Christian

So I thought that I should introduce my Blessings one by one.

(Interesting... that song Count Your Blessings just popped into my head in my mother's voice...)

So here we go.  Christian!   He is my only "tummy" baby as he calls himself. He is our one biological child, who overcame many things to make it into this world, including a very sick momma.   He was born prematurely at 33 1/2 weeks and was a tiny 3lbs 7 oz..

Today he is almost six years old and one of the joys of my life.  He is outgoing, funny, quirky, energetic, talkative, and (in my humble opinion) brilliant!  He is also however, special needs and has his own set of special challenges.  He was recently diagnosed on the Autism spectrum. We are unclear whether it will land on Asperger's or PDD-NOS but we know it will be one or the other.
Christian's brain just works in a different way than most people's.  He is very concrete and literal. He is also very specific.  example: "Christian why don't you go watch Horton."   his reply " Mom it isn't just Horton, it is Horton Hears a Who!"  these sorts of conversations happen daily, some times multiple times a day at our home.  Once I informed him that purple was the next color of the rainbow he was looking for, and he replied by letting me know it was actually violet, not purple, but that was ok mom. 

Christian also likes to line things up which can be entertaining sometimes...  I came out of the bedroom to this lovely creation one afternoon.

The other night when I walked into the living room there was a trail of underwear, socks, and toys threading throughout the kitchen living room and dining room.  When I asked him to tell me about his lovely project, he proudly announced " It is is a trail mom, so that when the lights are out we will be able to find our way around the house!"     How thoughtful is that!

One of the things about children on the autism spectrum is that they tend to have a narrow scope of special interests.  Christian played birthday party for approximately two years straight... Not picnic, or BBQ, or Christmas, just birthday party.  Every day was a birthday!   Now however, he is into cutting and coloring his "projects"   they generally theme around his area of interests right now which are baking, animals, and space. 

We are beginning the journey of kindergarten this year and will be registering on Tuesday next week.   He is very excited about school.  I am hopeful he will get a teacher who sees all the amazing gifts he has for speech and math and creativity, not just his challenges.   I will be navigating the intricate world of the school district and IEP's and figuring out how best to get his needs met.  It should be an interesting journey. 

I am sure I will share some of our little Christian-isms with you periodically, since they are abundant! But this is who my first special blessing is... A gift from God, a miracle, who's way of thinking challenges me everyday to think outside of my box and more like him.