This year is just flying by. I do not know where any of this year has actually gone. My days fly by with a blink of the eye. We are just so busy with everything going on in life. Plus lots of big changes have been happening for our family. The biggest is I am officially a military wife. Hubby is at basic training for the Air Force. We are 21 days in and he will not be back home until November. So we have a while to go. It is a HUGE change for our family for sure. I have spent much of the last couple months preparing our family for this change to make the transition as smooth as possible for our boys, but especially for Marshmallow.
We have been hold up very well. Marshmallow is currently exploring and discovering emotions. Great timing for such a huge emotional change, so he is a bit of a roller-coaster ride right now. But I expected nothing less. We take it moment by moment. We have done a ton to help him with this transition though. C did a million and one videos before he left of reading books, singing bed time songs, just goofing off and a few love notes for each week for us all to watch. I stock piled the military, daddy leaving, books and we read one every night. Both boys also got a "daddy bear", a Build-a-Bear that is in military camo with a voice recording from C. I also got both boys a blanket that C slept with for the month before he left. A special daddy blanket that is full of hugs and love, for each of our kiddos. Marshmallow does like to bring daddy bear around with us from time to time, which is fine. I will not limit him doing this in any way. Skywalker just giggles and smiles when I play the voice recording and tackles his daddy bear. He too likes to drag his daddy bear all over the house.
I have also put together a paper chain for Marshmallow to countdown till our first visit to see daddy at his basic training graduation. Which is 30 days from today. That has helped his visually see the days we have till we get to see daddy. He has not fully grasped the idea, but does understand it. He knows we see daddy when we finish pulling them all off. But he does not fully get the why. And that is okay. We are just taking it one day at a time. He has some sad days and some very sad moments. But I can usually cheer him up fairly quickly. We talk about daddy, and what daddy is doing, and when we get to see him. He tells me "Daddy miss me." "Daddy leave. Daddy Air Show." "Miss Daddy." And every time we hear a plan he tells me daddy at air show school. He is too stinking cute.
So we are just chugging along. I am keeping things tied together and just going one foot in front of the other. Life is busy, which helps a ton. Marshmallow is doing about 20 hours a week of ABA therapy now. Plus he is doing the hour of speech, hour of OT and hour of PT. Plus karate 4 days a week. We stay busy. Between school and therapy, he has a full time job. But every minute of all of it is so worth it. He is no where near the same kid he was 1 year ago! He has come so far in such a short time. It is absolutely crazy to reflect back on where he was a year ago, to where he is today.
A year ago, he was saying one word sentences. Mainly with prompts or mimicked speech. Today he is telling me stories about his day and having full conversations with me. Today he told his ABA therapist about the time, months ago, when a bird flew into our kitchen window. How he remembers this stuff, I will never know. But he was so excited to share that with his therapist today. We are still lacking some language and he is still a bit hard to understand, especially to those who do not spend much time with him. But he is trying and wanting to communicate! A year ago, he would not look at someone in the eyes. He would not interact or play with a peer unless the peer initiated the play. He was barely even participating in parallel play (playing next to, but not with someone). Now he will go grab a peers hand and tell them to play with him or tell them to come and play. He will look you in the eye, sometimes with encouragement and prompting, but he can and will do it! We never force. My child who a year ago would only eat a few things and panicked about foods on his plate will eat a few bites of everything on his plate. Yes, I have to encourage and remind him of our 4 bite rule, but he does and with little struggle. We still have lots to improve on, but he is a seriously amazing kiddo. It is so amazing to see how far he has come in a year.
Our therapists constantly tell us he is the prime example of early intervention working. All the hours of therapy, all the hours of stress, all the hours of struggle are worth it. I put it down to all the hours of therapy, the consistency and routine we have put in place. We have picked out battles and I have my set expectations for behavior. I can not waiver from the lines we have drawn. It is hard, but so worth it. He never stops amazing us with what he is capable of. We are very blessed by him, and Skywalker too.
So life for now ticks on. Skywalker for the most part is just along for the ride for now. But he is starting to become his own little personality. And can not believe he will be 1 in just a few short days! I will hopefully post more about him soon. He is certainly my little fire cracker and always keeps me on my toes. But would not have it any other ways. So for now it is just me and the boys cruising along. We are doing well. Just taking everything moment by moment, and day by day. We can do it!
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