Hallelujah!

I heard the angels singing the Hallelujah Chorus as my heart did a happy dance! Lunch. Today. A veggie stick and Robbie. For the last few days I have been offering him a veggie stick at lunch. He plays with it, sometimes puts it in his mouth and occasionally makes a light crunch on it but not enough to break it. While he does this I have been following the advice of his feeding therapist (on break) and a book we read recently on feeding issues, and have not been pushing him at all and just giving silly encouragement when he does something good with it.  Basically I act like it's no big deal. 
Back to today. As usual I handed him a vs and he started his thing, next thing I know he takes a big crunch and breaks a piece off. He let it roll around and fall out. He then shocked me by picking it up and putting it back in his mouth! He played with it in his mouth until it dissolved and moved it around, then swallowed it. He then did the same with the rest of it being super silly the whole time. I couldn't believe it and was so happy! But that's not all. He started signing a bunch of stuff (he confuses them when he really wants something) and pointing and I thought he wanted a toy on the table. He got mad when I offered it to him. Then on an off chance I said, "Do you want more?" He quickly nodded and signed more. Que angels . . . I gave him another and he promptly shoved the whole thing in his mouth and started chomping away and signing for another! Three! He ate three veggie sticks! In-a-row! Shock, joy, elation, heart doing a happy dance. All that while on the outside I had to be all silly yet calm encouragement or he shuts down. Wow! Now I know this does not mean that he will suddenly start eating or even that he will even eat another veggie stick within the next month but this is a huge milestone for him. My hope has been renewed and for that I rejoice.