Emotion

The day started off on a good note today!  I had called Dylan's teacher to set up a time to meet with her for PT conference next week.  While I was talking to her she started to tell me how excited she is about where Dylan is headed.  I think she has told me the same thing recently but for her to tell me again, it must be good.  She said she is noticing that he is really starting to look at you as if he is saying, "you are teaching me and I want to learn what you have to teach!"  She wondered if we are seeing the same thing.  I would say he has his days where he is really in tune and then we have a few days that he is all over, but for the most part, yes I feel good about where he is going.

She said she feels he is really starting to "connect" and that is a REALLY good place to be.  That is the base for the skills he needs to learn and from here things could really start clicking and we should begin moving forward.  I love her excitement and can tell that she is really trying to help my little guy! She said we will talk more next week, so I can't wait to see what else I am going to hear!  She said the potty training is going pretty well there and he has only had one accident which was a "crappy" one.  I told her for that one, you just really have to watch him and catch him at the right time.  That is when I drive myself crazy because I am "pretty sure" he needs to go and don't want him out of my sight.  That can go on for hours some days!

Later on last night, we were eating dinner and Brielle was giving us attitude and taking it out on Boston.  After she said a few mean things, both Brandon and I yelled out.  Except when Brandon raised his voice we got a reaction out of Dylan.  Dylan and Brandon were sitting on opposite sides of the table, and I had honestly forgot Dylan was even there because we recently purchased a booster seat that we could strap him into for the purpose of getting him to sit and eat, well it is working.  I had my back to the table getting everyones dinner dished up and Dylan had just been sitting there, quietly!  When Brandon raised his voice, Dylan started to let out a very heart broken cry.  Poor kid had his feelings hurt and hurt pretty bad.  I went to comfort him and told Brandon he better come over and make sure Dylan knew he wasn't the one getting in trouble.  I think he was thinking, "I was just sitting here minding my own business and then Dad yells at me."  I could see him thinking he was getting yelled at because he was the only one sitting at the table and right across from Brandon.  Anyway, the poor kid cried for a good 5 minutes and even then seemed a little sad.

The good thing about this reaction is that he read Brandon's emotion!  Part of Autism is that they are unable to read emotions and react incorrectly.  Many times they may laugh when they should cry or something like that.  So although my heart was breaking for my little boy that did no wrong,  I was also rejoicing that he understood the anger in the tone of voice, only it was directed to someone else.

Also worth noting:  We are on day 3 of Dylan wearing regular pajamas and not taking them off through the night!  We still duct tape his diaper, "Just to be safe!"