Letting Max Grow Up.

Max has always had the spirit of a wandering gypsy. He has always been a bit of a Houdini. Add to that the fearlessness of any young child, and his super human Viking strength (from MY side of the gene swamp, thank you), and you have a kid who wants to go places (preferably on his own).

I let him run ahead as we walk to the park. He likes to look back every once and a while to see if I'll give chase. He is free to roam the backyard by himself (with me observing from the kitchen window). He is even at the point where he can be on a different floor than me for a few minutes at a time and I won't freak out. I guess that's what being 4 years old is all about - a taste of that independence he has been longing for all his life (49 months...I suppose that's a long time if it's all you know).

He has scared the shit out of me at times, making it half way down the street in only a t-shirt and a diaper before we caught up to him. He was thrilled, my heart didn't stop racing for a week. And like any child, with Autism or not, he is too damn smart for his own good. He has mastered how to unlock both the front and back doors of our home. Because of this we have to keep the safety latch on the front door at all times and I have installed an extra lock at the top of the back sliding doors out of reach from his surprisingly nimble fingers.

On Sunday night I awoke to the sound of Max downstairs. It was 2am. Everyone in the house was asleep. I padded down the stairs and looked into the family room to see Max sitting on the couch with a cup of milk. He finished it, extended his arm to hand me his cup and said "more milk". Since he had a cold, being thirsty made sense. I just hadn't realized that he was already at the stage that he could figure out that he could go downstairs all on his own, open the fridge, get his milk and drink it, without my help. Huh.

So what to do with my Max? I haven't slept soundly since this 2am discovery of him partying by his lonesome in the pitch dark. Off to Max and my favourite stomping ground we went today, coming home with a $12 GE motion detector for his bedroom door. It has a chime sound, an alarm sound, or it can be turned off. I also got one for his window (to keep the girls out). Hey, the kid's growing up, you just never can tell what he'll be up to next.

This picture was taken the summer Max was 2, already exploring the world on his own.

Please consider supporting Team Maxwell in the Autism Speaks Toronto Walk For Autism. It would mean the world to us.