Come into my world and watch

I had a conversation today with a close friend. "You know I can see that Dacotah wants us to join into his world and he wants us to play with him. But every time I touch his cars or his sister moves something so she can play with him, he becomes very visibly upset."

We talked about it for a few minutes and it made sense, sad sense, but it made sense. Dacotah wants things a certain way. Think of OCD and then 10 fold it. He allows us in just enough to control us and if we move or do something he is not expecting it sets him off. There are times he will allow us to play police man and the bad guy, its for mere seconds before he takes over both cars and then gets upset when we "aren't playing" with him. A split second later he's absorbed into his own high speed chase.

His ABA therapist came over on Tuesday afternoon. It's the one day a week that we can sit outside and watch him play in the comfort of his own front yard. This week I really wanted to try to pin down exactly what parts of his character autism controls, what part the KS controls, and what part is a normal 4 year old. Her reply came as no surprise as she said the autism controls most of his daily life. So after having the "WHY DOES LIFE HAVE TO BE SO HARD" mommy moment for a second my next question was "how do we get him the help he needs to adapt to his environment instead of making the environment adapt to him". So over the next week she is going to go back to her employer to see what further services he may be able to get. Once I have more detail and a game plan we will share it. In the meantime I want to ask for prayers that God leads us in making the best decision regarding his therapy and his schooling in the upcoming months.

In May we are going to make the 10 hour trip back to see Dr. Sprouse in Maryland for his annual visit. Her expertise has helped tremendously already and I'm hopeful she can spread some more light on her most recent publication and how it can benefit Dacotah in the long term.  Then we will spend a day exploring the insect museum and the Library of Congress with Montana since she will miss her last 2 days of primary school. Hard to believe she is going to be a middle schooler next year! I'm getting old....er.

His speech has expanded 10 fold since Mrs. Goodman took over. There is still A LOT we can't understand but he sings songs that we can figure out. Jingle Bells in April anyone? Batman? Where is thumbkin but it's a random variation? Eeek I am excited because remember this is the little boy they told me would say at max 50 words. 50 ya'll. Some of my sentences are longer than 50 words lol. But he has surpassed it and continues to amaze us.

Daddy taught him to reply "love you too" when we say "I love you". He has spontaneously said "love you" but it's SUPER RARE but has happened. Those are the tiny milestones that we will always treasure and adore.

A Welcoming Team

We decided to sign Dacotah up for the local special needs ball team.  It's about a 30 minute drive and the games are generally played every Sunday.

Let me just say we were welcomed with open arms!!! There were no looks of why, who, or how. We all understood. We are live that kind of life. For the first time in 4 years we found a "fit". The manager of our ball team and Dacotah hit it off from the start. He hates people touching him bit instead held her hand or her shirt as she walked them around the field after being introduced.

Today I have a photo of our son walking with his head held high and with confidence something I long feared would never be seen. He did AMAZING. So glad we decided social was best.