Goodbye, Five-Year-Old Boy. Hello, Six-Year-Old Boy.Yesterday our sweet sweet Leelo turned six years old.
Unimaginable.
We were to celebrate with cupcakes at school, then lunch at Sewerage, and then a park afternoon with a bunch of friends. But Leelo got barfy and so none of that happened. Instead Mali and I stayed home and played Doing Laundry while waiting on/for him to feel better and vomit less.
Today we partially made up for yesterday's lack of festivities by taking Leelo to dinner at Sewerage. We were joined by JP and family (including my Auntie Cranky, JP's MIL, who is visiting). There Leelo got to have a Lassi and all the naan bread he wanted, and we sang him Happy Birthday twice--which was insufficient according to the boy being feted but would have to do as the restaurant was very busy. But I love that Leelo loves for us to sing to him. Tomorrow at his for real birthday party we will all sing him Happy Birthday as many times as he wants.
I am so impressed by all the many ways he is becoming a big boy and taking care of himself. He can now get slip-on shoes on without help, and his putting on underwear-pants-shirt routine is a slick one.
His language is improving, too. Not so much in length of sentences; more in naturalistic voice tones and affects, and in language use. He has a nice, bright, LOUD, "Hi, Daddy!" (or whomever he's greeting) that was frequently absent during the whispery Adderupp stage. If you ask him what song he wants you to sing, he'll reply with the song title, e.g., "Frosty!" (AIIIGH) instead of saying, "I want you to go sing Frosty, Mommy." Also general requests are met with, "Yes, Mommy," instead of "I want to XX on the XX, Mommy."
His potty training has been going really well, too. He hadn't had an accident for weeks until today when I was sitting with Dr. S in her office telling her how great Leelo has been on the Fukalin XR, how one example was how he hadn't "...had an accident in...
OH FUCK, he's peeing on your chair, I am so sorry!" No matter, I am still going to keep him in underwear from waking until 3:30 daily, and when we have breaks from routine such as spending all morning at Sage's son Big A's birthday party in a jumpy house, we will decrease his potty interval from 90 to 60 minutes (his accident happened at about 70 minutes).
I am zonked but the point is that Leelo is a sweet dear spaceman who is trying very hard to adapt to our Earthling ways but doesn't always understand why but even so is doing so very well. It has been 3+ years since we realized that our theoretical Leelo and our resident Leelo are two very different boys. But I no longer care. I love who he is, not who he could be. He demonstrates frequently that he loves us as much as we love him. We are all in very different places than
we were at that time. I like this place better.
Technorati Tags: adhd, autism, autism awareness, autistic, Leelo, parenting, special needs parenting