One Foot In Front of the Other

The summer is nearly over. I will soon be back in school, but our family has enjoyed some wonderful time together in the last couple of months. Alan went with us to visit family this summer. What fun he had! He joked and laughed with us, was engaged most of the time, and enjoyed all our sightseeing and family meals. Alan slept all night and was awake all day during our four days on the road. But on our way back, he slept all the way. This is not unusual, since he tends to sleep when he is facing a major transition. When we got him home, he wanted to go back to his apartment. I was a little worried, and for good reason, it turns out, because he has had some behavior incidents in the week since we have been back. For a while, he was doing really well, and this is probably not a major setback, but I still get this feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach when Alan acts out like this. Here are the issues I find we face over and over: Alan sees the world as revolving around him, wh...

We had Alan over to our house for dinner on July 4th. He was very quiet - unusually so. No pacing, talking, clapping. He was able to talk with us, have a great conversation. We cherish moments like this. As we sat at the dinner table, eating his favorites - barbeque, corn on the cob, squash - we started talking about our upcoming vacation to Wichita, KS. Alan spoke up. "Dad, I've been thinking. We could take 412 West to Interstate 35, then go north to Wichita. That's the route I think we should take." There was a moment of silence. "Alan, that's a great idea," my husband replied. "That's exactly what we will do!" Alan spent most of his childhood studying maps, particularly the US interstate system. He hasn't looked at a map in a while, so I asked if he had been studying maps to figure this out. "You know I just know this, Mom," Alan said seriously. "I don't have to look at a map anymore. I just know it....