The Thomas Family

Sorry, Aidan didn't manage to get any photos taken today , we tried with Santa but it was a no go! Aidan had his ECI / First Steps Christmas party today. He was so excited by all of the helium balloons hanging from the ceiling he kept running back and forth asking for "Green one" or "Red one" and swiping all of the Christmas cookies. I went hoping Aidan's support team would be there (however they didn't show up), so I thought I would spend some time talking to the other moms.

One of the moms particularly hit home with me. She was in her young 30's, first time mom to a very active 2+ year old little boy. She was all dressed up in her local North Texan garb of black tall boots over jeans with a studded jacket, and she was completely out of breath. He son was keeping her busy, picking up toys, throwing them, grabbing other kids toys looking for a reaction from them, and playing with things that were not toys. Making high pitch noises. Well, this boy came over to Aidan and took one of his toys, and Aidan... well it didn't phase him. No reaction. This stumped the little boy and the mom came running over, I'm sooo sorry and she proceeded to sternly lay into her son. I told her, in all honesty, it's ok, it won't phase him, he has an older brother that does that to him all the time. She proceeded to lay into her son and told me, it doesn't make it right and I am so exhausted at the end of the day. I'm trying to teach him to share. What this mother didn't know and hadn't been told was something I had seen before. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see it, he was clearly on the spectrum. It was going to take a lot more than her "telling" him how to share and to pay attention. I took a moment to reflect on all of the progress we made with Sean since he was at that difficult stage and couldn't be more thankful we were past it. Being a mom to an active 2 year old can be challenging, but add autism on top of it, and it will make any mother lose her mind.

Before I got a chance to talk to the mom, she left the holiday party early, entirely frustrated. I said a little prayer for her on the way home, that she would soon understand why she was going through these difficult behaviors and hopefully be given the help she needs to get him on the right path.

Ian came to my rescue at the Christmas party after he finished watching Sean's flag football game. Aidan starts to "run" when he gets into lowd busy scenarios. I was physically tired from bending over and picking him up with my big belly in the way. I still try and push myself for Aidan, because I want him to have all of the social options Sean had at this age. We are hoping to get him into a mom's day out program in January. This will give me a well needed break during my last trimester (which is just around the corner.

Ok, have to run, Aidan is throwing things...