Expressions...

Today was Max's first day back in his expressive therapies in about a month.  He sang with music and played the maraca and guitar.  And for art, he had some things that needed to get out. 

He started with a painting for his cousin who is not a baby anymore, but turned 7 today.  He wanted red, yellow, and orange...like her hair. 

This is her birthday painting.

He wanted to stick with the red, yellow, and orange theme for the whole time today.  And at the end, he told me why.  

 Work, yellow, orange, yellow, yellow, red and and color need my colors colors MY NONNI YOU ARE THE BEST.

See, Nonni loved yellow, orange, and red together.  Nonni loved Max's paintings.  And Max loved painting for Nonni.  He hasn't said much about her since she passed, but today when he said this after cranking out so many paintings after almost a month off, I think he was able to tell me exactly how he's been feeling about it all.  And needless to say, I wasn't very successful at keeping my composure I'd been working so hard at holding together all day through therapies.  He's a sweet boy.  And he has such a love for his Nonni.  I'm grateful he's able to have these therapies to express himself through this hard time.  I've not really known how he was going to handle it, and how much he is going to understand.  But, as usual, Max is showing us he knows far more than is expected, and he is going to teach us all how to move through the journey, and we'll be better for it.