Our Story

Sigh. This family cannot seem to get well. Stomach virus. Blah. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Autism effects (affects or effects, I never remember) the ENTIRE family. Actually, it effects every person your kiddo comes in contact with on a daily basis. When we were getting our diagnosis from our psychologist that is one of the huge things we came away with. That no matter what, we have decide what treatment is best for not only Little Handsome but for our whole family.

Did we think he had autism from the beginning? Nope. The only milestone I don't remember him reaching was pointing. Literally, the only one. Now, I can look back and see things, but the change was so super subtle. He was always verbal, adventurous, active and independent.

He even made eye contact and responded to his name. Then, he didn't. When he stopped, I just thought he was being obstinate, stubborn.

His first month of preschool, when he was 2, Little Handsome's teacher approached me to tell me he might have a speech delay. Although he used words at home, he would only grunt for them. I had noticed that the other kiddos in his class were far more sophisticated in the way they spoke than he was, but I was a first-time stay-at-home mom. I just figured he was quieter - a thinker - and he totally is by the way.

I panicked, called our pediatrician right away. It was just so out of the blue that we decided to wait and see. The months from September to January were spent with me constantly questioning whether or not he was "normal." Every interaction with other kids was analyzed and tested in my brain. We talked to his sunday school teachers, his children's minister, our family. We questioned ourselves.

Finally, in the middle of January, I was just fed up with wondering all the time. Got his hearing thoroughly tested, speech evaluated and started therapy by September.

By 2.5 years old, Little Handsome had learned all his letters and their sounds. He'd wake up in the middle of the night shouting letters at the top of his lungs. He became the biggest fan of Super Why you've ever seen, repeating scenes in his room, in the car. He'd run the circle in our house while watching tv. He'd jump alot, flapping his hands at times. The list goes on...but most notably in a year, he had greatly improved his speech, but his eye contact and social interaction was only a tad better.

So a year later, when our pediatrician mentioned she thought he was on the spectrum, I would've thought that I would've been again panicked, but I wasn't. It was like, "Really? Oh. Yeah. I see it now." I can only credit this to God.

Almost exactly a year later we had him evaluated.

To be continued...I know! Such a cliffhanger!!