Goodbyes

We had our last speech therapy session yesterday at the library. We were supposed to participate in a library class, but Ben wanted nothing to do with it and tantrummed for about 10 minutes. In his defense, the class was in the room we go to every Friday morning to play with TRAINS. He was expecting trains. He got puppets. As fun as the puppets looked, they certainly did not interest Ben so we ended up back upstairs in the children's library doing puzzles.

He was super cute and very well spoken during the tantrum. Through his hysterical tears and thrashing about on the floor he made it very clear what he wanted. "No! No play puppets. Play trains. Come on, Mom. Open the door (the trains are stored in a closed that he knows very well as he participates in the "clean up" every Friday). It's locked, Mom! Open it. Open it, pleeeeeeeeease!!"

It was actually pretty emotional to say goodbye to the therapist. Ben, obviously, had no clue he would never see her again, but I knew, and I also know how much she means to Ben and how excited he gets when he knows she is coming over. I am curious to see if he will ask for her next week or down the line.

I also know how much she adores Ben - she mentioned on many occasions how much she looked forward to the sessions with him and after 20 years of doing this kind of work she said she never laughed as much as she does in a session with Ben (he has quite the funny bone).

So we close out another chapter in our lives. Ben has not only achieved the goals we set out for him at the beginning of the sessions, he has far surpassed them and excelled in so many ways with his communication. Thank you, Miss Kathy for all that you did. We will miss you.