My Little Man is Growing Up......

Yes, I know it is inevitable and that these things happen; but with Nick every milestone is cause for celebration. This morning, he got on the bus by himself. I walked him as far as the edge of the carport-he did the rest by himself. Last year he was still having trouble going up those big steps; not now. He held onto the rail, and put one foot in front of the other, it took him only seconds to climb all the way up. He glanced back to me only as he was at the top and being escorted to his seat. He gets such a thrill when he does something himself. He gets so proud of himself. The other day he took his own shirt off and both of us were just beaming with pride. In his own time. I just have to remember that. He is making progress. Such good progress that even Mike said that he has so much hope for Nick. Much more than he did before. Of course we always had hope for him; but it was hard to keep that hope when Nick just seemed so disconnected. It was hard when he could not understand simple direction; to know just how much was able to get in. Now we know that everything is getting in. He may not be able to tell us with speaking so much, but his eyes say it all. When he looks at us with that big ole smile, he is saying more than words could describe. It's amazing really. For someone that does not talk can say so much with a simple look. He spent the whole morning drawing on his aquadoodle today. Not just lines, but patterns. He drew big circles, small circles, squiggly lines, and straight lines. We have not erased his latest wall art, because he likes to go around and trace them with his finger. It seems to be soothing to him. Yes, at first I was rather dismayed by his latest doodling. In a funny way it kind of grew on me the longer we left it up. I looked around our bedroom the other night and noticed his art had progressed from just lines, to letters. We have a big fancy "D" on the wall between the closets. Other places we can see M's, I's, and C's. What was even better was that nothing was left un-touched. Nick had colored a line or two on every piece of furniture that was there. He likes to view what he has created. He is actually the only one of my kids who has liked to color with such a vengeance. Mere coloring on paper does not satisfy this need that he has. Wonder if Michaelangelo's mom ever experienced this?!