Long time, lots of news!

Blogging after a really long gap.
A lot has been happening.

1. Aditya's Son Rise program now consistently going at 15-20 hours per week
2. Aditya's Aaji-Ajoba (grandparents) are here. Love and acceptance are built in when God makes grandparents:-)
On a serious note, grandpa did some training with me over the last few days and has begun Son-Rising with Aditya whenever he is outside of the playroom
3. Aditya's Mom did her Startup training this week at the Option Institute in Sheffield, MA. Through this week Aditya questioned whether his Mom would really come back, and on answering YES he would question if Mom would come back or some other woman. (Wow! This guy's really showing signs he will become a detective agent!) However once he met her at the airport he did not want to leave her! He said "I love you" at least a couple of times, and on another occasion said: "Look at me Mom". That's right. Aditya asked for eye contact. Oh, and he also loved the harmonica (mouth organ) that Mom got for him from the Option Institute.
4. Being a Stay-at-Home Dad (while Mom was away) was fun and at the same time a realization of the challenges my wonderful wife has every day! Nevertheless, I enjoyed every minute I spent with the twins and in doing the chores. I also spent 6 sweet hours in the playroom with Aditya.
5. Based on feedback received by Mom at the startup, for the last 3 days of this week we tried to give Aditya 4 to 6 hours at a stretch in the play room rather than a couple of hours here and there. (You must boil eggs for 10 minutes at a stretch, you cannot really do it for 5 minutes now and 5 minutes later.) I believe this is already working well. As a side effect (no complaints by the way:-) Aditya eats voraciously after and between these sessions, instead of mostly talking and hardly eating which he did when he was doing Son Rise "once in a while".
6. One of the most significant accomplishments in terms of flexibility: this week Aditya and I played a game where initially he said things like "One man many men, one woman many women, one cup many cups". I joined him, and so it became the usual Son Rise conversation.
A little later, he started twisting words e.g. "One boy many BAY, one toy many TAY". I joined enthusiastically by saying things like "one box many BAKES and one water many WOOTER". (Yeah right, grammar goes out the window. At this stage for him learning flexibility is INFINITELY more important than learning grammar.) I was pleasantly surprised to see that he thoroughly enjoyed my expansions, laughed hysterically, and went on to twist more words e.g. "One dog many DEG". He has lately started allowing us to say jokes but mostly jokes that he already knows about, as he would get upset in the end of a new joke. (Why? Because a joke usually ends with a mild shock when something unexpected happens, but when you have autism you HATE anything unexpected.) On that background we are excited to note that he now not only allows but even enjoys my twisting words the way I want, mostly in unexpected ways!
7. We wished our wonderful volunteer Krishna a Happy Birthday! Aditya spoke to him in a way much more typical than he does usually with him. No kidding, Krishna actually mistook him for his twin sister in the beginning of that call.
8. Son Rise teachers advised us that Aditya's repetitive questioning is an ISM but the WHY that usually follows is a green light. This is great, because this gives us lots of opportunities to expand. We will be working on this enthusiastically!
9. By the way after receiving Mom at the airport today we went to a restaurant to eat. As is customary, the kids received pictures and crayons to color while waiting for food.
A year ago... Aditya would not TOUCH his crayons and paper, and he would not care if we threw them away in trash. Then about six months ago when we first used the Son Rise approach with him in the restaurant situation, he enthusiastically drew a vacuum cleaner on the picture book that had a picture of a boy and a girl on it. And today, the first thing he did with the crayons was say "this girl has blonde hair" and colored the girl's hair in yellow. Also, in the end he asked to take home his picture book and crayons.
10. There is a mirror now in the playroom, and team members are reporting this has made eye contact easier. We also fixed the shelves that had come down. Actually I had used the wrong anchors. (Son Rise has motivated me to learn some new skills here... I am not a guy who loves DIY:-)

In conclusion, we have had three or so very happening and very satisfying weeks in terms of Aditya's progress.