a thousand words.

(Max is wearing a pressure vest that provides him with
sensory input and helps him self-regulate.)

This picture blows my mind.  Mind = blown. Kaboom.  This is my Max, the kid with Autism.  The kid who spent the first month of Junior Kindergarten throwing tantrums and attempting (some times successfully) to bite his teachers.  He's happy, smiling, and clearly engaged.  This picture represents the progress Max has made in the last 2.5 years.  This picture says it all.

When I dropped Max off at jk on class picture day, I told his teacher not to worry if Max wasn't into sitting to have his photo taken.  It wasn't worth stressing him and everyone else out for the sake of a school picture that I probably wouldn't want to buy anyway.  I told her that the previous year, his daycare had been able to get him to sit, but he had tears streaming down his face in the proofs I got back.  The year before that he came home with carpet burns all over one side of his face because he got so upset he threw himself on the floor and had a meltdown.  I had zero expectations.

The next morning, his teacher happily reported that Max not only sat for the solo shot (and they had five to choose from) but he also sat for the group picture.  I picked my jaw up off the floor and told her I was amazed, but YAY!  Good stuff!  The proofs we got back were terrific, so I went ahead and ordered a bunch of photos for the grand parents.  It was only this week that I got to see the group photo, and my heart sank a bit.  Max is in the picture, but he is off to the side, looking at a toy, not engaged at all.  But, you know, he's in the picture.  That's progress.  Next year he'll move a little closer to the group and drop the toy.  And the year after that maybe he'll sit with the group.  As much as the group photo was a dose of reality, it is merely a stake in the ground for us to measure milestones against. 

This little boy is simply amazing.  He teaches me more each day and has shown me what pure joy looks like.  We're doing it Max! We're winning!