My Son

I know that I talk a lot about Grace and Caroline and have shown pics of the girls and Jake, but have just realized that I have never written a post just about him.

I thought about why I hadn't yet done it and I think it's because I feel so protective of him. He is my son and that little boy owns my heart! And for reasons I am still unsure of, I have a hard time writing about him. Not because I don't want to share him with the world, but I think because I am just protective of him.

When Jake was 11months old, I knew something was off with him. There would be many times that I would say his name and he would not budge. I could scream it from the top of my lungs and it was like he had selective deafness. He would not hear me or recognize that I was calling his name.

There were times that he would stare out the window at the willow tree. Watching the switches blow back and forth. He would just get lost in his thoughts. It was actually very serene and calm to watch him so still and content.

He was obsessed with opening and closing drawers. He was obsessed with anything that had wheels...still is! He could/wouldn't talk. His vocabulary was very, very limited.

The first thought that entered my head was that he is Autistic. So we started down the road of evaluation after evaluation. It was a long, long process. That involved many, many appointments with speech & occupational therapists as well as a couple of child psychologists.

After all the testing was done it was decided that he would start intensive speech and occupational therapy, otherwise known as ABA therapy. He started all this when he was 24 months old. The timing worked out to be perfect as I was pregnant with Caroline at the time and had just started my maternity leave. So the therapist would come to our house everyday for 6 hours a day. It wasn't long before we started seeing immediate progress!

After about 2 weeks of therapy, I finally heard what I had been waiting months and months for....he looked over at me and said "Mama"! There was no holding back those tears. So many worries vanished that day. And the smile that was on his face was one of pride and accomplishment. He was so proud that he was finally able to communicate with us! I will never forget that day!

He is now 3 1/2 years old and goes to a state funded school everyday for 4 hours a day where he still continues his therapy. They say that he is intellectually off the chart, and now they are working on his social skills.

He has come such a long, long way from where he was just a year ago and I am so, so proud of my wonderful son.

I love you baby boy!

~Mama