I’m still having a really difficult time getting over this thing with Max’s classmate and friend, Ashton. I was lying in the bed reading my Ngaio Marsh, about to drift into deep naptime sleep when the thought flitted across my mind. Why? He seemed so timid and so quiet. I once sat with him while Janice, his and Max’s OT, went inside her office to get something.  Ashton was quiet and mumbled to himself and sat there so calm and nice. We used to speak to his mother every time we dropped Max off for therapy.
But that was a year ago. I guess a year is a long time. Things change for people. They were a fairly young couple…. Younger than us at least. (Cliff is 48 and I am 39.) We went to a party at their house for the boys in Max’s class a year ago and his teacher was there along with the other parents. They had a huge playground in the backyard and it was nice and fenced in and the house was smallish but much newer and nicer than ours. I don’t know. Everything seemed fine from the outside.
We do just fine here. We have a great case manager, a fantastic habtech, a good friend in an OT, the best doctor in the world, and some other wonderful people, including the habtech’s boss who we see once a month and the nurse who comes around every three months and gets us our free pull-ups and we have great teachers both current and past and a wonderful school and school system and an understanding community. We are so lucky to be where we are right now getting the care for Max that we get now. Plus, Mom is one street away, Dad calls often, I get emails from my grandmother regularly, and Nathan is only 30 minutes away.
But again, maybe we’re just lucky that way…. There’s no way to know what happened and no way to know why Ashton is going to the group home. But it makes me hug Max harder and kiss him more because we are determined for him to live at home with us. One day we will get too old, but you know, Max’s mind is clear. He’s a very smart little boy and I’ll bet he’ll be okay as he gets older. I know mentally he’s not as severe as some of these kids are. If he could just learn sign language (of course we’ll have to learn it as well) then that will help him tell us more about what he needs and is thinking about. I spent the morning making new picture words for him. I made a new food sheet with a few of his newer foods on it and three tv sheets because he’s showing a preference in what he wants to watch now and thanks to iControl he has lots more choices. I can’t wait for him to see the new sheets when he gets home. He uses them! The last one I made had cheese sandwiches on it along with some other foods and he uses it every day.
Oh well, I guess I better go eat my lunch. it won’t be long before it’s time for the bus and the kids to come home. Lately it’s been so cold even Max didn’t want to be outside. Hopefully he’ll want to come right inside today as well.