"LOOK!"

Cruise and his snowman from last week.

Cruise never said this word...until a little over a week ago. He's never shared anything he's excited about just to share it.
HUGE BREAKTHROUGH!
About a week ago, Cruise wandered in the house from outside holding a Doritos chip. He walked right up to Dave and said, "Look! Chip!" Dave was more confounded by the chip itself at the time, not realizing just how amazing this new development was. He was worried some sick guy outside was handing out chips to our son. So Dave walked outside and found the two little Hispanic neighbor girls from next door, feeding Cruise chips through the fence. Dave was relieved, told Cruise to thank them, and went back into the house to tell me what had just happened. When I pointed out how huge it was that Cruise was engaging in shared enjoyment, Dave realized that Cruise never had just shown us something because he was excited about it. I went outside and asked the girls if they'd like to come over and play: they excitedly accepted my invitation.

Cruise was SO EXCITED to have some little friends over. It was perfect because Cruise speaks little English, one of the girls also speaks little English, and the other girl only speaks Spanish! A match made in heaven.

They played outside for what seemed to be an hour. Every 15 minutes or so, however, I got a little knock on my screen door by the little girl who only speaks Spanish: "El nino salio y fue a mi casa!" (The boy left and went to my house!) I'd look next door to find that the older girl had Cruise by the hand and was leading him back to our house. I'm not gonna lie, I honestly considered hiring them to be my Wrangle and Report team. One would wrangle the boy, the other would come and tell me. I wanted them to stay forever!

I'd check on them periodically only to find them playing with each other so nicely. They'd be interacting with Cruise and giggling and teasing. It was a sight for sore eyes.

When it was time for them to go back home, Cruise cried. I smiled. He had friends and had made a huge developmental step: engaging in shared enjoyment.