Got Cake??

After the huge surprise Gabe gave us for his birthday yesterday, we were bursting at the seems to share it. Gabe's speech therapist through Early Intervention called to schedule his next appointment, so I told her. She was super excited. Then I messaged his private speech therapist Mrs. Kim and told her. She was super excited too. It just so happened that he was scheduled for a session with her this morning, so she suggested bringing cake to see if he would repeat his request for cake. Gabe is well known for making his accomplishments in private. He will do things when no one is around but us, and they simply have to take our word that it happened. Not today! We took some cake with us to his appointment and sat it on Mrs. Kim's desk. The session was going along. Gabe was playing with toys, which is also a pretty big deal! He was interacting. We could see he was eyeing the cake but even with prompting he was staying quiet about it. Then Mike suggested I get some on the spoon and offer it to him. He opened his little mouth up and I sat there repeating 'cake' to him, holding the spoon in line with my mouth so as to direct his sight to my mouth and what I was saying. He sat there pitifully, mouth open waiting for me to feed it to him. Yes, I caved. The second attempt I held out a little longer before giving in to him. The third time, we could see the shape of the word forming on his lips. Then he said 'cake'.  :)  After hugs and kisses from Mrs. Kim and much praise, he was confident and said 'cake' a few more times. He actually decided to show off and said 'Mama', 'Dada', 'Ickey' (Mickey Mouse), 'blank' (blanket) and 'bye bye'. He also said and signed his own version of 'more' to ask for more cake. In his version, Gabe uses his right hand to tap half of the sign (sometimes just one or two fingers of it) on his table instead of both hands together. Gabe gave hugs and engaged in functional play and seemed to really enjoy it. Today was another blessing.
Gabe's third year is already proving to be exciting, eventful and productive, and we are only two days in! We are so thankful for this gift God gave us. It is such a blessing to be hearing Gabe's little voice more and more every day. We are thankful for all the precious people that God has given us to love and support Gabe and our family. We know that none of this would be possible without God and his provision in our lives. We are humbled and thankful that He is answering our prayers.