Friday, March 2, 2012

A friend of mine commented that I hadn't updated Rylan's blog lately and I realized that I have been so busy with life that I honestly haven't had time.  We have had some illness in our family and I have been so busy dealing with that, that I have not had time or the energy. 
Rylan is his usual happy self these days.  I couldn't have said that a few months ago.  But I can now and love to hear that laugh he gives as if he is in on some joke that we are missing.    Everyday he says or does something that amazes us or surprises us.  Tonight as his Mom was helping him eat he wanted to do more of the scooping by himself.  Alicia does hand over hand feeding and usually after he has put the spoon to his mouth he lets go and then grabs it again when the spoon has been refilled.  Tonight he was not letting go and trying to discover just where this yummy food was coming from.  As he was scooping his food Alicia was saying scoop.  All of a sudden Rylan starting laughing and starting saying SCOOP as they were scooping up the food.  Another new word.  It sometimes takes a while to teach him a word and then you think he might not remember it, but somewhere down the road he will blurt it out.   
I sometimes wonder if he has the whole English language in there, stuck somewhere just waiting for the person with the right key to come along and unlock it.  To set him free from his Autism.  As I have said before his Autism reminds me of a curtain that he sometimes peeks out from and we see the real little boy that is hidden back there.  We don't want to lose this
 Rylan just set him free from his curtain. To be able to understand him, to teach him.  Sometimes I feel like the Blindness is second to the Autism.  I was thinking the other day how  you teach a blind child by touch and sound.  With Rylan he hates texture and doesn't like you to hold his hand and touch things.  He does love sound.  He loves to listen to voices and to music.  Some music he loves others he will tell you "NO" and "STOP" showing his displeasure. He loves to listen to movies and cartoons.  He will try and imitate the voices and laugh out loud when he gets it right. 
The other day Liz from Community Services brought Alicia his registration for Kindergarten.  Ryan and Alicia had longed for and dreaded this day.  Longed because he would do what all little boys do, go to school.  Dreaded because if he doesn't like something he can be quite challenging.  Only time and Rylan will tell us how it will go.