Clean One Room While He Destroys Another

at breakfast, on the last day of vacation

     In a little over two week, my little boy with be taking his first steps towards big kiddom; his first day of school. We were lucky enough to be able to fight the UI's suggestion of schooling and get into a much more appropriate private school. I'm hearing more and more that some are not so lucky and not amount of pushing, fighting and begging gets their kid the services they need. That just breaks my heart.

     Since his birthday, he's been dropped down to just TSS sessions. Speech and O/T will start up again at school and that will be great, he truly needs them on a daily basis.

    Our vacation and his new jersey birthday party were what I'd call complete successes but they had their moments of friend and family fun. We blessed to have a few good friends take time out of their busy schedules, drive hours in some cases, to spend the afternoon with us. The whole trip was riddled with meltdowns; adult and child alike. But we discovered a sad truth that before now really hadn't hit us; vacations aren't really stress relieving for an autism family. In trying to escape the ridge confines of our everyday, things fell apart for all of us and that was nothing if not stressful.

     But being back home has been good. We loved seeing family and spending more time with ones we haven't in the past, but damn does it feel good to be home. Xander is happily settling back into his routine. My husband cautiously pointed out that his screaming has decrease dramatically. We don't really know what's the cause of this, though Alex swears it started with going gluten-free and vacation didn't allow us to stick to that diet very well. So better behaviors with gluten?! I don't know, maybe. I've always said it had little effect on him in a positive way. But regardless, he's thrilled to be back to his toys and familiar rooms. He starts off every morning dumping out his toys and flapping, while I try to clean up the kitchen from the night before. (I'm usually too pooped to do anything more than watch netflix after bedtime.)

     All in all, its been a crazy last few weeks, and there's more crazy coming. School will be a big new adventure that I can't wait to see him experience. And maybe when he's there I'll actually get the house clean!