WOW

I am a terrible updater.  Mike is out at the store and getting dinner, so I am going to try to update all the blogs tonight.  I feel kind of ridiculous sometimes, doing these blogs, because people so rarely comment and I feel I am typing into a VOID sometimes.  Then I think of it as a journal, but it's not really, so anyway, LONG TIME, SORRY!

Anthony is doing just fine.  He is really back on track with the potty training at school and despite the fact that he didn't have a great day today, he is doing well at home too.  He is still kind of tantrumy, kind of sad and whiny, more than we would like but what can you do?  He has been doing great at school and got to work some with Pam, his first therapist, this week, which is always a treat.

He's been swimming on Thursdays, we're signing up again, as he really likes it.  Sometimes he really swims away too and I think his teacher is a no-guff type person, which is always best for him.  It's an adapted swimming program, and it's great that the Y has it but I sometimes wish the teachers knew a little more about autism.  They are forever SHOWING him how to do things and expecting him to mimic them, but of course, Anthony can't learn that way.  So then I have to tell them and then I feel like I am overstepping my boundaries, etc.  But I do it anyway.  It reminds me of when my nephew Parker was little (he is going to be TWENTY this week, aahhhhh!), I asked him how he liked summer day camp and he said it was fine.  I said, do you like all the people, the kids? and he said he liked everyone except this one girl, he said she was a real KNOW IT ALL.  I said, well what does she do and he said, she's the swim teacher, ha!  I said, well, she does know it all, then!

What else.  He was in a bad sleeping cycle for a while but he always works his way out of it.  His legs are getting super tight again from him walking on his toes.  I hate to do it but we might have to put him in braces, ugh.  I am going to try to avoid it, but I can't not do it just because it bugs me.  Things are fine, we are working away, as usual.

I had a thought last week, though.  I have this friend Marta and she has this husband, Davide.  They are from Italy and she is a great friend to me.  They have three kids and we recently had lunch with their family, out at Pat's, where I work.  It was fun and Anthony sat in between Marta and Davide.  Davide is really nice to Anthony, they both are, they just treat him like everyone else and they say HI and ... I don't know, they just treat him in a normal way, which I appreciate.  So Anthony sat in between them and ate his lunch and sort of leaned on Davide, like he does and I could tell he liked them.  Davide said something later about how nice Anthony was, how sweet he was, and I thought, he IS!  He really is sweet!  I told Mike later, I get so hung up in the future of things, so worried about Anthony getting bigger, and kicking my ass, and maybe KILLING ME, like I read about in stories, that I don't ever even look at him.  I can't even see the sweet thing that he is because I'm afraid he might get older and kill me!  Isn't that crazy?  That is what it's liked to be ruled by fear and not by love and I am working on it but I'm grateful to have friends and Anthony's therapists to remind me of how great and cute and sweet he is.  We're all really lucky, even if I can't feel it all the time.

Dog Show

Just a quick note to say that Anthony went on a field trip to a dog show.  A DOG show!  We were nervous but he did great, his therapist said.  She said that he even went over on his own to pet a dog, which, come ON!  I said it on Facebook and it's true, you never know anything with these weirdos.  I'm so proud of him, and so happy that he enjoys these outings so much.

Outings

What's Anthony been up to?, you might be wondering.  Ha, not much.  He went to see his developmental pediatrician last week, Mike took him.  He has to go every six months to get his prescription renewed for ABA therapy.  It's SO ridiculous.  The doctor seems very nice and smart but honestly, he has nothing to tell us that we don't already know.  If Anthony isn't sleeping well, he can prescribe sleeping pills.  If Anthony is tense, he can put him on anti-anxiety medication.  That's it!  All he can do is prescribe medicine!  He's nice, as I said, and he seems .. impressed that we are - I don't know, even working with Anthony.  Like, what else would we do?  He's six years old!  I still have some hope for the old boy, sheesh!

He makes you wait forever, this doctor, and it's so crappy because we are only there to get our letter from him.  BUT like Mike says, it's just twice a year, big deal.  It's a small price to pay in order to have his therapy covered.

He is going to go on some outings at school.  He's going to see The Lorax movie and also he is going to a Dog Show, ha ha.  This is funny because Anthony is scared to death of dogs but as I told Mike, it's not like they're going to throw him in the ring with them, he's just going to look at them.  I imagine if he doesn't like it, they'll take him out.  I'm so glad he goes on outings at school, I don't really even care where he goes, as long as he's out in the world.

Speaking of the world, we went to Mass at our church for the second week in a row and it went okay.  It didn't go as well this week as it did last week but what can you do?  It's a Children's Mass and we sit in the back, in fact this week in the last row, so that we can get out if we need to.  We get their early so that people can consciously make the decision to sit near us and when they do, if they feel the need to give us a dirty look, I can just shrug my shoulders, like, "sorry, Charlie, you decided to SIT NEAR US!".  This week a single lady and a couple sat in front of us and they both seemed a little - not mad but they seemed like tightasses, kind of.  And to them I say, a) don't come to a Children's Mass, which is full of CHILDREN and b) don't sit in the back, dummies!  Get up front with the old people!  But it went well, we are joining this parish and the girls will go to school there.  How I wish there were something for Anthony there, but there's not.

Lastly, the sad news is that Anthony's great grandmother, Mike's grandmother Pat, died last week.  She was an extremely good grandmother to Mike and she was a super nice person to me.  I remember shortly after Anthony was diagnosed, we went to her house and Anthony had wandered into her bedroom, so we went in after him.  He was saying the alphabet, which I was signing, and he was so great at it.  She said to me, Oh Joanne!  Look at smart he is!  He's going to be fine!, and I have never forgotten it, I think about it all the time, I think about her saying that and I think that's true!  He is smart and he will be fine.  She and I had a great correspondence by mail and I will really miss getting letters from her.  We didn't see nearly enough of her in the last couple years because everyone hates the car so much, but I'm glad that we exchanged letters, she was always incredibly supportive of me and all these kids and I loved her for it.  We'll miss her.