No Matchsticks Today

Some notes on Summer so far...

William is doing very well these days. He is devouring, for lack of a better term, everything we are throwing at him. He's going to day camp (3 of the kids are), going to therapy constantly, riding a bike (with training wheels), and is constantly on the move. He even liked going to Sophie's gymnastics class so much that we considered signing him up. (Until we saw the price tag. Apparently gymnastics instructors are paid on the NFL pay scale) So, every day William wakes up and says "Nope, no matchsticks today." (No gymnastics today)

Most importantly, an important relationship is blooming in William's life. Our neighbors Shannon and Matz have a dog, Zoe, that has boundless energy equivalent to William's. We have spent many days and evenings watching the kids ride bikes, and watching William and Zoe play together, throwing the ball. Neither one of them seem to get tired of it. It is truly thrilling to watch. (Off topic, but in regard to previous posts about how William is always naked outside, Matz has pointed out that you can add "a naked Fowler kid" to death and taxes.)

I updated the video on Youtube today to allow for comments, I am not sure why I didn't allow it before, probably because every video I have ever watched on Youtube has the comments section degrade into some sort of nastiness completely unrelated to what the video was about. But, I am newly inspired to get more people exposed to Autism, and this is just a small step to get it done.

A couple of people have asked if we're going to be doing a fundraiser again this year. We talked about it, and decided against it, since almost everybody's hurting this year and it just didn't seem appropriate. We talked about writing up some sort of formal newsletter also, but that also doesn't seem to be materializing. Fortunately, the wonders of email, Facebook, and blogging are allowing us to keep people informed on what's going on.

There's still lots of tough days. We were at Evan's baseball game last weekend, and William was able to watch about 5 minutes here and there, but for the most part, he was more interested in going and looking for other things to do. I was coaching first base, and I couldn't help but wonder, will this kid ever be able to play any organized sports?
We still have a real bad time leaving anything that William is enjoying. If we leave a park before he is good and ready, (which is never) he has a meltdown of biblical proportions. His screaming makes dogs run for cover, and other parents look over and you can tell they are wondering if they should call 911.

William's diet is a major pain in the rear. Literally. In addition to all the foods he can't eat, we have to give him Vitamin B-12 injections in his butt every three days. He drops his pants like a trooper, and the pained, hurt look on his face after he gets his shot breaks my heart every time.
Then he'll lead you over to the counter, say "all done with that for today", and I wonder who is tougher in this equation.

Since the last post, there have been several nights when I was inspired to write about how a) wonderful everything is going, and b) crappy everything is going. But I've just been tired. I guess in the grand scheme of things that evens out and we're doing okay. You just keep going, get through it a week at a time, and the next thing you know it's time to go for Matchsticks.