My Quirky Boy

Not even close. The change that has occurred in our life over the last few weeks is staggering. As hubby always says, if we do it, we do it all at once.

We moved back in with my parents.

Fin started a new school.

I am home with the children most of the time.

And, the worst one, my dog died.

Moving home really hasn’t been too bad, we did it for necessity and it is in our long term plan anyway. The ideal wasn’t supposed to be all of us living together in a house smaller than the one just the 4 of us were in, and are trying to sell. BUT …. sometimes stuff just happens for a reason and you make it work.

For Fin it seems to be one of the best things to have happened for him. Here we walk almost everywhere, to the point that getting him in the car to go somewhere is a battle an a half. He loves school. Oh, wait, can I say that again? FIN LOVES SCHOOL. If you watched me drop him off, the transition is brutal. But I expect it, know it will happen, and also recognize that once I am gone he is fine. I walk him to school everyday, and pick him up everyday. I wait in the hall outside his door and he attacks me telling me he had a “Great day!” I tell ya, it brings tears to my eyes.

He is in a Social Skills group 2 hours a day. Yes, former town with a crappy SPED program. Surprise, surprise he is doing GREAT. They have a visual schedule for him, he has someone who pays attention to when he gets the deer in the headlights look and needs as we call a “calm out” and gives it to him.

2 YEARS of no speaking in his former school, maybe a whisper, but mostly a head nod. Here we are 2 weeks in and he TALKS, talks to his teacher. They don’t let him slip away for the day until he has made eye contact and has audibly told them a clear “Good Bye!”. It is the simple things that at times have seemed impossible, become your everyday. As a parent of an ASD child you don’t forget what things were like once upon a time.

Fin goes to the park everyday, and a lot of days my dad pops in in the afternoon to take him down to play ball. A small group will often gather to play with them, and Fin loves it. We have been invited for a play DATE!!! I hope the summer goes on forever, because the time I have had already has been such a luxury.

I am not as of yet I think ready to post about my dog. He was a great soul, and unfortunately he was stuck in a shell that just collapsed around him. He was ready physically, I was not. Maybe soon I will share, but not yet.