New day, new start

This was the sunrise this morning at 6.15. The reason I saw it was because I had been up with Bright Eyes, getting him dressed and packed, all ready to go off on his overnight school excursion.

It was a bit tense at first. Yesterday at school he and a group of boys were playing tackle in the mud and received a little 'talking to'. My boy hates to be in trouble and he was pretty upset for the whole afternoon. When he gets upset about one thing, it flows over onto everything else, and we had four hours of "I don't want to go. Excursions are stupid. It's dumb. I'm not going. blah blah blah."

"Well, you don't have to go," I said. "But you have to get up in the morning and go over and tell the teachers you're not coming."

We put him to bed, and we prayed, and lo and behold, in the morning, the anxiety had passed. He bounded out of bed, had his brekky and was out the door on time.

If that wasn't great enough, when we got there, a little boy in his class came running up him. "Hey, do you want to sit next to me on the bus?"

And then, another bonus. He was sitting in the bus and as I was waving to him from the pavement, I began to wave with two hands and do silly actions and faces. And HE STARTED TO COPY ME! This is called mirroring, and it's something that children with ASD don't do. Neurotypical children copy and mirror their parents actions from the earliest stages, but ASD children just don't. 

So, not only had my son gotten over his massive anxiety from the previous day, but he had someone who wanted him to sit with him, and he was showing me that his brain is functioning well by mirroring my actions.

I am a completely happy woman today. There is not one thing that could take the smile off my face.