Eyes of God

Children are awesome, aren't they? They are incredibly accepting (well, until a certain age, I think) and see the most miraculous creations of God. We as adults tend to be blinded by all the complexities of life. Children truly see people and objects as God sees them. Well, Benjamin does anyway. I love that kid. And not only because he's my child, but because he is my teacher. He has taught me so much more than I could ever teach him. Sure, I'm teaching him letters, numbers, and eventually how to tie his shoes, but he is teaching me acceptance, joyfulness, and creativity.

A sampling of my personal favorites this week:

Acceptance: A little boy lives across the street from us and we've actually never met, so I can't say for sure how old he is, but he looks around seven. He walks to school, and I'm assuming that he's walking over to the local elementary school. We see him quite frequently as he leaves around the same time that we start loading up the car for preschool. He is very polite and always says good morning and generally just looks like a good kid. He is quite short and is just a wee bit chubby around the middle. (which is precious to me) Benjamin gets in the car today and rubs his tummy and says, "I like it". "What do you like, Benjamin?" "That boy. I like his tummy." and then rubs his tummy again and smiles.

Joyfulness: We love to go for walks in the afternoon, usually sometime between 3 and 4:30. This is of course the time that I should be making dinner arrangements because it takes forever to cook when you have two small children, but whatever, it makes him happy and Ethan takes a little nap in the stroller and it makes me feel better, too. Benjamin has the same routine, the same route, and it gets quite boring for me sometimes, but I don't mind too much because while we're walking I'm envisioning wearing smaller pants this winter. So as we're coming around the corner of the loop, he shouts, "Look, a purple leaf! Mommy, it's a purple leaf!" Just the look in his eyes made me completely break down in tears. And it makes me cry a little just thinking about it again. He was so incredibly joyful for this purple leaf. One purple leaf. I can't wait until the whole tree turns.

Creativity: Ethan has had a runny nose off and on for weeks now, so I've had to suction his nose with one of those bulb things. No idea what they're actually called. Benjamin walks downstairs carrying the bulb and says, "paint, Mommy, we need paint." And I ask why and he says, "for this pumpkin" and he bends the long part of this suction thing down to look like a pumpkin stem and just laughs about it. He amuses me so much.

Magic Stick

Scene: Mommy is loading dishwasher and little boy is playing in pantry.

Little Boy: Mommy, look, I have magic sticks.
Mommy: Mmhm, that's great.
Little Boy: No, Mommy, LOOK.
Mommy: Benjamin, those are batteries. That's not really a toy.
Little Boy: Yes, I know. They're magic sticks. Not a toy. A magic stick.

content

So, my little sugar buggar is doing so well. I can't even imagine life as it used to be. Benjamin is such a typical little boy now. He still has his quirks- don't misunderstand me, but he is very VERY normal from the outside perspective. He still has a delay in speaking and he does echo a lot of his language, but for right now, I am content with his development. He is such a sweet child. I really couldn't ask for more in that department.

almost voluntary vegan

So Benjamin goes without dairy, but that part is controlled by me; his lack of meat eating is controlled by him. What is it with some kids and meat? No idea where this odd behavior comes from considering that Warren is a meatatarian. I mean he should be on the Hillshire meat commercials where the guys are standing around grilling shouting "go meat!". They are seriously missing out on him being in their commercials. Maybe I should give them a call one day.

Also, is there an end to how much peanut butter a toddler will consume? I mean really. Thank God Benjamin isn't allergic to peanut butter because we'd be in some serious trouble otherwise.

GFCF for good

Benjamin ate something somewhere with either milk or wheat, or probably both considering the severity of the incident, but he was completely hysterical Wednesday. He woke up at 3am that morning and was awake until 11pm that night, which obviously made the situation a million times worse. Poor kid. Poor Mommy.

There are tons of research studies stating that the diet does or does not work, but it works 100% of the time for my child. I don't know what causes it and nor do I care, but when he ingests milk or wheat, he is a completely different child. All of his symptoms are a million times worse and his stomach is upset for days. He obviously has issues with those substances. There are so many different types of autistic behaviors and definitely a spectrum of severity, hence the Autism Spectrum Disorder label, but there has to be something to this food issue with some of the people with the condition. You'd think that with so many people affected there would be more research done on food, but for some reason researchers never want to blame food for ANYTHING. It's annoying.

Pretend play

Pretend play is HUGE in the world of autism. Either your child never grasps the concept or is extremely slow at picking it up. Benjamin is one of the lucky ones that has fully grasped the concept and it is so amazing to watch. He has done bits and pieces of it in the past couple of months, but not with any regularity. About five weeks ago he came up to me with a strawberry on the end of his finger and said "it's a pop". He calls popsicles pops. The reason why it's a big deal is because he knows that it is indeed a strawberry and not a popsicle. The significant factor is that he turned the strawberry into a pretend item. He was so incredibly pleased with himself. I actually have it on video and if I can figure out how to link it blogger then I'll post it.

Words that string into sentences

Benjamin has words upon words spilling out of his precious little mouth. Have I ever mentioned how adorable his little mouth is? Well, it is. Looks like mine if I do say so, and mine looks like my Grandmother's. That's as far back as I can go with that.

So I can't even keep up with his sentences anymore! I need to start writing them down because it's so amazing that I know I will want to look back one day soon and see how far we've come. It is always so comforting to look back at where we once were and compare it to where we are now. Benjamin started saying his first whole sentences (I love you Mommy, a cow says moo) in the middle of January. Now he's using the I, me, my, and your pronouns and it's just so strange sometimes to sit and have an actual conversation with him. He is using "W" words more often with meaning (Where the truck, Mommy?") and apparently that is a huge deal says his speech teacher. He does repeat quite a bit of words and some of his language mannerisms are definitely off a bit such as the pause between words (and this may or may not ever change), but that's okay with me. There are multitudes of parents who would love to be in my shoes and hear their child say that they love them. I am blessed beyond measure.