Happy Birthday to Anthony

 Seven years ago at around this time, I was just getting out of recovery from having Anthony, he was maybe nursing?  Ugh, who knows!  It seems like a long, long, LONG time ago, I can seriously barely remember it.  He was a beautiful baby, though, and he never seemed small, even though Maria and Felicity were both bigger than he was at birth.  He never lost any weight at all in the hospital, I used to joke to Mike that he was probably getting a lot of protein and calories from the blood he got while nursing, ha!

He had a great day today.  He slept in, hung out and played in the bounce house while I took Maria and Veronica to church.  His family came over to celebrate, and he seemed really happy all day.  At one point, Maria and Charlie (pictured) and Veronica and Maddy played in the pool and with the hose and Anthony really got into it.  It makes my heart SING when I see him having fun and enjoying his life.  I wish it happened more often, but maybe it is often enough, for him.

Mike mentioned this weekend that he thinks a lot of the time, Anthony wants to be alone.  He'll be in a room and we'll come in and he'll leave.  I think he DOES probably want to be alone, but not 100 percent.  I think for some people with autism, and definitely for Anthony, if he is alone, there can't be any surprises from other people.  If he is alone, he only has to hear the sounds that he makes, and no one can sneak up on him.   But I think it's important to force ourselves on him sometimes, in the safest and best way for him.  I feel like we can't let him be alone whenever he wants because I feel like maybe then he'll go into his own world so far that we won't be able to get to him back.  It might not be true, but that's what I worry about.

Anyways, he was happy today, happy and sweet and seemed to like the attention when we had his cake and when the girls were playing at the pool.  I went in with him tonight and we chatted and I told him that he has school tomorrow, that we love him and that we'll do anything for him and that he's always safe with us.  I tell him that as much as possible, so that in case he ever gets stressed out or he can't think or he worries, maybe that will be the first thing that comes to his mind.

In any case, I want to publicly say happy birthday to our sweet boy, we love him so.