I have to say, today was a good day

   Yesterday was a huge success for Lukas. We went to speech therapy and he had an awesome session. We had a rocky start to speech therapy when he started last month. He was unwilling to cooperate with a new person and a new experience and I didn't know if we would be able to get through to him.With a lot of patience, a very open minded therapist, and some practical troubleshooting, Lukas now enjoys going.

   I sit in on the sessions. What is great about private speech therapy is that our goals are for ways to improve communication in the home environment. It's practical as opposed to academic. Of course, academics have their place, but basic communication skills are so much more important for him at this point. Little by little in these sessions, I have seen Lukas learn how to play with another person. Right now, the therapist is working on, "my turn" and we have been able to apply what we learn in therapy right over into our home life.

   After his session yesterday, we met with a friend and we went out to lunch at Chickfila. We ordered our food, I got Lukas to the table because he wanted to dart, and our friend delivered the food. Lukas ate his food, behaved at the table and afterward he went potty. If you haven't heard, Lukas potty trained himself in 2 days. My relaxed approach of waiting until he was developmentally ready worked! That's a story for another day, though.

  We had never let Lukas go out on the playground area before at Chickfila. We knew previously that the kids would be too rough, that Lukas may meltdown, or that he would get stuck in the tubes up above that all these playgrounds have now. Well, he did fine. He even let me take off his ratty brown shoes he's obsessed with. He played happily and his laughter from above through all the noise of other children was easily recognizable. He wasn't even bothered by the older boys who were rough and on the line of even being appropriate for such a kid area with little ones playing. One clunked into him and all Lukas did was laugh. Oh, sweet relief.

   He even left with no tears. Sometimes transitions can be difficult. We were able to smooth our way into leaving and we all happily rode home.

   I know this story may sound mundane. For us, it's a big deal. I am shocked everyday at how much my son is growing up and admire him for the new things he is able to handle with ease. Keep on rockin it, little guy.

Introduction

   When I am trying to sleep at night, I often write essays in my head until I drift off. I know it's a strange way to fall asleep and I should really work on relaxing and shutting the old thinker down, but there is comfort found in this. I never finish the essays, though. I guess this is my way of counting sheep.


   I am going to start blogging again. My goal is to just give myself something to do that might be therapeutic. I once had a blog that I wrote solely about our journey with our son being autistic. This blog will no doubt include this topic, but won't be limited to this subject. I may write about our day, current events, share a recipe, share a poem, or ramble on about spirituality. Who knows? Stay tuned.