Josiah has a snack drawer in his hospital room,  It contains some of his most favorite treats.  For nearly 3 weeks, though he knew there were goodies in that drawer, Josiah didn’t much bother with it.

He is a growing teenager; always hungry. Between meals, we offer him cereal bars or some dried mango. We use fruit snacks as motivators to encourage Josiah to walk down the hall or to go outside to the playground. Rick and I dole out the snacks and replenish them as needed. It has worked well to keep them handy in the drawer close to his bed.  Josiah never bothered with any of it. Until Tuesday.

Tuesday, Josiah grabbed 2 fistfuls of cereal bars at one time. He had 7 or 8 of them squished between his fingers. My guess is he would have eaten them all given the opportunity. Wednesday, the CNA hid the snacks because Josiah had been helping himself to them all morning.  Shortly after I arrived, Josiah began hunting for snacks.

He searched the book and puzzle drawer first. Nope, no snacks there. He opened the 2nd drawer. The once full snack drawer was empty so he went straight to the closet.  Such a smart boy. That’s exactly where they had been hidden.  Most of the treats were packed together in the same box. Josiah took one look at that box, grabbed it and ran.

He’s quick but I’m quicker. I took it away from him to put up high in a cabinet out of reach.  As soon as I did, Josiah went straight back to the closet for some corn chips.

A small Frito party on the bed before dinner never hurt anyone.

It takes so little to make him happy, why not? I’m guessing by the time I get there today, Josiah will have discovered his snacks are hidden in the high cabinet, out of reach.  I won’t be a bit surprised if he even has already figured out a way to climb up there to get to them.

He may be developmentally delayed.  But don’t be fooled.  Josiah is very smart.  Given the right motivator, this kid will move mountains.