Valtrex is Working!!

I am so happy to report we have noticed HUGE changes in Mickey since starting Valtrex. We are on day 11 at 250mg 2x daily and have seen amazing gains. He has not gotten a healing rash yet but he did have red cheeks today which is often a sign it is working. He did so many things today.. where should I start! Well normally Mickey speaks about 80% in gibberish but has a very large vocabulary. He can say 7-8 word phrases with prompting to help but is not conversational and does not use advanced or appropriate language. His language is pretty much labeling (It’s a dog. It’s a cookie.) Or to tell us what he wants (I want to watch Charlie and Lola. I want to eat a cookie. -SCD of course!) He will attempt to sing a song if I am singing it but his version will sound like “Wheels tick da bus ticka  round da da” It is mostly gibbersish with a few words thrown in. It sounds like when you are trying to sing a song you don’t know very well and you end up faking your way through most of it and only know the chorus. So… today we were in Walmart and out of nowhere he starts singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (which we rarely if ever sing.) He sang the entire song, articulating every single word. It was clear and complete like any other kid would have sung. We were floored! We stopped in the aisle just staring as he completed it. He continued to sing it again fully and completely. Then later in the car he sang 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed in it’s entirity!! He also started teasing me in the car trying to make me laugh. He was acting like a typical silly little boy trying to be funny! Only a mom with an ASD child knows how huge this is. I have seen tons of little boys act this way being goofy and I never imagined how much it would mean to be when my own son was able to do it. He also started calling me “Mom” and Zeus “Dad”. Six months ago we were Ma and Da and usually of late we are Mommy and Daddy. He wasn’t saying it like he lost words, but more in a casual sense i.e. “Hey Mom, I want a cookie.” “Where’d Dad go?” Also, when we do flashcards and Mickey doesn’t know what something is he usually will just make up a gibberish word. I have to tell him to say, “what’s that?” Well today I was in the kitchen fixing something and he came up to me and said” Hey Mom. What’s that?” He asked me “what’s that?” several other times today. He also crawled around on his hands and knees pretending to be a dog, a cat and a lion. He did this all by himself without any prompts. And the real kicker… HE JUMPED!!!!!!!!! We have been trying to get him to jump for months. He jumped all on his own today. He does still need work on it, but it was a huge triumph! He also has taken an interest in PlayStation 3 and he can actually play the games. He doesn’t just pretend or try to play, he can actually do it. You should see this kid on a computer too. He can open the internet, start his games, switch games, play the games, close the games. It is remarkable. Did I mention he just turned 3 the end of this past Decemeber! I know I am leaving out a ton of other stuff today but we KNOW the Valtrex is working. We are sticking with it and hopefully will see the healing rash soon!