Today, Connor and I stopped in at the twins' school while class was still in session. As I drove past the preschool playground, I noticed Xander's class was outside for recess. This was not necessarily a good thing. He knows my truck. He knew that I was inside that truck. And he thought it was time to go.
He stood over at the edge of the playground fence, looking toward the truck. Connor and I got out to go inside. He stood there, staring at us as we made our way across the parking lot. I knew better than to try to hide from him, so I walked where he could see us until we reached the sidewalk. We were going to be turning in the other direction to go inside. He watched us the whole way, completely done with whatever recess he'd been enjoying just moments before.
When we were close enough for him to hear, I said "Hi, Xander!"
He grinned and said "Hi!" and started waving with his stiff little wave.
We still needed to go inside, so I looked over at him and said, "Bye-bye, see you!" as we started to turn and go the opposite direction (it's his script for good-bye). He said it back to us, waving even more enthusiastically.
The bad news is that he wasn't meaning that the way you would probably think. He was excited because he thought I was there to pick him up and take him "bye-bye," which wasn't exactly the case.
But we'll overlook that part. What was amazing about that moment was the interaction. He responded to both of my greetings, both verbally and with a wave. He was communicating appropriately and consistently.
A year ago, you wouldn't have gotten any of that. He might have stood by the edge of that fence and screamed and cried or even tried to climb over it to get to where we were standing. It's just another sign of how very far he's come in the last year.
As for why Connor and I were at school during the day ... well that's another post for later (once I've downloaded a picture or two to share).
