At the time, he didn't like apples either. I assume he doesn't like the wet cold feeling.

At his second appointment, he played very well with the apple. And when Stephanie asked him to "Kiss the apple," he obligingly made little kissing noises by smacking his tongue against the top of his mouth but he didn't put the apple anywhere near his mouth.

A little embarrassed, I explained that he once mimicked me when I made kissing noises at him.

Brian and I loved that he would sort of blow us kisses, so we went with it. We taught him that was a "kiss."

"Can I have kisses?" I'd ask. "Give Daddy kisses," I'd say. He'd grin and *smack, smack, smack* at us.

Well as soon as we got home from therapy, I started teaching Tyler to give a "real kiss." I would kiss his toy and say "real kiss." And then I'd say, "Tyler's turn! Give it a real kiss." And I'd push the toy to his mouth.

When Brian got home that night, he got a real (slobbery) kiss on his cheek.

This evening, when we were playing with peas (our OT homework), I was teaching Tyler to brush off the "pea crumbs" that stuck to his hand. He still felt some imaginary evil pea juice on his finger and he held it out for me to clean it off.

I just kissed his finger and then put my finger to his lips for a kiss.

He held out his finger again, and I puckered up again and leaned forward.

Instead of pressing his finger to my lips, he put a chubby little hand on each side of my face and pulled me forward. He leaned as far forward as the high chair tray would allow and he pressed his sweet little open mouth against my lips.

It was the best kiss ever, except that I got a little pea juice in my ear!