I’m thankful for today, very, very thankful. Owen was pretty calm all day, hardly repeated himself in his general manner, and laughed himself silly numerous times, which always puts a smile on my face. Over the last week, I’ve reflected on how far we’ve come. I remember going into a store when he was a baby. As soon I would push the cart inside he would start getting agitated and it wouldn’t take him long until he would start crying and screaming. I thought it was because he was hungry or wet but as soon as we would go outside he would calm down again. The same thing would happen with a couple of the grocery stores. One of the stores I couldn’t even get to the front doors and he would start crying and the older he got he would throw himself down on the ground if he could so I wouldn’t take him in. In the other store, he was fine in the back half of the store but as soon as I got towards the front of the store he would start crying. As time went on and I learned he had autism I realized more of the connections and I could quickly tell when he was going to struggle with a store or building. Every little noise now he tells me about. “Hear it”, he says and it could be traffic noise or a bug, the rain, a street sign, a dog across the road, or maybe even blocks away. He absolutely hears it all and remembers it all. He doesn’t want to wear any type of headphones to muffle sounds but that might change one day. I’m also working with him to center his emotions and try to counteract the noises he hears by refocusing his brain on other events or sounds. It all takes time for him to learn a process and adapt what works for him but I see progress I see his determination and I know he will succeed. He was so excited to go to church this morning and on the way there I told him we were going to pray. I asked him to name something he was thankful for. He said, “our dog we gonna get and today”. He went on, “puzzles I’m thankful for puzzle pieces”. So he prayed, “dear God thank you for my dog and today and puzzles amen”. The last few days he has been talking about getting a dog again. He told me it was going to lay in bed with him and he was going to throw a frisbee to it. He hasn’t talked about it in months so we will see where this leads and maybe we will get a dog in the next month or year. It’s no rush because I want to make sure he is happy about it completely. “Whale noises go the splash of elephant pa roo a splashing frog go a gorilla goes buffalo noise”, and on and on and on he went. He was quoting Alexa without even talking to her. He fell asleep quickly and I’m thankful he had such a great day. He’s ready for school tomorrow and I pray he sleeps the night. There is hope all around us. Find your happiness and make tomorrow matter. Smiles to all and donut daze!
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