Proud Papa

     I heard about horror stories, the one about Autistic children not being potty trained even after their 10th birthday.  Today I am a proud papa, because I can rightfully claim that Kael is potty trained!  He has shown so many improvements and has impressed Erica and myself tremendously.  You may never truly understand the significants of knowing what this milestone means for parents of an Autistic child.  Kael's therapists would even tell us to prepare ourselves for the reality, and to expect Kael to not be potty trained for a few years.  And here he is, within the last week he has made managed to go by himself with no help or direction for either parent.

     Before, it would take us forcing him to sit on the toilet, and he would kick and scream until he was placed upon the potty.  Then, he would stop fighting, pee, and act if nothing ever happened.  Not loving this routine of his, I was at one point willing to accept the fact that he will be in diapers well into middle school.  But Kael's councilors suggested Kael wear underwear until he learned to potty and it worked!  It was very tough on Erica and I to remember to stop what we were doing every hour to put Kael on the potty, and the screaming and fighting did not help at all, but we did it!  And he is doing it!

Now the next challenge... Bed Time!

Improvements

Kael has shown significant improvements since the begining of this mmonth. I am not shure what has changed with him... not his diet, or any other physical factors, so I must think that it is the support that he gets from school.

For some odd reason, Kael has dramaticly impoved his speech. He is now able to articulate words more clearly than ever before, and because we are able to understand him more, he is able to carry a conversation. Albeit a short one, maybe two or three sentences worth, but still... his brain is starting to work with his mouth. And his ears are more keen and can hear the differences in the sound his mouth makes. I can feel as if the cloud around him is clearing... and I am happy, with Kael. I'm not so happy with Erica.

Erica has applied a colorful bumper sticker to the back of her car that says "Its not Autism, its "AWE"tism." Now, this bumper sticker nags at me in a couple ways. One of which is the vagueness of the crude pun. Is Autism like awesome? Cause it's not. Or is Autism like a cute little kitty, "Awe"tism? Cause it's not that either.

Another reason this sticker gets to me is that it ANNOUNCES to the world that we have a child with Autism, look at us! Hey, we have a child with Autism, we are special! Yoohoo, hey look, over here, yeah us... Our son is Autistic. Now, if our son was born with no legs, would we have a sticker that said "Being Crip is Hip"? NO. How about any other abnormality or deficiency for that matter. NO!

She says it is to show your support. So, the bumper sticker stays. Even though I don't know what we are supporting. A greater cause? A cure? Or just to spread the word about Autism. I'm not sure.

But... I digress.

Kael has shown so much improvement and has even spent the last nights without a diaper.  

Kael's Journey

A memoir about a boy.

But not just a boy, a young boy stricken with Autism.

But not just a young boy stricken with Autism, but more importantly, my son.

Kael, at the time of this writing, a young boy, in his 2nd month of being a 4 year old.

And when I say stricken with Autism, I mean Autism Spectrum Disorder. And on this "spectrume" or scale of severity, Kael ranks in the "mild" part of the spectrum. In fact for some tests, he tested just below the "Qualifying" margins, which qualifies him as Autistic. My sister Cheryl calls it "Labeling". Erica my wife and I called "It", much sooner, at about age 2... we knew. We knew our Son Kael was "Special", we knew he was "Different". Maybe just "Slow" or "Stubborn", or maybe even "Lazy", but we knew.

Labeling Kael is hard, because he is more than just those words. And Kael is more than words. However, if I did have to define him, I do like the word "Unique". It does capture what I witness with in him every day. A person, just as complex and interesting as you or I. A being that is fun and personal, loving and cheerful. Mostly happy but sometimes sad. Just like us all. He feels love... and pain, in the mean while, giving his love and being a pain, sometimes. Just like us all.

The "People" call him Autistic.

He calls himself "Kael".

And this is his story.

A journey, through his "Diagnosis" into what truly describes himself, UNIQUE.