Alexzander did a great job trick-or-treating this year, running around happily ringing people's doorbells, saying "Tricky-Treat!", and sorting out all of his candy when it was all over. He made a pretty handsome Thor, even though about halfway through our meanderings he lost his headgear (that would totally be -10 to armor stats) to Tony (+5 to armor) who wore it around, and I even managed to get a good picture of it!
Since last post, Alex's biological dad has moved away, and so now we are setting up Legal Guardianship with Tony, so that in case anything happens to me, he will be there for Alex. This has excited not only my family, but Tony's as well, because this makes Alex a part of their family. Its like, giving birth to a five year old!
This has come at a very perfect time for Alex, because he has started referring to Tony as "daddy" when he needs his attention, and it makes it so that its not confusing when I call him "Tony" to him. Now I can start using the same lingo he does, which will be strange at first, but in all honesty, Alex decided long before this happened that this is what he was going to call Tony.
We are taking a break from swimming, and we are spending this time concentrating on getting him to realize that sometimes, you have to stop playing to do some work. At school, they work on projects, and here at home, it will be things like cleaning or reading for his school reading challenge. His teacher has found that it is much easier for him if we work stepwise with him, rather than just giving him the whole task and expecting him to understand the steps. So, for example, when cleaning his room, the first thing we will pick up will be the books. Because we don't want to hurt our books. Next it will be the cars, because nobody's feet like stepping on cars in the middle of the night. After that, it will be the other toys, then blankets, and finally any clothes that may be laying around will go in the basket. He has gotten really good at undressing and making sure his clothes go in his clothes basket (that is another miracle done by Tony). We look forward to seeing how well he does with this, and hopefully he will transition into being able to do the task without needing the steps.
At school today, Viterbo hosted the 7 Rivers Research Symposium, and the keynote speaker was a lady named Meg. She is an ecologist, and when she was doing her research, she was a single mother, so she spoke about balancing her family, career, and life. Afterward, I spoke to her about Alex, and how I could use what she was talking about to help him. She first suggested that outside will be the most miraculous place for him to be, because it is quiet but yet booming with things that he can sense. By taking the time and letting him discover things one by one, he will become comfortable with it all, and then he might take things that he likes to do inside, outside. She understood that he is a very technologically driven child, meaning he likes to learn things via computers or even from his books. So she said that once he gets a grasp on outside, then he can bring things like an iPad with him outside, and he can get the healthy sunshine he needs while not stopping fueling that brain that needs to know everything. She autographed her book for me, and addressed it to him. She said her sister-in-law has and autistic son, and she said that just by me coming up and asking her about this, shows that I am really willing to do anything to help him. I told her this is very true, and that I read whatever I can about different case studies to see if I can apply anything to Alex. And before we said goodbye, she laughed, and said, "Don't forget the mud. Boys love mud." So that is where all of my money will probably be going later on in life... to buying Alex clothes because he plays in the mud too much.
This may sound silly, but I am perfectly content with everything right now. I have forgotten about the whole getting married thing, because honestly, by taking on Alex as being his own kid, Tony has showed that he loves us more than anything else in this world, and will stay with us as a part of the team. He has showed me that he is willing to be my partner, to be there by my side to help me with whatever we need. This is so much bigger than a proposal. Its so much more important to me that he shows that he doesn't just want me in his life, but that he wants Alex too, because we are a package deal. I am starting to think there is sometimes where he prefers Alex over me anyway, but that is the way its supposed to be, isn't it?
He and I have Alex's parent/teacher conference on the 22nd of this month, so I will probably update this after that. With everything that has been going on, there are times I almost feel out of breath because I am smiling so much. I have a feeling that it will just get worse, because this next semester will be a big one for me, after that Alex will start up swimming again and I will have research to do over the summer, and that will bring us to my graduation next December. At the glorious age of 26, I will be working on my Masters degree, have a beautifully gifted son, and we both will have someone there to back us up, making us happier than we have ever been.
