So we participated in our 3rd and probably final Autism Walk. A lot of people ask why I don’t want to do it anymore. Well, if you read my last blog, I mentioned that Zion is getting older, and I honestly do not know how to take on helping him understand his unique abilities. I mention to him (when he stems really loud) to “stop stemming so loud,” and he says, “I am not stemming; those are my crazy hands.” So now we call his stemming hands “crazy hands,” haha! However, again, I really don’t know how to explain Autism to him. This year he asked me why everyone was walking for him. I pulled a Zion and ignored the question, and went on with doing other things. Ughhh, life is hard sometimes!!! The walk was great, though! Our family and friends came and supported our boy, and our team raised almost $2,000! We had such an amazing time, and it was great to see all the support for the Autism community.

Zion has been doing great in school. His teacher says the kids love him, and he reads to them. Oh, his reading, by the way, is on a 3rd-grade level now. He is six and in 1st grade. This little boy is so smart. You teach him something, and it just sticks. His common sense abilities, however, are seriously lacking. He gets dressed and puts his shirts on backward, he will put his new underwear onto his ones from the night before, he can never remember where he put his socks in the morning, etc. We tell him to get something and explain where it is at, and he cannot find it anywhere. I worry about this at times and hope that it will get better. We always have to tell him “figure it out” when it comes to certain things because he literally will depend on us to do everything for him. He needs to be independent and I need to make sure that we help foster this for him.

Well, we added a new animal to the family! Zion really wanted either a chihuahua or a cat, so we decided to get a cat. Amaiah was going to be happy with any animal, and she is obsessed with the cat! He named the cat Rocket, and it has actually gone well so far. He is 5 months, and we adopted him from a foster. He sleeps with the kids every night. We thought his allergies might start acting up, but he has been fine. I think it is because we recently purchased an air purifier. I will say this air purifier has done amazing things in this house! The air feels fresh when we walk in, and nobody is waking up with sniffles and sneezing like they used to. If you have kiddos with allergies, get an air purifier, it will be worth it!

Thank you so much for reading! I am going to try and get Zion to make a video with me next month. I have looked at videos from years past, and his speech has grown so much. I mean, he went from a few unintelligible words to now a full-blown 1st-grade vocabulary. At times I still struggle to understand him, but it’s pretty amazing the conversations we can have now. I am so proud of our little guy. Thank you again for the support. The Autism community is a strong one, and its because of the constant awareness that is being brought to those around us.

Zion’s Autism walk was a huge success! He was the number 2 top walker as far as money raised, and our team came in 4th overall for money raised. I couldn’t be more proud of him and I am beyond thankful for everyone that supported him either through donating or through joining his team and walking. It was a humid morning, but the rain held off. He had fun walking with his friends Emma, David, and Jaelynn as well as his cousins Darian and Jayden. We got our own tent with tables and chairs, and they even provided breakfast tacos for our team. Overall we just had an amazing experience, and it brought tears to my eyes to see how much love everyone has for Zion. Even writing this blog, I realize how much support is truly out there.

Another big thing happened for our boy too. He was invited to his very first birthday party (that wasn’t a relative)! A little boy from his class invited him and Zion was very excited to go. It was at a trampoline place and Zion had a ton of fun. He loves to bounce and jump. His energy seems endless at times. Zion didn’t really interact with the birthday boy, which isn’t surprising. He said hi, happy birthday, and thank you for inviting him. I am trying to get him to be better at his interactions with his peers. He gets extra social skills groups at school so I am hoping that those skills can be generalized to the real world.

Speaking of social skills, about 2 weeks ago I got really upset with Zion because whenever I would come home he wouldn’t even look up from his iPad to acknowledge me. So, one day I came home and he came around the corner and this is what was said:

Zion: Hi Mommy, how was your day

Me: It was great Zion. How was yours?

Zion: It was good

Me: What did you do at school?

Zion: We went to lunch, went to recess, played a game, then I went home.

I kid you not, this is the exact conversation we have had every single day, going on 2 weeks now. My son has basically formed a script in his hand, and that is how he believes a conversation should go. I am going to try and ask different questions, but I don’t know how to get him to be more engaged in talking to me. I know that this may be our reality, now, or forever, I don’t know. But I hope as the years go by his social skills improve and maybe one day he will be more engaging with people.

Thank you so much for reading! We had a pretty busy October and it’s not even over yet. We are looking forward to the months to come. We have friends coming to stay with us for Christmas, and it’s the same friends that we went to Dallas with, Zion’s best friend Rylan! We are so thankful and grateful for all the support! See you next month for more adventures with our baby boy!

So we completed the 2.5 mile walk for the Autism Walk! Zion had such an amazing time and at the end, we let him cross the finish line before us and I just cried my little eyes out! Seeing my son so happy and supported by so many people is the most amazing feeling ever!! This time allowed me to look past the meltdowns, past the social awkwardness, and past the fear that I harbor inside about how Zion is going to grow up. However, like I said, it also showed us how big our support system has branched out! From family to friends, we had a great team out there walking with us! Not to mention we pretty much had the coolest shirts around thanks to my friend Leia and her talent and ability to bring such a great design to life on the team shirts. Zion’s team was also in the top 10 for fundraising!

I try my best to be strong on the outside. I am crying as I type this because I do fear the unknown. Is Zion going to get picked on for his stimming or his lack of response to social cues? Is he going to find his soulmate and get married? Have kids? I know, I know, he’s only 4, but let’s be honest, with nuerotypical children, these aren’t things we really think about because we usually assume they will happen somewhere down the line. For example, I don’t have these fears for Amaiah. I know she’s going to grow up and she will certainly be a super tough and strong willed woman, but I know she will be successful in her life. I know this probably sounds crazy, but it is something I think about often. However, regardless of the future, I will continue to look at my son and know that he is an amazing human being.

Halloween is coming up and Zion is pretty excited about that he. He has decided to be a ninja this year. I was trying to push something cool, but hey, he picked ninja so that is what we went with. He also got a hold of a toy catalog and was pointing out things he wanted for Christmas. I told him “before we get new toys what do we need to do?” and he told me “give away my other toys to kids that don’t have toys”. I was so proud at that moment! I want both of our kids to understand that money isn’t unlimited and that they are both fortunate to have the things they do. I actually love the holiday season because of the food, the smells, and I love the decorations! I am really excited!

That is all for this week. I hope you enjoy all the great pictures I have for you and especially the video of our awesome dude crossing the finish line! Thank you all for your support. We truly appreciate it!