Go Aiden, Go!

 Aiden’s school has a walk-a-thon every year and he doesn’t normally participate. I’m not sure what makes him not want to, or if it’s just anxiety about people watching him. This year I offered him screen time minutes for participating in addition to our regular donations and he was so excited that he ended up actually running a few of his laps. He did tell me once that the music they were playing was too loud but he kept on anyway. I joined him about halfway through to encourage him more. I’m such a beaming and proud mama right now.
I feel like with Aiden’s Autism a lot of the successes I celebrate are not the same as other parents, but I don’t celebrate them any less. I used to spend a lot of time comparing Aiden to other children his age, but he’s not the same. The truth is, no two children are the same. Most of what I hear when it comes to Aiden’s Autism is that, “Oh, well he doesn’t look any different”. I don’t feel like he is different. He is a 10.5 year old boy who enjoys everything that other 10.5 year old boys do, his brain just processes information differently. And maybe loud noises hurt his ears. We’ve recently changed some of Aiden’s school routine and it has helped immensely with the stress at school and home. I feel like we’re finally starting to be able to help him more in that area and that makes everyone in our house happy.