I woke with a start. Sometimes when I sleep all night I wake thinking I missed something, namely Owen waking up. He was still asleep in his bed and thankfully now that routine is happening our nights are going better. I headed to the bathroom and got my coffee. By this time he had come around the corner and given me “one hug.” He sat on the couch for a minute and then as soon as I headed to my room the light was out and he was following my trail. He sat with me, showing me videos on his tablet. When it was time to get ready he at first told me to wear blue pants. Before I said no I asked him what he was going to wear. He answered, “shorts please.” Once he answered I said, I would be wearing shorts too. He ran off to the living room before the conversation continued. I put my shorts on and took his clothes to him to get ready. Some days when he puts his clothes on, he will put them on correctly, but most days he puts them on backwards or attempts to put both legs on the same side. We finished getting ready and we went out to wait for the bus. As he stood there, he started pulling down on his shorts to past his knee. I’m praying this isn’t a sign to come. Luckily a bunny came by to distract him and then he wanted to walk out in the street. This is always interesting to me. In the morning there isn’t much traffic but I don’t want him to get used to randomly walking in the street. I want him to be aware of his surroundings and in these moments when he walks towards the street I can’t tell if he is doing it for my reaction or because he wants to walk in the street. Plus, I’m sure there are numerous other reasons as well. I watched him as he stood there and ran from one section to the next, looking at the bus, and where it was turning. He gets so excited when he sees the bus, making his final turn around the corner. The smile on his face makes me so happy. He ran to get in place where he likes to wait and then he couldn’t wait until the bus opened its doors. Yesterday when we came home from his vision therapy appointment, he had said that he wanted to go to the library and get pizza. I told him that we could do that today when he got home from school. I was hoping that it would be an incentive for him to do something on a Tuesday. When he got off the bus, he immediately started asking about when he would be on the bus again and to see his teacher. As we were walking towards the house, I said that we could go get a pizza and either go for a walk or go to the library. He immediately started saying no, and he did not want to go. Going places on days when he doesn’t have therapy or other events is really hard for him. As soon as he walked in the door, he took his shoes off and sat on the couch. I tried again to ask him if he wanted to go and the answer was still no. I gave him a couple of minutes, and I fixed his snack. I once again tried to see if he would go with me, and his response was to go take off his shorts. This is the official move to mean we aren’t going anywhere. The rest of the night he was very calm and requested shrimp for dinner. I’m going to try again tomorrow to see if he will go eat a pizza with me or at least order it and have to pick it up. I completely understand that he doesn’t always want to go places, especially after he’s been at school all day working hard but I also want him to know that sometimes we have to go places or we can go places because we want to have fun. This is a learning experience for both of us because trying to find ways to get him to go out and yet letting him make decisions on when he wants to stay home takes effort for both of us to make sure we meet somewhere in the middle. Bedtime was not something he really wanted to discuss and he told me he was going to sleep on the couch. When I went to get his pajamas, I first couldn’t find him and thought he had gone to bed. But then I realize he was under the blanket on the couch and hiding from going to his bedroom. I like the effort that he’s putting into trying to hide from going to sleep. Amazingly he was asleep as soon as he laid down. We learn we love we grow. And today we grew. His smile and his laughter always warm my heart. Find the laughter for your soul and let it put the smile on your face. Smiles to all and donut daze!
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