A memorable night with our girls!

A few nights ago, Lily was in such a great mood and really wanted to participate with the family! It was awesome! She was so connected with us and we just didn't want the night to end. She played "ring around the rosy" and "duck, duck, goose" with Coult, Natalie and I for over an hour. She is dangerous with "duck, duck, goose" though! LOL She wouldn't let us get past the first few words before she was pulling us all down onto the floor! Eventually, Natalie asked her if she wanted to attack Coult and they ended up rough-housing with him and playing "evil scientist plastic surgeon". Natalie has such a fun imagination and she is great with helping Lily to use her imagination too.I know he really enjoyed that since it doesn't happen often. They were being so silly, so I took a couple of short videos of them. And yes, those are Lily's pajama pants that Natalie is putting on Coult's head! Natalie said "Mom! She's actually playing with us! I don't want this to ever stop!" I wish I could have gotten a video of "duck, duck, goose", but it was hard to video and play at the same time. It made us so happy to have fun like this with our girls. The night before this happened, I had been praying to be able to understand Lily better and to be able to be more patient with her challenges. She is having a lot of anxiety issues that have us really worried right now. That night was an answer to my prayers. It was Heavenly Father's way of letting me know that Lily really does love to be with us, but it's just hard for her to show loving emotions and really allow herself to connect with others. There have been a few other times that this has happened. But never for this length of time. I'm really trying to hold onto this experience to remind myself that even though times can be challenging with a child on the autism spectrum, that they are truly fun children who just need those around them to try to understand what they have to cope with everyday. Enjoy the videos!