"Bye"

Andrew, as I'm sure is obvious by now, is largely nonverbal. This makes the phone calls he has three times a week with his father (we're divorced) a bit of a challenge as I'm sure you can imagine. But three times a week, his dad calls and Andrew takes the phone for a few minutes.

He's actually much better now than he used to be. He no longer whines or fusses over the call, but takes the phone, holds it to his ear, says hi, and listens for a few minutes.

I try to leave the room when they "talk" because if I don't Andrew thinks he's done and wants to give me the phone back. However, whether I stay or go, eventually we end up in the same situation, which is the fun part of this post.

Andrew says (into the phone) "bye" and then looks at me. I generally shake my head no, so he says "hi" and I nod. Then he tries again. Generally this goes on 10 or so times, then I nod when he says "bye" and he gives me the phone so I can tell his father that Andrew is done. However, one day last week, Andrew decided he wanted more control over this process. :)

After one or two of our "bye" "hi" routines, he reaches up for me, so I kneel down to see what he needs. I assumed this was for a hug, but I was wrong. :) Andrew then said "bye" again, and put his hand on the top of my head, trying to force me to nod. I managed to shake my head, but with a little hand pressing down on it pretty hadr, it was a bit of a challenge. Andrew, it should be said, looked thoroughly annoyed, but he did say "hi" again and hold onto the phone. :)