Stacking Up the Odds or Building for Success?

Man I am overdue for an update... so sorry! I guess as the saying goes... no news is good news, huh? And fortunately that IS the case. Things have been very, very good with Zachary lately. His speech continues to soar, his social gains have been amazing too, and best of all - he just seems so much happier. I wouldn't say that he was ever an unhappy kid, by any means, but he was just so disconnected when the language and social desires weren't there, that it had sort of an unhappy feel to it. So now that he's with us and wanting us more, well it makes him seem connected and therefore happy.

Zach will be five years old Monday. FIVE years old. WOW! And I think that this is the first of the last three birthday's that he's had that I'm not dreading the fact that he's turning a year older. In the past, a year older showed us how far removed from other kids his age he was. This year, I am not holding my breath anymore. I feel that he's closer than he's ever been to catching up. And that is due to nothing other than persistance, and faith. If it weren't for the 4 years of "school" teaching him invaluable social and behavioral skills, and the 2 1/2 years of AMAZING therapists working with him every single week, he'd never be where he is. Early intervention... I'll preach it over and over until the day I die. Thank God we didn't sit in denial for a year or two. Life would be so much different now.

So this has been a week of planning. And a week of crossing my fingers and toes in hopes that I'm doing the right thing. I've signed Zach up for two weeks this summer at a YMCA camp. After many conversations with those that are in charge there, I've been reassured that he should be fine. I will still have my worries of course, but I think this is such a great opportunity for him. Sitting at home for 9 weeks all day long this summer is just not going to get Zach anywhere. At home he gets lost in himself when he's not directly engaged. It's like his down time, which we can all respect, but Zach's down time activities for the most part include reverting back to the old ways of stimming - using strange voices when making his little figurines talk, zoning out and not wanting interaction, jumping up and down in place and flapping his arms, being all around sluggish, and so on. I think he's pushed so much everywhere else, even when it's not intentional pushing (it just takes more for him to merely standing in a line at school for instance, than it does for the other typical kids in his class) that it makes him want to just veg out when he's at home. I get that. And I get that he NEEDS that, but not for 9 weeks! So summer camp here we come. And another week of a safety camp and another week of vacation bible school probably too.

So the big questions are: Is he REALLY ready for all this? Will it truly be good for him, or too much? Am I setting him up for failure or doing him a great service by putting him in all these different, independent social situations? I just have to hope that it's all in his best interest. And I really feel that it is. But we won't know until it actually happens. I just feel like we have to try.

So Zach's birthday party is this weekend and he is beside himself with excitement! He is all about being a big boy these days. Tonight after I was reading his bedtime stories I asked him if he wanted to help me sing "You are my Sunshine" as we used to do every night at bedtime. The reply I got made me smile on so many levels. "No, no no. I not a baby anymore. I am a big boy. The singing is for at the school now and we sing and move around and shake at the school. Not mommy anymore. I'm a big boy." So while the sentences are broken, and he's trying to get two different things explained at the same time (they sing and dance at school, and that's only where he wants to do that AND he doesn't want me to sing to him anymore because he's grown up now) I got his drift and didn't try to sing again :-)