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.