So many reasons to be grateful!

Today I am thankful for:

My health
My family
My home
My friends
My pets
I can see, hear, touch, smell, taste, speak and laugh.
I have my own vehicle, electricity, running water and enough funds to meet my needs.

I could go on and on and on about the things I am grateful for. But my children are the stand out. I am so very grateful for the incredible progress they are making lately. The last few months have been filled with many momments of gratitude for big leaps of progress. Just today some major progress happened.

My son Jake let our dog lick his hand and was giggling. He threw a toy for her. He pet her ears to see how soft they were because his daddy asked him to. This is a child that 6 months ago still ran away screaming from a dog he's lived with for almost 3 years who only wanted him to pet her and love her. Now he's starting to. At thanksgiving dinner for the first time Max ate mashed potatoes and loved them, AND stuffing and loved that too. He grew 1 inch in the last 2 months. My little guy who was under the 5% for so long is now 5 ft tall! He grew 5 inches in the last year :)

In the past year Max has overcome his fear of dogs as well, and now loves them. He overcame whatever hangup he had about sitting on my bed and the couch and now will sit on them. This was the last holdout of odd behavior at home. He has NO odd behavior at home now. No refusals! It has been a miracle to me to watch him just unfold into a calm and happy person that most resembles a normal young teen boy after being a ball of anxiety for so long. I catch myself just tearing up in happiness about the most mundane things, because for me they aren't mundane, they are a gift. The fears and sorrow I had when I started this blog are melting away like snow in the hot sun.

The principle of RDI- productive uncertainty was the thing I hoped would make a breakthrough for the boys with the dogs. It was a combo of cognitive behavioral therapy- putting them in an environment where the dog was unavoidable, and time, and a bit of luck. She won them over, just like Nick did for Max when he was 5 months old and hero worship melted Max's heart. He couldn't resist the love. And in this situation with Taffy it was the same way.

After Jake pet Taffy tonight he came up to me and gave me a big hug and said "I love you mom" just because he felt like it. Yes I have so many reasons to be grateful tonight!! :)