We are officially at the halfway mark for their dads deployment, and to be honest it f-ing sucks. Now I apologize that I haven't blogged in three months but honestly it has taken that much time for me to adjust. And I'll also be honest and say that I've started writing this about four times already, each one had a different emotion, I was sad, depressed, pissed off, and more... I like to think I'm sane at the moment, but that is highly debatable.
Now these past three month have been draining when it comes to Conner. Reminder, autism and change do not go well together. At the end of April my children's father left for his first deployment. Mid May Conners first year of school ended. Conners ABA therapists started coming more often at different times. Conner started summer social camp, and now camp is almost over and we will be getting ready for kindergarten at another new school. If you care to fit anymore life changing events into my child's life- this would be the time (remember we still have three months to go- anything can happen).
Conner has had more tantrums within the past three months than he has this past year that we have been in ABA. Great thing about our "applied behavior analysis" therapy is the cool perk that they graph everything on a daily to keep a record of his changes. So needless to say this kid has been on a hiatus for the past three months.
Now all jokes aside. These three months have been good too. The bond I have with Conner has gotten stronger, we still struggle but finally after 5.5 years of him being here in this earth I am finally hearing the words "Mommy" and "please" and "thank you" and all those other great words that parents take for granted. My child who they told me will probably never have a normal speech is talking. He is no longer "non" verbal. He might be have very low speech and not be able to understand everything yet- but he sure can tell you all of the animal names and Disney characters and he can prompt for almost anything he wants. To be able to talk to my child, is the best feeling, and I am so hopeful that one day he will be able to explain to the world what his life is like through his eyes.
Lets keep in mind this chapter as I call it is hard. This is all me, no spouse, no family for 500 miles, only a few friends who will actually pick up the phone... For the next few months I look forward to getting life a new sparkle. And don't worry a new sparkle means many many more blogs and updates!
