Some days Owen wakes up confused. He’s not really sure what the day is, or what he wants. Some days, I suppose, I wake up like that too. Owen’s anxiety seems to be high right now. When I walk into another room, he either follows me, or he screams. If he follows me, and I turn on a light, he immediately tries to turn it off; unless it’s the bathroom light, I can have that on. If he doesn’t follow me he will stand, screaming until I come back. And then there are the times he is fine. How do you correct a behavior that is associated with anxiety, or maybe it is a learned behavior to bring him comfort when he is anxious. We have to work on honing his skills to learn, and accept things. When he gets upset, or about to go into a meltdown I tell him to count to ten, or I rapid fire questions at him, so it uses a different part of his mind. I never knew me walking out of the room could be so traumatic for him until it was. But then what do you do. They don’t teach this in Home Ec 101. Trying to change a behavior is exactly like learning a new skill; it takes hours, and hours of repeating the same things, over days, weeks, months, or possibly years. The victories are the best. When I see those moments, and I know he’s gotten it; there is no greater joy then when my baby succeeds. He walked up to me, and hit me. I stopped him, took his tablet away, and told him to tell mommy he was sorry, and not to hit people. He said , “sorry mommy you’re ok”. He’s making connections, and putting words together. I’m thankful for his progress. Celebrate the little things in life, because sometimes they have the biggest rewards. Be inspired to change the world, one smile at a time. Smiles to all and donut daze!
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