A Party for Nicholas

We are having Nick's 4th birthday party tomorrow. Birthdays are bitter sweet for Nick. We are amazed at how far he has come along in the last year-he has accomplished 90% of his goals on his IEP, we have begun potty training, and he has started eating more table foods. These simple milestones however remind us of how far he still has to go. I went shopping today to get decorations and presents. We are having a few kids over, a couple of whom are Nick's age or close to it. Nick still does not get birthdays quite yet. I keep his parties small so that he does not get too overwhelmed-but it will probably happen anyway. It is hard buying for Nick. At least, buying for him when I know everyone will see what he gets. The toys he likes are made for infants. I would have bought him all the light up toys I could; but I am conscious of what others might think, even though they know he is autistic. So, I wandered through the aisles and carefully chose things that a normal kid would get, and things we could use to work with Nick. Mr Potato Head's Vegetable Buddies, a game where you have to stack plastic food to make a sandwich, a tub finger painting set, and for pure fun, a Bouncing Tigger. It is not often that we have "outsiders" in our little world. Our house looks like a war zone with the dents and gaping holes in the walls, we have latches on the closets to prevent Nick from obsessively opening/shutting them, the light bulbs in their room have been unscrewed and there is a switch cover on the switch. All these things help us to lead as normal a family life as possible. People just really have no idea of what goes on behind the scenes at casa de Weger.

We are doing the party in a Shrek theme. Oddly enough, Shrek is the one character that Nick actually liked when we went to Universal Studios. Nick had a Shrek doll that talked when he was smaller, and he always smiled when the phrase "Eat,Stink, and be scary" came up. He LOVED Shrek. Since I could not find a Shrek cake, I am going to attempt to make one myself. I bought a normal yellow cake and white frosting and I am going to try and draw Shrek's face on the cake. I will post a picture of how it comes out. Wish me Luck!!