Eating at the Table

 
This is a big thing for us, when he sits and eats at the table. I took 20 pictures of him doing it and he was smiling for me. Tomorrow he starts his third week of school - here are some of the things his therapists have said about him:

At snack he was asking me for apples very nicely.
Under "Challenges": "None today". :)
Anthony did SO awesome this morning! He was super compliant and we had fun while getting lots of work done.
Anthony was very lovey today. He kept climbing up for cuddles. It was very cute.
Some wonderful words today.
We had a good morning - he is picking up very quickly and we had a lot of vocals today! :)

So that's good right? He is also different here lately. He is sitting and reading books more and he loves to look in the mirror and sing "That's Elmo's Sooooooooong!" and watch his mouth. It is adorable and makes me cry every time. He's still not going to sleep before 9:30 but hopefully that will get earlier and earlier and we'll find our best time for him to go to bed. All in all, this week I will keep him. Ha!

Fall

 
He had just fallen off the table. He has been having great days at school but he is super annoying at home. My God, the noise this child makes! It's crazy. We've also been leaving him awake which has NOT been going well. Last night I checked on him just after 10:00 and he was completely under his fitted sheet, blanket off the bed. I showed Mike and we decided I should take the top of the sheet off so it didn't scare him if he woke up in the night. He has been sleeping all night, which is good, but not going to sleep until after 9:00. Maybe this is normal for a four year old? We'll see, I don't know what we'll do going forward. He's about to finish his second week in school. Yesterday I went to get him by myself because Mike took a late lunch and stayed home with the girls. So we were driving home and Anthony said "Mom" in the backseat. I turned down the radio and said "Mom?" and he said "Daddy". And I said "Daddy?" and he said, breaking my heart, "Baby". God knows what he's talking about - whether it's us, or something he read at school? I don't care, it was still exciting.

Weekend Shenanigans

 
His first weekend with no school has passed. He was crazy all day yesterday, oh BOY can he be noisy! It's so frustrating, especially when I am trying to work with that baby to take a nap. "Bleaahhhh!" He says. "Bleaaaaah!". It makes it hard to enjoy the weekend. I wish we were all hard of hearing.

Oh Come On Now

 
Isn't he so cute? What the what?

School Days

 
Here he is, yesterday, after his second day of school. He's in a cute tshirt that Mike's mom brought him from her latest trip. I think we've gotten his hair all evened out. He is doing very well in school, everyone is really nice and he seems happy to be back in a routine. The first day when I went to get him, I had his little lunch tray as we were getting in the car and he said "hungry", so I gave him the tray, open, and he finished everything. He has been eating well and sleeping well and except for some minor freakouts about us not having his Elmo or Wiggles DVD here (we brought them to school), he's been having an excellent week. I am confident that he is going to thrive at this school. When we dropped him off the first day, some Mom was coming out and she said "hi, is he new?" We said yes, and she said "look for my son, Eli, he's wild!" Everyone is very nice and we are all sort of in the same boat, as parents, which is a comfort and the first time I've really felt this way. My sister also sent me a link to the Top 50 Autism Blogs, and that's been great because I've found a message board that has parents on it, who just deal with the day to day stuff with having a child with autistm and it's been nice. There are some nutters on it, of course, who want to have fights about mercury and chelation and whatever the hell else, but it's nice that they have a place to chat, too, I suppose.

In other news, Mike and I are hoping to go to the Fair tomorrow night. We love the fair food and didn't get to have any when we took the kids. I am off sweets but I am giving myself a dispensation for the fair.

Now I Miss His Hair

 
Waah. This is from the other day. I know everyone thinks it about their kids but he is so gorgeous and beautiful, to me. He breaks my heart.

Fair

 
Anthony, at the Fair. Ugh, we were having a fine time and hew was talking SO MUCH, naming all the animals, etc., until a sheep blaaaathered away in his sweet ear. He walked around for the next 30 minutes with his fingers in his ears! Ha! It was fun for him, anyway, I think. I'm so glad we decided to take him, I hate the thought of leaving him home and taking Maria because we think he'll be trouble. She is almost always more trouble than him anyway. We are excitedly getting ready for Anthony's first day at his new school tomorrow. I can't wait and neither can he, even if he doesn't know it yet!

Sob!

 
 
There it goes. Mike cut his hair with the clippers while I held him, facing me. It went 1000 times better than last time and than we thought it would but man. It's hard, he's so unhappy about it and it's so sad, kind of. He looks like a man, now, and also a baby. Waah.

Sigh

 
We are going to have to cut that hair this weekend. It is an absolute birds nest in the back. It makes me cry to think of it, because a) he is going to be awful and b) I'll miss it, I think he is so cute with it.

Walking Away

 
I am thinking of him starting school today because many of my friend's kids started Kindergarten and they're all upset about it. Crying, all day! I felt that way last year when Anthony started preschool but now I am so ready for him to go. MORE than ready! Watch, I'll cry next week, maybe. But I doubt it.

Stim

 
He has been sort of hitting himself on the side of the head lately. The good news is that it makes him use his knife less, the bad news is that he is HITTING HIMSELF in the HEAD. :(

Eyes Wide Shut

 
He's been walking around with his eyes closed, it's really funny.

Friday

 

Anthony, Bright and Dark

 
He has been sleeping well. Just in time for Friday, where he'll surely be up all night! :)

Ha!

 
Doesn't he look innocent here? He probably is, considering his company - at least the MORE innocent of the two.

The Cobra

 
 
My brother John, the Cobra, sent Anthony this shirt from his recent trip to Spain. He was on tour with The Eagles and went *everywhere*. It's a Superman type shirt that says "Super Toro", in case you can't see. Anthony was up at 4:00 this morning but not too noisy and was back to sleep by 5:30, which is rare. He woke up yesterday at 4:00 and just stayed up for the day. He looks very sweet to me here, and sad, which he wasn't. At least I don't think he was. Tomorrow is Friday and then we have one more week until he starts school. I can't wait. I.can't.WAIT. I know I'll miss him and it will be strange to have him gone so much but a) I am looking forward to spending some time with the girls and b) I just know it will be so good for him. I don't want to get my hopes up, but I can't help it. I am trying to have FAITH that he'll be okay. I read a status update on Facebook from a girl I went to grade school with - she was kind of a non-religious person when we were in school but apparently she has found God, because she always has religious quotes in her status updates. Anyway, she said "God responds to faith and not need" and I thought holy crap, I better get on this Faith thing, then, because I am always WAY more into what I NEED and not what I believe will happen. So I am going to have faith that Anthony will thrive at this school and it will all be okay.

Helloooooo

 
Isn't he cute? This outfit is from my mom. The picture is from yesterday, ugh it was a hard day. It rained and then the power went out around 10:00. Our babysitter stayed until 11:30 and then Mike came home and we went to my mom and dad's for the rest of the day. That's hard too, but more on Maria than Anthony, as he doesn't have to take a nap or anything. He does love to whack our tv, though, and he is of course not allowed to hit my dad's, so we have to keep a hard eye on him. He is starting school a week from Monday. Praise God!

Mug Shot

 
He has been sleeping all night for a few nights in a row, which probably means we should gear up for a whopper of a night here soon. He is sweet when he has slept - this morning I heard him banging around up there around 7:15 and I went in and got in his bed, and we chatted away. Then he went to our room and got under the covers and we had a few more moments of just us, and then we heard Maria chugging up the stairs. She just chugged in here so that's all I have to say this morning!

Fifth Anniversary

 
Mike sent me flowers for our anniversary. I'll put the picture on Anthony's blog, since he knocked them over the first night they were here!