"Tickle Me!"

I've noticed that my son Zachary has been much more interactive with me lately. I'm very thankful and excited about this. In case this is one of your first visits here, Zach is eight-years old and has autism, and he doesn't communicate a whole lot. He hasn't gotten to the point where he'll have a conversation - the times he talks are when he wants something ('Can I play on the computer?') or if he's prompted to say something ('Zach, say goodbye to Grandpa,' etc.) and he's mostly just been happy in his own little world. But lately he's been seeking me (or Melissa or even sometimes his sister Paige) to play with him.  He likes me to tickle him, and he'll come up to me and look me in the eye with anticipation and say, "Tickle me!" and I will, and he'll laugh, and we keep doing this for about 20 minutes before he's had enough and goes on to something else. He does this with Melissa, too, and with Paige, he'll sometimes get her to play chase with him (he likes her to chase him and catch him.) The amount he does this has increased throughout this last year, and damn, am I happy about that.