Estée KlarThe Joy of Autism

I am remembering the days when Adam watched endless reruns of The Sound of Music. I actually think he had a crush on Maria, with her sweet voice and blonde hair. From the time he was a year old, some of you might remember this story from Between Interruptions: 30 Women Tell The Truth About Mothehood, Adam watched Maria and the Von Trapp family intensely during his first birthday party. He still relaxes everytime I sing songs from that movie, usually as he tries to get to sleep.

I’ve written a lot about Adam over the years, carefully finding the right vignettes to maintain some semblance of privacy and dignity. Sometimes I simply gush. While there are some struggles, as a one-time-mom, I cannot help but relish in everything Adam does. He is, and I’ve heard this someplace else, my heart literally walking about the earth. Although autism is important — we’ve had many valuable discussions through our blogs — it also doesn’t matter in the way I love my child. Adam is Adam, and he has brought me great joy.

Forgive me for the slow-coming blog posts these days. I have been thinking a lot about Adam and this explosion of language, his talking, communication — his expression of feeling and will.

I’ve also written occasionally on how to write about our children and of course I am thinking a lot about this now. I acknowledge that Adam is not a willing participant in this, although I’ve tried to get his “permission” to write about certain things. It seemed tenuous in that his communication was difficult to come by. I would ask Adam to type a yes or no to certain things I wanted to make public. It was sometimes difficult to tell if his yes was intentional as he would either quickly point, type or even say a “yes,” in an effort to fulfill my need for an answer. This has changed in the last while. Adam’s intention is much clearer now.

In my last post, I wrote about watching Adam express his will in “early intensive” therapy. Although I was emotionally attuned to him, I see his intention even more now watching videos in retrospect. Therapists talked too loud. They didn’t sit and listen. They didn’t join in with him, early on, in his version of games and communication. Amidst a mish-mash of discrete trials and play therapy, I heard a faint “don’t” in the video when a therapist tickled him. I am certain, as much as I like to think I am listening to Adam, that I spoke too much and didn’t give him a chance. I’m certain there are moments I also didn’t hear him. Children are often not listened to. Non-verbal autistic children are, for the most part, ignored.

Still, while I must lay down some rules for his safety, Adam also needs a safe place where he can express himself, to me. For Adam who may read this when he gets older, I hope he will understand (and perhaps forgive…or maybe he will cherish me for this, I cannot predict) his mother’s need to express herself. I began blogging in 2005 (fomerly joyofautism.blogspot.com) during a time period that was highly volatile and polemic in autism, and in an atmosphere where everyone wanted to change Adam, simply because he is autistic. I’m not saying this atmosphere has changed. I have, however, changed. As Adam’s mother, I value the learning of discipline, rules, and being educated equally as much as finding one’s own way, creativity and uniqueness. We all must learn it and so, Adam was born perfect.

Although I still wish to feel his feather-like hair brush against my face, and although I still want to hold him like my baby, he is no longer. He is expressing his sincere need for independence and his need to be heard. I search his face for that baby I birthed and I see an older boy take his place.

I want to say farewell, not to blogging or writing about autism necessarily, but perhaps to a type of blogging where I made certain assumptions, and a type of writing that talks about one’s child as a cherished baby. Adam and I, in addition to all the changes we have experienced that have formed us today, have entered an entirely new phase. I’m watching how both my outlook and writing will too.

So, I will continue to choose my words carefully. Here, I mark a new era.

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Tonight has been a most remarkable night. Adam has probably talked the most he has in his lifetime.

I have no answers why. We’ve supported him, taught him, spent six years fine-tuning, changing and adapting things. By “things” I mean his therapies and education, devices, strategies, habits, you name it. We made sure he didn’t do things too soon, trying to be attune to Adam’s needs, which have been many. His needs keep changing. It’s a journey. It’s a dance where the steps keep changing, a jazz troupe with a new riff or musician every few weeks. We aim for consistency yet nothing stays the same. Adam never stays the same.

As I said in The Autism Acceptance Project video a few years ago, “when a children are happy, they can learn.” Sometimes I had doubts. Should I have pushed Adam harder?, I asked myself after he lay sound asleep after a difficult day, or a day when I was challenged by others who insinuated I was not doing enough for my child (while not really knowing us). I’m not here trying to give myself kudos or to dismiss the choices of others. Yet, there is a part of me tonight that is proud that I stuck to my guns by doing what I felt was right for Adam as well as my needs and values as his mother.

Our lives, as that saying goes, are comprised of the choices we make. I’m quite certain I’ll continue to make mistakes like all parents, but overall I’ve always believed that being as sensitive to Adam as he is senstive to his environment and to others has been a necessity. By viewing it as such, I made the choices accordingly. For those of you who don’t know us, this started Adam was only 18-19 months old. By the way, I expect my ideas and parenting style to be continuously challenged. It seems to go along with the territory of being a parent. It is gratifying that once in a while we get some kind of affirmation about the choices we have made. That is what this blog post is, in part, about. But really, it’s more about the need to be sensitive and to be open to change as well as our ability to adapt. These are the “things” I have to continuously re-learn. I hope I’ll get better at it.

Adam has had quite a year, not to mention years of going through “people” in his life because of the education and support he has required. His life has been pretty consistent, mind you, but not without upset, as life is for everyone one way or another. This year, he began a new school and the change took a few weeks of getting used to. He lost his words and he engaged in more “OCD” or ritualistic behaviour, desperate to create order out of chaos.

Over the course of four weeks, this has abated. He still has some difficulty letting go of some of the rituals that he began as a result of the change.

“I can’t stop. I can’t stop,” he told me tonight after I silently redirected him towards my bed. Too many words from adults can be irritating not to mention too many “no’s.” He has taken to getting in and out of two bath-tubs in my home. He wasn’t that happy with me, but the crying was brief, about two minutes. I turned on the soft music, helped a rash that was bothering him to soothe Adam a little more, and we just hugged. “I can’t stop,” he said again calmly.

“I understand you are telling me you can’t stop,” I repeated so he would know that I was listening. His body relaxed and he lay deeper into my arms.

That was the only challenging part of the evening. The rest was a night of Adam telling me that he went to the zoo today, that he saw a Gorilla and a Lion, that his rash was “itchy…it is bothering me,” to what he wanted to eat, in full sentences — not the usual two or three word phrases. On his walk he said things like, “I want to go this way,” or “I don’t want to go there.” Perfectly. In the evening he asked for certain lights to be turned off. When I was getting it wrong several times over (there were a few lights on and it took a while to figure this one out), he pointed towards the hallway. “Turn the light off outside!” he said forcefully. Phew. Glad I finally got that one right!

He was asking for books unseen (therefore unprompted… all of this was not prompted in any way), and we read quite a few, of course ending with Dr. Seuss. Tonight was Horton Hears A Who …”a person’s a person no matter how small…”

Change is hard. Change can be good. We can’t stop change. Finding the right time to teach certain “things” has been a challenge because Adam is bright but very sensitive. Knowing when to push and when to back off is based on the uniqueness of Adam, not solely on Adam’s autism. I thank the team who keep sticking with us on this remarkable journey.

A remarkable, notable evening.

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Adam is clearly settling into his new school. He is happy when he returns home. He comes with a journal telling me what he has done as well as a day-timer for scheduling and organizing. I’m sure liking this new school. Prior to this one, I had Adam in an integrated setting where I didn’t get much feedback on what he was doing. I put him there in Kindergarten because it was a Montessori school and at the time he needed to be calm with others in a school setting. It was good for him at the time and I’m grateful he went there.

Here in Toronto, however, I haven’t found a truly “Inclusive” scholastic setting. We have integrative settings where an autistic child is segregated for part of the day and reintegrated into a “regular” classroom for another part of it, if I can describe it swiftly. The problem with these settings is that the onus is always on the autistic or special needs child to conform to the “regular” or “normal” setting. That setting usually has one curriculum and is rarely adapted. The work is usually completed in the same way by all the students.

The Inclusive setting, ideally, would not only adapt and accommodate a program to the needs and capabilities of the child but also teach the “normal” students the innate value of the “special” students. Ideally, we would regard everyone as different, but equal — not ghetto-ize, or make them “terminally unique,” if I may reuse a term from Amanda Baggs that she used a few years ago at M.I.T in Boston. A subject can be taught uniformly (about, say, Volcanoes), but the students might manifest their comprehension of the subject in different formats depending on their interests, talents and capabilities. All these manifestations or expressions would be highly valued.

This doesn’t exist here in Toronto (to my knowledge). So, I’ve put Adam in a school where he is with a variety of different kids, not just autistic kids. There are kids who are mentors there to him (he really likes that and looks up to the older boys), has social skills and life skills classes in addition to his academics that are built to suit his needs. Like many other special needs kids, he now has an I.E.P. (Independent Education Plan).

A year of big transitions, including a change of schools, has definitely taken its toll on Adam, but he is still a gentle child. He can become frustrated, but he doesn’t act out on others. When he is anxious it is very difficult for him to communicate his needs.

As I often say, because little things are major around here (although we don’t overdo it with fanfare), I have to tell the story of driving Adam home today, when the language was easier. It is an indication that he is making sense of things again.

“How was your day, Adam?”

“Goud,” he said in an almost Swedish-sounding accent.

“What did you do today.”

“Walk.” He did go on a nature walk today.

“That’s great,” I said smiling, giggling a little, trying to keep my eye on the road while turning my head slightly to see him from the corner of my eye as he was sitting in the back seat. “What else did you do?”

“Art.” Indeed he did that too. He made me a Thanksgiving turkey out of construction paper that is now taped on our kitchen window.

“Why don’t you ask me what mommy did today?” I suggested, thinking that he has a right to ask me questions — our kids get so “grilled” by them. “Say, Mommy what did you do?”

“Mommy what didyoudo?” he said it so quickly that the last three words sounded as if they were one. He said it without hesitation, looking straight at me.

“I went grocery shopping and did some work today at my computer,” I replied.

And so it was. Just another day.

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We have to protect our little joys. I was thinking of this as I was putting Adam down to sleep this evening. As usual, we read Dr. Seuss. He eventually yawned and put his head down on his pillow. It sounds “normal,” I know. Around here, hums, noises, hand-flapping, smiles, and some words (difficult to come by) are our normal. Also “normal” is Adam’s soft hair that I can’t help recounting over and over because he presses his head gently into my face before he drifts off to sleep.

Adam has adapted to his new school which will accommodate his special learning needs. Today, he brought home a Recognition Certificate for his accomplishments — on focusing and “completing daily tasks.” I thought it was a wonderful idea to recognize his accomplishments. I loved it also because Adam was full of smiles when he came home from school today. Thankfully, his cheeks are still so round that when he does so they just get fuller like the moon. Time has not taken them from me yet.

As his parent, I have a right to enjoy Adam’s brief childhood. I’ve been in this autism world for six-and-a-half years now with Adam (he is eight) and I’m always breathtakingly amazed with the copious amounts of information about autism, usually presented in dire terms, that infiltrate parents negatively and make them worry. We worry so much that we blog, enter information on Facebook and Twitter about autism endlessly. Okay, let me speak for myself by hiding behind the “we,” won’t you? If we’re not actively doing that, we at least read so much. Worrying about our children, autistic or not, seems to be part of the parenting job. We all want our children to learn. I am not against research or reading the information. Yet I do think it’s okay for parents to take a break from the autism tornados brewing out there.

Autism doesn’t steal our children. Fear and worry steal precious moments with our kids. It steals our happiness with what is. It might be the reason why I find it difficult or frustrating to read some things these days. We still need more “positive autism” out there.

I cannot think of times more special than these: reading to Adam, watching him smile, being witness to every accomplishment (no matter how minor), and simply putting him to bed, to name a few. Thinking of how quickly this will pass — when he will no longer have the famous cherub cheeks and tiny-voiced giggles, well, I want to know that while there was worry constantly spinning around us, and a race to make Adam “better,” that I really did work on being the calm within the storm. I want look back and know that while I served him well to find the best-suited education, I also took the time with him to just be happy.

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From the time Adam came into the world, he could shift my mood. His distress became mine, his happines set me aglow. I remember when he cried and my stomach clenched. I thought it was because I was (and am) a first-time mother. I physically reacted to Adam’s every cry as if I was to dive right in and save him.

Adam is older now. Manifestions of discomfort are different. He has just started a new school and much like it was when he moved with me into our new home, his body jerks as if there is a word behind each abrupt movement. When Adam gets anxious, he can speak less. Instead I get a twitch, a jump and maybe an um hmm kind of grunt. We thought, a few months ago, that Adam was having seizures. Now that we know (via an EEG) that he is not having them, and I am significantly calmer than before. I remember that the twitching passed and so I expect they will again. It seems that with Adam, there are always many steps back before he takes another leap forward.

Yet, even in knowing this, with every grunt, I can’t help feel the exact same way I did when Adam was born. It feels like that early maternal instinct, perhaps. I feel I have to be there to help him, to soothe him. The issue is, it’s getting less possible for me to do it the way I once did.

Adam cannot be comforted by the things that soothed him when he was an infant. All I can do is practice being not only a calm parent, but one who can teach him how to manage himself in these times of stress. For any parent, I imagine “being a calm parent,” takes practice. On those sleepless nights, I’ve managed to teach Adam to read alone quietly in his room and he seems content there. I am trying to teach him to go to the equipment he has for squishing and climbing when he needs this, and he can go on walks for up to three hours to calm his nervous system. While he can’t do those walks on his own yet, at least there are some outlets he has that are self-empowering. Lots of physical activity can also be extremely calming.

Even though I know Adam will be okay in a couple of weeks, and his words and phrases may come back even stronger than before, I just can’t seem to help myself from feeling his discomfort. I simply try not to let in infiltrate everything and the way I interact with him. Yet I yearn for a smile and a giggle during these times.

It is no wonder then, as I walked in the door today, that Adam changed my mood in an instant with a smile. I got him ready for bed, read him a couple of books and he turned over angelically onto his pillow to go to sleep. As I turned out the light, he grabbed my arm to put it around his small body and nestled his soft head in the crook of my neck.

I understood his message loud and clear this evening. Mommy, I need you. Stay with me, I imagine he would say if he had the words to say it.

Something so simple helps me understand everything.

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Sometimes a simple photo inspires me. This one was taken over a year ago. The gal Adam is holding hands with is the daughter of my most beloved girlfriend in the world. Life got a little hectic for everyone and Adam didn’t get to see T (the girl) too often this past year.

T was here with her mom about a week ago and in Adam’s way, he swam at his own pace, doing his own thing. The water calls him to dive under, I imagine because the feeling around him makes him feel secure. For Adam, tight spaces and squishes are an essential part of living well. T was diving into the pool with such enthusiasm, asking her mom to “look” as she demonstrated the various poses while jumping and then plunging into the water.

In the picture above, we had spent a weekend together in the same hotel room. Adam got cozy with T, although in Adam’s way it always takes some time. Last week, Adam watched T closely, sometimes doing his thing, gazing out of the sides of his eyes, sometimes watching her straight on. Unlike other children, however, Adam cannot yet consistently initiate play or “get in there” at the same pace. I know that if T were around a whole lot more, he would be following her around, or at least he might go along with what she wanted to do.

It’s just that way with my little autie. He is like the proverbial cat circling and scoping. Eventually he’ll just snuggle in your lap.

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In the sweltering heat, Adam has returned to the camp he has attended for several years now.

“Hey Adam!” the counselors greeted, eager to embrace him under a tent yesterday which did not quell the wall of heat in Toronto. Adam processed the swarm quietly, standing before the semi-circle of enthused pubescents taking his time to assess the environment and some new faces, let alone the emotional excitement and kindness before him. Sometimes it just takes some time before Adam is ready to jump into their arms with a like embrace.

Before yesterday, Adam and I spent the week together — that space and time between the end of school and the beginning of camp. Long, hot days needed to be filled because Adam doesn’t love to stay at home. He loves to go out and explore new places all the time. He likes to walk and walk, and if there is an intriguing pathway or staircase, he might convince me to go along with him. Sometimes I can convince him to come with me too, and so “well-behaved” is he with his now single mom who needs to get “stuff” done. I find myself, in my newer role, asking for his patience with me and he obliges generously. I realized that we have become quite a dynamic duo in our new circumstance, although I admit that being a single mother of an autistic child isn’t always easy in the sense of Adam’s differences and my need to always check my beliefs and expectations at the door.

It also occurred to me that my mother, in a different time and circumstance, spent a significant amount of time with me. She lugged me to the grocery store, her doctor’s appointments. Where-ever she went, I accompanied and I recall what an important life lesson this was. I got to see how my mom acted around the doctor and the dentist; how she interacted with the butcher, the neighbour, the banker, and how she negotiated with life.

In this day and age of programs — and don’t get me wrong, I believe children benefit by them — I not only thought about how children lack going outside to play the way we did when we were kids, but that I tend to get things done only when Adam is in his programs or in school. My parents didn’t have the benefit of such programs. Nor were they considered as necessary in the day-and-age of “go outside and play until the sun goes down.” I suppose our parents got things done when we were out of the house too, but I remember being more connected to their activities overall.

Certainly it’s not safe these days to let our children out all day long without supervision. The world is a changed place indeed. For my autistic boy, safety is of vital concern, friendships are not made easily, and he would wander off and get lost if left to his own devices. Adam’s playmates are aides and kids with aides, camp-mates and like children in music, art or sports programs. Sigh…the world today.

Yet last week, that dear week, I had Adam to myself. Adam accompanied me (almost) everywhere and didn’t complain, in fact, he seemed to enjoy every moment with me. When someone stepped in for a bit to see him, he took me by the hand to insist I come with. All parents know those days when the babysitter arrives and the child doesn’t want mom or dad to leave. My son Adam didn’t express that all too much when he was two and three-years-old. At eight, he is able to show it more.

And so, last week when I left to do some more grocery shopping on my own Adam asked his aide, “where’s my mother?” For a child only beginning to talk in sentences, and ones that are still very hard to come by, it’s quite a question. Perhaps he had been thinking that all along. In those earlier days, we parents may be inclined to think that just because our autistic children are not verbally articulate, that they are not wondering, thinking or understanding so many things the way a typical child might. Surely this sentence, relayed by his aide to me, was music to my ears, but I’ve never ignored the fact that I think Adam often wondered many things.

As I walked into the house carrying a load of groceries, overheated and glad to be home, I saw Adam at the end of the hallway in my kitchen, eating his snack looking at me, beaming from ear-to-ear.

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This is the phrase that Adam begs of us when he wants to jump.

Here is a video of Adam that his dad taped which may just put a smile on your face as much as it does mine. This is the kind of exhilaration I think we all need at least once a day!

I haven’t put music to it yet. I was thinking of the song When You’re Smilin’ by Louis Armstrong. Then again, I sort of like it without any music at all.

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I have to admit that I’m adjusting to my new role, still, as single mother. There are lovely days, like yesterday, when I want to spend my time with Adam. We awaited a thunderstorm that never came, but watched Disney’s Mulan anyway — a movie Adam has not yet seen. Adam is more interested in watching movies from start to finish now that his attention is stronger, his awareness keen. In the “early days,” Adam could only sit still for about ten or so minutes and movies were simply not possible. These are rather nice days, like the time today we spent walking around the Scarborough Bluffs, listening to the waves gently swell upon the shore and watching the geese fly off as elegantly as immaculately set-up dominoes. Adam lead me to the shore-side restaurant and we ate together. I’ll admit that sometimes I miss having someone to share this with us, and then again I cherish every moment now because I have learned that life changes in a moment.

Sometimes we spend our afternoons by the pool and he is content in what I have called his nest (see picture) — I have this chair outside even though the rain is determined to wither the wicker away. He will curl up after a swim and stare at the maple leaves hanging above him in the sunlight, reluctant to depart at my declarations that he must be getting cold and it’s time for a hot shower. No, he prefers to cuddle up and listen to the birds. I don’t blame him — it was the same chair I healed in after surgeries a couple of years ago and I dragged it outside because it’s far better to heal outside than in.

As his treat, I purchased Adam a new nest for his room today so I could put it in the corner where he has come to read his books. I placed it under a canopy I also created for him with twinkling lights when I set up his room in his new house. Like all things these days, it was over-wrapped. We arrived home and I was determined to get this simple task done for him. He helped me lug a bag inside and I asked him to play on his own nearby. He wanted to eat, he wanted to do something else — he wanted my help.

“Adam, mommy doesn’t have any help so you have to be my helper today,” I said. New single-mother talk, I’m thinking. But I’m also thinking how frustrated I am over trying to do everything as quickly as possible, wishing right now, in this moment, that I had someone to do it for me so I can turn to Adam instead.

“Just wait, Adam,” I say with irritated breath, unraveling yards of ties and cardboard with an inappropriate pair of kiddie scissors that were handy. It’s me that I realize I’m telling to wait, though. Adam is doing just fine.

I struggle to carry the big hoop of the chair to the upstairs and set the chair up, going as fast as I can.

“Come see, Adam. Come upstairs,” I am now asking after I just told him to stay put. I imagine my son thinks I’m nuts. He obliges me and goes into the chair and curls into it contentedly reading his series of I Spy phonics books, reminding me that “it’s not a horse; it’s a duck.” His language skills have improved. He talks in more sentences, in particular to tell me everything he sees. I suck in some air and sit on the edge of his bed, enjoying him enjoying the chair. I like to watch Adam happy and calm. Heck, I like to experience myself happy and calm.

I know I have to prepare dinner. The grandparents are coming soon, Adam was searching hi and lo in my kitchen for something, as usual, to eat. It’s a wonder the boy is so slim with all he eats.

I am breathing more calmly thinking that I know I can’t do everything at every moment I want to. I know that something’s gotta give; of some things I must let go at certain moments, and maybe even for life. I am still in that growing phase of learning to be on my own as a parent. Although life isn’t bad, it isn’t the same when you have to do everything yourself. I am learning, still, after two years to be okay with this.

While I get a lot of snuggles from Adam and a lot of kisses too, I realized that I don’t get a lot of “how are you’s?” from anyone, really. I don’t get the “how are you really doing?” kind of caring-talk. I suddenly realize it when Adam pops out of his room and hollers from the top of the stairs, “I wub you!”

“What?” I ask loudly as I am in the kitchen preparing food.

“I wub you mum!” All his words were spoken with force but with the same intonation. Then, I hear him go back into the room and shut the door.

I am stunned. I think Adam is saying thank you for the chair, for his little nest. I think he totally knows how much I love him.

For what it’s worth, I needed that.

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For over a month now, Adam sings this song a lot to me. It’s so ironic, isn’t it? My “little guy,” as he now calls himself, is beginning to talk more, is in to show-and-tell, and even playing the “teacher” — asking me to answer HIS questions (as if I didn’t already know that he is the Master and I am the student), and his voice has grown louder when he talks as if he is saying HEAR ME, HEAR ME… HEAR ME!!! When he sings this song to me, I imagine him thinking of how indeed when he grows older, he knows he will grow stronger.

Watch out world. Adam is coming!

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“This movie is rated G and is suitable for all audiences.” Adam sat on the couch when we arrived home from Florida, both of us exhausted after waking at 3:30 in the morning to catch an early morning Westjet flight that was cheaper than the rest. The early bird catches the worm indeed, but you have to be prepared to be sleepy for the rest of the day. As I turned on a movie for Adam and I to watch together, this silent caption came on the screen and he read it, fully understandable to me. Adam’s speech over the past several weeks is becoming markedly clearer. Then, something suddenly went wrong with my cable box (as it has all year long — I need to write a separate post on the ABSOLUTE RIDICULOUSNESS OF TELEVISION TECHNOLOGY AND HOW FRUSTRATED IT MAKES ME, but let me save that for another day), and then the sound went mute.

“Oh my God!” exclaimed Adam. “Oh my God,” he said again like a Valley Girl. It is something that I say when I’m COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY FRUSTRATED WITH THIS NONSENSICAL TECHNOLOGY, and my boy is listening indeed. Coming out that cherub mouth, that voice that still sounds so very tiny let alone the mouth that says so little, I am of course ecstatic and laughing.

“You’re right Adam,” I affirmed by hugging him and scruffing up his dark blonde hair, “Mommy is really fed up with Rogers Cable. Just wait and I’ll see if I can fix it.” I attempted changing inputs, mumbling my frustrations to myself lest Adam learn some words I’d prefer he learn later on in life, checking cables and rebooting several times — all which seem smart and logical attempts at fixing the sound problem. Instead, Grandpa, who studied electrical engineering no less, jiggled the box and voila… the came sound back. If only I had thought of that. There is irony in this, I hope you see. Sometimes we try so hard to fix things when all it needs is a little jiggle.

I have to say that this Monday morning, the day after Adam’s 8th birthday and back to work and school, I am kinda floating on air. It was very apparent to me how much Adam needed me during this trip and how happy he was to see his mother happy again. Something has shifted during the heavy period of separation and we seem to be settling in. I think it started when I created my own space, made it mine and began to live in it. I knew that fixing a house was a process of also fixing me. I had thrown every effort and last bit of energy making it Adam’s and mine — a place where we could be happy again, and it saved me during this most difficult time. Yet by throwing myself into this, Adam was also needing me. While I was still living in the matrimonial home during the process of fixing up this house, the weight of it felt as heavy as being buried six feet under. The house I had built with my ex now came to represent loss. The foundation that had been faulty in that house and needed rebuilding, so symbolic. So how fortunate I was to have the time to create something new for Adam and I — something now that I have come to appreciate so much. So blessed do I feel today with spring upon us and having finally made that move so that we can move on with other things.

The house has a lot of light which was important to me when I found it. I wanted Adam to feel the light and the air as well. Moving was tough, as many of you already read in previous posts. For Adam, security is found in environments. It takes him time to adjust and this was extremely difficult beginning from late last fall. Every time I thought we were over a hump, we were right back where we started with really bad-looking spasms. I did not see Adam smile very much during this period, and it made my sadness and worry ever more pressing.

Despite having the house prepared, there is always more work once one moves in — things don’t work properly and living in the house day and night, I began to feel how it wanted to live. The house asked me to learn all of its idiosyncrasies. It asked me to support it and work with it. It has been a couple of months now since we moved in and I believe I am getting to know her well. I think the house is certainly feminine because she is beginning to support us.

In Florida I was relaxed and didn’t worry about the house or anything back home as I had in the past. I had completely relished in taking Adam many places, and swimming with him every day. I noticed his great huge smile returning, the way he listened and talked to me more than ever before. It seems every year and every trip and every new experience (even after hard ones) sends us forward again. Adam wanted to be with me so much as he grabbed my hand or told me what he wanted to do, looking up at me, smiling. All he wanted was his mother back and all to himself. Going through divorce I know I had tried even harder to be present for Adam, feeling so guilty about the breakup and upsetting his life. Such contrast in my states of being seem so stark now that time has passed and I am feeling relaxed again.

Returning from the airport was a little strange as this was the first time we would return from Florida to our new home and I realized it when we took the new route. I was concerned that the house would feel foreign again after nearly two years of hard labour and emotional work. Yet, when Adam ran up the stairs towards the front door, threw off his shoes and ran into the kitchen with a great big smile, that was it.

I did it, I thought. I made this house a home. Adam’s smile and getting right back into his routines was testament to this and his being here with me upon a return was one of those markers in my life that I will never forget. It was as if he gave me further permission to relax as he stuck in his metaphorical flag in our family-room floor. We belong here and we belong together.

The following day I set out hurriedly to prepare a birthday party for Adam that was suitable for him — the chocolate birthday cake, the sparkler, his favorite friend and cousin, and some family. Presents came next. The boy who never understood that there were presents underneath that paper several years ago (the paper had been entertainment enough back then) has learned to open them with greater anticipation. He was happily answering questions and hanging out with people, and took his favourite friend by the hand to show him his room. When we parents checked in on them, they shut the door on us, not wanting us to disturb their playing.

Adam’s happiness clearly has a direct effect on mine, and mine seems to have an effect on his. His happiness over the past twelve days has helped me and his feeling at home in his new house makes me feel as if I’ve earned, and learned, something important. Both the house and Adam pulled me out of my head during one of the toughest times of my life. Adam needed me every day and it was every morning that he got me out of bed during the first six months of my separation. Then, it was the house and a vision of Adam and I being happy together again that became a necessary obsession. Working on the house was the promise of hope.

While I have not written about my situation, and my deadline for finishing my manuscript is the end of this year, I’ve come to realize that even writing about writing here is a little difficult because I’ve been so close to intense emotions. I’m not so certain that no matter how a divorce happens, that the details matter in the end, although they make for my truth and the story itself. A marriage is so utterly complex that it is difficult to pinpoint one exact reason for it not working, and it is simply too easy to cast blame on people. For now, that’s all I say about the subject, except that like I always talk about in autism, life is supposed to be filled with challenges and joys. We so often want to avoid the things that are difficult but we forget that all of life’s events are unavoidable so we might as well live them well and let them build us. For that reason that I must be an optimist by nature and I will always be a risk-taker. I will always believe in love, partnership, marriage — whatever works. I believe in it even when I have tripped and fallen on marriage before.

I am still on a path on my own and with Adam. I am finding out where and who I am again. These are two separate things — this healing from divorce as well as raising a son with autism, yet I cannot avoid intertwining the experiences as Adam and I grow together. I do find it difficult to relate to other people who are divorced, for they do not have autistic children, and going online to talk about parenting children with autism is a little difficult when the parents are not divorced. Like my house, our lives are unique and we are growing into them every day. While I’d love to find easy answers on some days, or support networks on others, they never quite hit the mark and then I realize that I am truly on my own, no matter how supportive and uplifting friends are.

After all the guests left after chocolate cake on a sunny spring day, I remembered the day Adam was born and showed him a picture that sits at the entry of his bedroom with his birth announcement. His dad was equally excited the moment Adam was born and it felt a little odd that he was not with us yesterday, but I plugged on knowing that this absence is now permanent, at least for me, and our relationship as co-parents is also evolving and growing — all another step in accepting what is and what makes Adam and I a complete family. I let the moment pass through me thinking back to those eight years and quietly asked Adam to the wall where I could measure how tall he was. I miss the old measures in our old house where I marked the wall there beside his bathroom. I no longer have the measures when he turned two, three-years-old and so forth and something about that makes me feel a more profound loss, as simple as markings on a wall beside a bathroom may seem.

So at twilight I asked Adam to stand next to the rocket-ship measure I placed on the wall beside his new bathroom. He stood against the wall and I put a book on his head to mark it right, saying very little, feeling hushed by this moment:

47 inches
Adam, 8 years old
April 11, 2010.

Right there, on the wall of his bedroom. Like the flag being put into the ground.

Home.

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A continuance of my last post “My Very Important Job,” I want to talk about how Adam becomes very relaxed by the ocean. The sound of the waves, of course and that beautiful sunshine — everyone was out on the beach yesterday on Easter Sunday, digging in the sand and laying around like beached whales. Adam I spend our days together and I take him to restaurants and new places to explore. I take Adam many places in order for him to become accustomed to them. He also enjoys new places especially when he’s relaxed. It is my goal as Adam is able to travel — although we have had difficult moments in our eight years. Yet I’d have to say that the difficult ones are rather rare, which might be why I tend to spotlight them when they occur. It’s funny, really, because as I talk to other parents, it seems to me that other “typical” children have had heart-wrenching tantrums. When Adam is distressed, what is heart-wrenching for me is not the “behaviour” but rather the fact that he can’t tell me with words what he needs. As his mother, I’ve had to learn to never take Adam’s movements, gestures, even types of cries for granted. They are all important pieces of information to me.

The kind of transitions that have been happening such as moving into a new home during a divorced situation is not fun for any child. Adam had his moments of extreme anxiety. In fact, it went on from the late fall until late February. A long stretch like that made me wonder if I’d ever see him smile again. Even though I knew it deep down in my heart, I did experience those moments of absolute panic.

Being in the south with Adam reminds me how anchored he is to me; how much he needs and wants me, not to mention how much he wants to see his mother smile. Watching how much he reciprocates, plays with me, wants to go everywhere with me, and talks (yes talks — he is very verbal down here this trip), is testament to the need for quality time spent with mom doing easy things. It’s also proof to me that I have to work on my own happiness and spend time doing the things I need to do to nurture it because I am not just doing it for myself. It has taken me two years to begin to realize this.

During that transition from fall to late February, there were days when he was so stressed that Adam didn’t even seem like Adam anymore. If I were a parent who would use this kind of lingo (which of course many of you know I am not), it may have seemed like “he wasn’t even in the room,” (which we know that of course autistic people are aware despite what others think of their behaviour, but this seemed like the appearance of a what Kristina Chew has coined the “neurological storm,” and I like that expression very much in terms of describing what these moments are like). For others who distill autism into that robot-type of cold person, Adam may have appeared “distant” — that we were “losing” him. He had lost all of his words, even. For Adam in particular, who is very affable and connected to people he knows well, this was a stark contrast. Yet, maybe mom was similar. Maybe it seemed like mom wasn’t really in the room anymore as I was trying to find the ground beneath my feet again after separation. I wonder how I may have appeared to my son.

Here, happy, relaxed and spending all of our time together, Adam has spoken the following:

Scenario 1: Browsing through a Payless Shoe Store looking straight at us: “Are you done yet?” Now for a parent with a more verbal child, this might seem like a nagging comment. For a parent with a child with few phrases, we were so happy, laughing hysterically!

Scenario 2: Getting ready to go but mom is trying to find her keys: “Let’s go, let’s go! Time to go, mom!!!”

Scenario 3: As he is doing something contentedly and I am trying to rush him out the front door: “Be patient with me.”

Scenario 4: After swimming and tugging on a wet bathing suit: “It hurts me.”

There are many more phrases coming out of his mouth down here in South Florida. He is not speaking in paragraphs, but such sentences are really nice surprises that this mom obviously doesn’t take for granted. Of course, Adam also has lots of physical activity down here. For a child like Adam who always needs to move around, a full day of swimming, running on the beach, climbing and swinging at the park, and going for long walks all seem to be another key to organizing that precious neurological system of his. Mind you, I’m not sure how to replicate the extent of this — the sheer quantity of exercise back in Toronto. Yet it’s another clue into how Adam needs to organize his neurology and attests to the things that make him feel happy and calm.

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I had a very important job today. One that surpasses all administration, bills, and the like. My mandate for the day? Make Adam giggle… a LOT. I realized that he hasn’t been giggling as much as he used to. Adam, who is about to turn eight, is becoming a much more serious little boy, but he is also a little boy who is experiencing so many changes.

Adam is on vacation and as usual, we head to his home away from home: Miami. I haven’t been away with Adam since December and we are both having a really good time. Adam looks up at me often and smiles, hugs me, grabs my leg and is a lot more verbal down here. He seems glad to be spending lots of one-on-one time with his mother who is not otherwise distracted getting our lives back on track. I realized, while walking along the edge of the ocean hand-in-hand with a contented little boy, that in between school and programs and the big move, we have been drifting through our days trying to survive all of the changes of separation and divorce. While it’s a part of living, may it only be temporary! Adam sure likes his mother happy (and so it goes, mother likes Adam happy too).

Sometimes we just keep doing things day-after-day and we forget about the sun, the ocean and the importance of doing very little in order to make room for all of the possibilities. In the sea of change, we try so hard to find the lifeboat forgetting that all of this too is what life is about. Change is the only thing certain — so goes the saying. With change, opportunities.

When the sun shines and Adam smiles, there seem to be so many more of them.

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Adam and I have birthdays fairly close together. It’s my birthday today and Adam and I spent the entire weekend celebrating.

Our first excursion was to Canada Blooms at Toronto’s Exhibition Place. We spent about an hour-and-a-half strolling and looking at garden constructions (which I love), and Adam seemed to enjoy it too. He loved the many water features and water falls and in particular, a tunnel made out of leaves in a children’s garden where little fairies were tucked into trees and other flora. Little surprises abounded like an Alice in Wonderland world — wine glasses embedded in wood logs, a tunnel made out of leaves, and other neat objects for the imagination. In our new garden at our new house, I’ve tucked away similar items for Adam to find — mostly animal and Buddhas. I think I may be hiding a few more things to make it more magical. There’s nothing better than watching a child intrigued and delighted by such things — simpler things that we can create rather than those we must buy.

As you can see from the photos above, this was the first time that Adam ever allowed his face to be painted. He chose the “red lady-bug,” he said specifically. “Red.” He smiled and tilted his head a little at the tickling feeling of the paint brush against his skin. I am thinking of how crowded it was and the little guy enshrouded by taller people. I specifically remember that feeling as a child — in malls and other crowded places where adults felt like a dense jungle above and around me that eventually I’d feel overheated and get a headache. While we left before it became too much for him, I’d say an hour-and-a-half was a pretty good chunk of time!

The following day we spent out for lunch and a walk, and finding ingredients for the recipe of (red) tomato soup he wanted to cook (he is reading a lot of cookbooks). So we made a list and went to the grocery store where I asked Adam to push the cart, and find each item on the list. He really enjoyed this even though he only spent about ten minutes with me in the kitchen because, frankly, I do not want Adam chopping onions and garlic for the handling of the kitchen knife. Instead, he got to stir the pot. Just the smile on his face from being able to do his own shopping was enough gift for me. Adam so wants to do many things and his pleasures are mine.

Then, we went to Riverdale Farm to see the animals. The Clydesdale horse came to see us and the cow’s face was so close Adam was enthralled. He watched it chew its cud for a long time and like watching him shop for groceries, I enjoyed watching him watch the cow. He reached out his little hand and I lifted him so he could pet the cow along its nose. He was also interested in the sheep. I reminded him of the sheep in Babe – the movie he watched almost every day when he was a toddler and wonder if he was thinking about them too. We walked around Riverdale and then came home to make dinner for my folks.

So it has been a simple birthday for me, full of earthly delights. And as for the ladybugs, let me quote Francis in Under the Tuscan Sun — may there be “lots and lots of ladybugs” in the coming year. I think I’ve shown this clip someplace else before, but this has been my movie of 2009:

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I was taking a forced break this week. I contracted that nasty stomach flu last Friday and today is the first day I’m feeling better. It’ll knock you down off your feet if you get it.

I realized too that it was a forced break and how I push myself too hard. I had been moving and fixing this new house for a year, I’m still doing it, I tried (with success) to transition Adam through a difficult time moving homes and then I suppose I should not be surprised that I got that nasty flu bug.

I got to thinking about how we push through things and quality of life. I’m a real doer by nature and compulsive at that. I often put way too much on my plate until I realize I simply cannot complete all the things I set out for myself. I don’t like to call it ‘setting myself up for failure,’ but rather just that I still need to learn that compulsive doing is perhaps a way to avoid other things (which granted, I’ve been dealing with), and it’s just time to slow down and catch my breath.

We do it with our children too. We can throw so many things at them and change the course too soon. We doubt their schooling, their programs and we throw, oftentimes, too much at them to see “what will work” (to make them “better” or “progress”). Despite my intellectual knowing that this can create stress on children as well as adults and stress hinders any kind of progress, I’ll admit that I have the same feelings as many other parents out there. Thankfully, for the most part with Adam, I’ve stayed the course, that is, once we found the course that seemed right for him.

Adam and I are due for a break soon — to enjoy our new house, take leisurely walks in our new neighbourhood — to learn the routes that Adam enjoys creating to soothe himself and feel at home. We need to play a board game and some more Go Fish. We were doing nicely with that game. I helped Adam turn-take by using visual cues and the joy of this is, we are enjoying each other’s company in playing it.

I am feeling better now and Adam has been smiling a lot in his new home. One of my strategies was to bring Adam home early from school with his aide and surround him with familiar people, and this helped a great deal. It took three weeks before I really saw him begin to settle in. As you may remember from previous posts, he was having severe spasms that made us very worried about him, not to mention extreme sleep difficulties. Anxiety will create sleep difficulties in anyone, not just autistic people. In order to ease his anxiety, I’ve followed Adam’s lead and have tried to stay on top of when he is about to become over-aroused so I can redirect him to something less upsetting. Adam is pretty good at trying to do all of this for himself, but there are simply times, as he is still a child remember, that he needs some guidance and support. It strikes me as odd that we expect our autistic children to “behave better,” and do not consider the stressors in their lives with more deliberation and compassion. It was when I wrote down many notes about Adam’s behaviour during this transition, for there came a point that I didn’t know what else to do, that I not only came to see the patterns clearly, but I, as his parent, could settle down myself. My worries and expectations about Adam may have been so high, that I forgot to slow down for him too. I thought I had charted a pretty good course, but it wasn’t exactly what he had needed. It was at this point I decided to bring him home early from school for two weeks and enable him to have fun in his new home. It was also at this point that we began to see positive results.

Transitions are one thing — they are very difficult for all children, autistic people and especially for Adam. During these times, we have to take more time out of our “regular” routines to accommodate our autistic children. Sometimes we think we are doing everything we can and we can become frustrated with our efforts as parents. When we take the time to look carefully, it becomes easier to alter the accommodation to meet the person’s needs.

So we’ve come this far, and indeed I’ve learned another valuable lesson. Now….BREAK TIME! (Or maybe some Go Fish).

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