I spend most of my day thinking about Lucas. Wondering if what I'm choosing for him is correct. I'm sure this is true of most parents, whether their child is "typical" or not. For me, having a child on the autism spectrum is not only a challenge, but an awakening.
Lucas helps me to see the world in a different way. Whenever he speaks, I have to listen to his main words, filter out the babble in between, and come up with a response in a timely manner. He's definitely keeping my brain in shape. It's like solving a puzzle. <-- a="" br="" but="" clich="" for="" i="" know="" maybe="" pieces="" puzzle="" reason="" s="" so="" the="" there="" yes="">
While walking through the grocery store, Lucas looks up because he hears an air vent. He yells "cracker!" as he stares, mesmorized by the air vent. I look up to see what he thinks is a cracker and notice that the air vent is shaped like an oyster cracker, a hexagon.
He looks up to the sky as a plane passes by and says "Eye! Big eye!" I look up and to my surprise, he was not saying "eye", but the letter "I" in regards to the smoke trail behind the plane. It's a straight line of white smoke, resembling the letter 'I'.
As a baby, when Lucas was upset, I'd lay him down on the bed and turn on the ceiling fan. Instantly, his crying would cease.
I cannot begin to tell you how frustrating life has been as a single mom raising an autistic child. Mainly because that none of that matters. What matters is that 4 months ago, my 3 1/2 year old son couldn't answer a yes or no question. Now, with the help of his speech therapist, he can. Two months ago, my son was not jumping, nor did he have any interest in it. Now, he's lifting both feet off the ground and really jumping! What matters is the progress made in the last year.
Lucas is like a new person now. He's talking, walking, JUMPING!, requesting, communicating, expressing emotions, showing interest in books and movies, washing his own hands, dressing himself (sort of), brushing his teeth, spelling, reading, writing, playing on the computer... He's like a "typical" child, only original. All within the last year! I must be doing something right. Now, if we can only tackle the potty training.........
