Sweet, sweet, Jeremy.

Recently we started noticing that Jeremy was pulling away from us emotionally. I thought at first his personality was changing, and I was sad but thought it was his way of becoming more independent. Then Frank mentioned that he didn't think Jeremy liked him much, and my response was "he doesn't like me much either". That was when we realized something was wrong. Our sweet, silly, full of JOY Jeremy was different. He was not making eye contact as much, and was not accepting hugs or kisses. He has been refusing hugs and kisses for a few weeks, we were not forcing them, but then he started pulling away more. We were not connecting at all. He seemed like he wasn't happy. He didn't laugh or smile much. (except with Jordan) He kept a grumpy look on his face most of the time.

Everyone that knows us, knows that we adore our boys. I spend all day loving them and reading to them and playing with them, but Jeremy needed more. Jordan on the other hand has never had trouble getting loving when he needed it. He will run give our legs hugs several times a day. If that's not enough he says "up please" and hugs us around the neck as long as he needs.

So I started watching Jeremy closely. I noticed that he always has his eyes on me even if he was playing. When I am reading to them and he gets up and leaves he needs me to keep eye contact with him. So that is why I have started always looking at him and smiling at him no matter what I am doing (glad I have the books memorized) so that he had that connection even when we weren't touching. Then I started just grabbing him every few min to hug and kiss and love on. He was grumpy with the hugs the first day, pushing me away and fussing, but soon started leaning in to them. The second day of this he hugged my legs twice on his own and was accepting kisses and hugs happily. That night we heard him laugh hysterically for the first time in weeks. He started smiling at us on his own and making eye contact constantly. Several people noticed the difference in him that day. Yesterday he pulled me to the floor gave me a huge juicy kiss and hugged me hard. He seems much less frustrated and able to handle stress much better, and has not bitten once.

He is now back to his goofy, silly, joyful little boy self. Smiling all the time.

The decline into himself was so slow, but coming back was almost overnight. THANK GOD! We now know that he pulls away when he is sad or hurt (emotionally) and we need to go to him. We need to constantly seek him out and cuddle with him especially when he is grumpy and pushing us away. I am so thankful we figured this out as soon as we did. I hope to teach him he is safe to seek comfort when he is sad or hurt. Thank you God for opening our eyes, and showing us what to do. We are still in shock and saddened by how close we came to loosing our joyful little boy. I will now be more aware of every change. This is a hard scary job. Glad we have God to guide us.