RPM......Finally

After months of delays (but also preparation), we are finally getting started on RPM!  A few weeks ago I started talking about it to Aidan, which made him very curious.  He kept bringing me the book I have on it and pointing to the picture of Soma on the back.  When I finally showed him some learning materials he looked very interested and sat right down.  Of course he still had to test the waters by throwing paper, pencils, etc to the floor, but I calmly persisted (which I confess isn't always my way) and when he realized my reaction wasn't going to be very entertaining he settled in......hmmm maybe I should try calm and persistant more often....
I'm keeping the initial sessions more calm and conversational to ease him into it, but I did manage a little bit of academics.  I began with talking about to him about his hands and how important they are to his ability to communicate, then we moved on to Jack's Big Music Show (his favorite show, he chose all the right answers!), alphabet, numbers, days of the week, and what foods are fruit.  He was more fidgety on the first day, basically showing me that he was able to choose but didn't much feel like it!
Today he was more interested and willing to work because he knew what to expect, and he floored me by answering most of the questions about fruit correctly (we got more detailed today and talked about how it grows from seeds, etc) and knowing several shapes.
  All the clips I've seen of kids communicating fluently using RPM and all that I've read about it could not have prepared me for what I felt seeing my son choose correct answers and confirm what we've known all along:  there is SO much going on in there, and there is a way to reach him, to educate him, and to enable him to show what he knows.  This is not to say that everything went perfectly and there's nothing to fine tune, there were some times when he didn't choose and wouldn't look and was generally uncooperative, but I'm quite frankly surprised at seeing such promising results this soon.  We have a long road ahead of us, but there's no better destination for the boy who  sat down across from me,  took my face in his hands, looked into my eyes and smiled when I told him that I wanted everyone to know how smart he is.