Only four days of school left! I can’t believe how quickly the school year has gone. It seems like only yesterday I was gnashing my teeth while driving Thomas to school because they lost his bussing information in August. Now it’s time to say goodbye to preschool and all of the people there who have been part of our journey so far.
It’s been exactly two years since Thomas was diagnosed with ASD. Those first days I remember like it was all a dream; the memories are fuzzy around the edges and wavy like looking through a rainy window. Many of those moments were spent with a lot of tears. I’m surprised I didn’t shrivel up like a prune from extreme dehydration. I remember Thomas seeing me cry. He didn’t ask why I was crying (now he does, if I am), but went into his room and grabbed a big stack of diaper wipes. He quietly came up to me and held them out for me to take, which I did and then thanked him. He didn’t know why I was crying, he didn’t ask, all he knew was that when someone is crying, they need something to wipe their eyes with. A promising start on his road to compassion and sensitivity; things he now displays (most of the time) in heartwarming fashion.
Thomas was actually playing outside with some of the neighborhood children this afternoon. Some kids who live nearby were playing outside with water guns, so Thomas ran in to get his little squirt gun from the bathtub and he asked if he could go play with the other kids! Yahoo! Thomas is very good at following the rules these days, and I can trust him to stay in our yard or the driveway when we’re outside. I told him he could go if he stayed out of the street. He and the other kids ran back and forth behind the house, drenching each other. Thomas didn’t mind getting wet and I think he had fun. When the other kids’ mom came to call them inside, Thomas got upset and actually cried a little until he spied a neighbor’s vintage car in a driveway and wanted to go inspect it. The owner of the vehicle was very nice and let Thomas sit in the driver’s seat! He loved it, and little does that neighbor know that Thomas will be keeping a close watch on his driveway this summer.
Our family vacation is just a couple weeks away already! Thomas and Hayley are both very excited and I feel utterly unprepared, as usual. Actually, I’ve been pulling the kids old summer clothes out of boxes and lots of it still fits! I can’t believe that we’re already to the point of being able to put the kids in the same clothes for two years in a row! Hayley’s stuff from last summer still fits, and Thomas’ shorts are just a little shorter. Double yahoo! I remember last year, right before we went on vacation, I had scheduled an appointment with the new neurologist to see about getting Thomas on Clonidine. We were going crazy here, trying to get Thomas to settle down at night as I recall, and I really wished that we had gotten the meds for him before we went to Missouri. I bet this year is going to be a lot easier because of that.
Jonathan and I were talking about how for the past few years - well, since we had Thomas and then Hayley, so six years – that every time we go on vacation or up to the cottage we would look at each other, exhausted on the ride home and say, “Next year, things will be easier,” or “Next year, it’ll be better.” Guess what, folks? Next year is now! Last year, Thomas was still really iffy with the whole number 2 thing and Hayley was still in diapers! Thomas wouldn’t go to sleep at night and had a penchant for running out the door when nobody was looking. In fact, on vacation last year, he snuck out of our cabin completely naked and ran down the little road to the fishing dock before someone caught him for us. That instance was frustrating, but also hilarious. He was just so gleeful that it was hard to be very angry with him.
This year, we have no diapers to pack. I can’t imagine Thomas trying to bust out of the cabin if he knows that we’re going to take him out to play or swim just as soon as we’re dressed or whatever. He comes in from outside with about ninety percent compliance these days so I’m pretty sure that we won’t have to drag him kicking and screaming (you know I mean that literally) inside anymore. The only problem I can see us having this year that we didn’t have last year is the bug thing with Hayley. She is terrified of all bugs, large and small, and I’m a little concerned that she’s going to want to stay inside not only for the whole of our vacation, but for the entire summer. I can’t convince her that bugs are our friends and they make flowers grow and the old standby: “They’re more afraid of you than you are of them!” None of these arguments do any good.
Thomas has been expressing trepidation at swimming in any and all lakes again this summer. At the very end of last summer, he was beginning to be more comfortable with swimming in the lake at the cottage, surprising the socks off all of us. Unfortunately, there seems to have been some backsliding; our socks are firmly back on our feet. Last year, Thomas finally told us that he didn’t want to swim in the lake because the fish scared him and if I recall, it took us a long time to figure that out. This year, he’s latched right onto that explanation. We’ll see how he does. The thing we have going for us is that on vacation, we can go swimming in the lake anytime, but the pool opens at 10:00 or 10:30 a.m., many hours after the kids are awake. So if Thomas really wants to go swimming in the morning, he might have to settle for the lake. Unfortunately, since it will only be June (we used to vacation in Missouri in August), the lake is still pretty cold. Nothing’s ever easy, is it?
