Celebration

We had a stellar day and night tonight! I am on a high!

Today was a day where I sat back and marveled at my son and how well he did with every experience he encountered. Autism did not take us down today!

I gave my husband the biggest smooch because I am high on life! He didn’t even know what was coming…lol.

Today, my Nico had the time of his life with his family throughout the WHOLE day. That is HUGE! He didn’t have one breakdown! Not one moment of agitation or distress. My husband and I got to experience what it is like to have a child that can move from one event to the next without a ton of coaching, prepping, or Xanax (for his parents).

I knew waking up today that we were taking a big risk thinking we were gonna survive the day with a one month old and Nico where we headed downtown, checked into our hotel, went to lunch, walked around, and then sat for a holiday lights parade without a major meltdown. I figured we would make it to the hotel and be lucky if we could enjoy half of a lunch excursion, but never in my wildest dreams did I think my Nico would be hanging with his cousins and family until 9pm at night without one meltdown when we started our day at 8am.

There were tons of people all around, lots of transitions from new place to new place, and more than enough overstimulation…think lots of flashing lights, gusts of wind, and tons of walking, but not once did Nico falter.

I was prepared to drop everything and head to the safety of our hotel room at any minute, but my superhero son proved to me today that he has it all under control.

My husband and I got to enjoy a phenomenal day AND night out with both of our sons (THANK GOD our one month old seems like the perfect child so far) where we got to eat, drink, laugh, and RELAX with our family without one meltdown.

I cried tonight, but not because I was exhausted or stressed. I cried because I was unbelievably proud of Nico. He impressed the hell out of me and proved to me once again that Autism will never be one dimensional or predictable.

Nico showed me that he is more in control than I give him credit for. He can manage himself and be in control of his own emotions.

On this Thanksgiving weekend, Nico showed me what it truly means to be thankful. Nico is who his father and I thank God for everyday because he teaches us what it means to appreciate the good things in life. To stop and appreciate how blessed we are to have such a charmed life. He keeps us on our toes, but that’s life. No one said it was going to be easy. We may have our hands full with two children now, but we wouldn’t want it any other way.

And, to top it all off, we dined on steak and champagne tonight! Say what?!

Today was a day to prove to all other Autism parents out there that our kids will never cease to amaze us. So, take the risk! Take that trip! Make that dinner reservation at the fancy restaurant!

I hope there are more days like this to come for all of us. We deserve them!