It's Great To Be 8.....Or 9.....And Autistic

Many of you know that we are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of our customs is for the children to baptized at the age of 8, After they have been interviewed to be sure that they understand the doctrine, of course. What does this have to do with autism, you wonder lol! Well, when your child is unable to understand the commitment they are making by being baptized, you may choose not to have have them baptized. We had to make that choice with James. It was especially hard because he's the last baby, numero cinco, and I was really looking forward to savoring all the 'one last time' moments in his life. This was going to be the last time I would have a child baptized. 

And then he couldn't be baptized. 

There are so many 'last times' that I don't get to experience, and I feel a bit cheated. I'm looking back at my experiences with Jack, thinking to myself 'if only I had known that THAT was actually the last time'....anyway, I digress. James didn't get baptized. It was hard. We got over it. End of story. 

Except......my beautiful friend saw my pain, and did some special photos for me of my sweet autism baby, to celebrate his 8th year. 

She made secret plans with my amazing girls to sneak over to my house and take pictures of James while I was out. She's a professional photographer, so, of course the pictures are gorgeous, and my little dude is sooo handsome. Can I say it too many times? I really do have the best friends, and I don't know how I would have gotten through the last few years without you guys.... *sniff, sniff*.....I have been so blessed to have you as part of my village.

Anyway, Please enjoy the following pictures of my lil dude commemorating his 8th birthday.....he's going to be 10 this fall, and he looks so young here....Time flies....

My Quirky Son

James is obsessed with Toy Story. Jack was obsessed with it when he was little too, but he outgrew it when he was about 7, which was right around when James picked it up. Jack was a die-hard Buzz Lightyear fan, James is Team Woody, or, Jessie in a pinch. I'm sure you've seen Woody lurking somewhere in just about every picture I post of James. These are a few of James Woody dolls that I saved in his special box for when he's an adult. My favorite is zombie Woody with no arms. We replace Woody pretty regularly, probably one every 6-8 weeks, depending on whether or not James is teething. We went through 3 in a month when his adult molars came in last fall lol. I spend a lot of time sewing them back up and replacing their stuffing because they are expensive to replace, usually about $35 a pop. He got some new Woody's in December.....a friend of ours works in the souvenir business and has a friend at Disney, who got us 14 Woody dolls at cost, and kindly mailed them to us in time for Christmas :) Cost means we only paid like $14 for them, which is a huge savings for us. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, we do have the Best friends, Thanks again, guys! The video of him opening them is kind of hilarious lol!

James' love of Woody and Toy Story has been long running, and he's a fixture in our household, just like he was for Andy in the Toy Story movies. When James was little, he used to recreate scenes from the movie. I did a post about it that you can read here: 

https://onebighappy7.blogspot.com/2015/04/toy-story-reborn.html

I think that's about all for this post, Thanks for reading and being a part of our lives for a bit. I've really been trying to be more open about how autism affects our lives since it's Autism Awareness month. The last post was a little sad, so hopefully this one makes up for it :)

Cheers!

April Is For Autism Awareness

A few days ago, I was snuggled up on the couch with James. He was watching The Jungle Book, or Mobley as he calls it, on his kindle. He was smiling and giggling as he watched the characters sing and dance around. I asked him if he was watching Mobley and he grinned at me and laughed. I started to sing along with the Bare Necessities song. He stopped smiling and laughing. He looked up at me. He wasn’t smiling. Faster than I could react, he reached up and hit me. Twice. Hard enough to stun me, hard enough to hurt my feelings. I gasped and stopped smiling. He looked at me. He was unhappy with me. I tell him ‘say sorry mom, for hitting you’. He echos me awkwardly. I look at him. I'm not smiling. He watches me for a minute. Then he laughs at me. I feel tears welling up and running down my cheeks. He goes back to watching his movie. I wondered to myself, what kind of crazy world am I living in where that is what happens when I sing along with a song? In what universe is this a normal occurrence? When did things like this become so commonplace in my life that it’s not that big a deal anymore?

And then I realize, This is life with autism. This is my normal. Things like this happen to me, my other kids and my husband every day. We make jokes about some of the things that happen, and we post lots of cute pics and videos of James on Facebook and Instagram to document the good things, but this is the reality. This is the every day struggle. This month is Autism Awareness Month. And this is my reality.