Gone for too long...but ready to make the comeback!

I have not been on here for far too long and I have missed it dearly. Writing about Greyson and all of our adventures is therapeutic for me and also gives me a source to look back on to see how far he has come. Recently we celebrated Thanksgiving and are now preparing for Christmas and the arrival of Santa. Some kids his age may no longer believe, but at our home Santa is real. A wonderful magical experience that transforms even the grumpiest of elves into happy frolicking soul. I often wonder when and or who might take that magic from Greyson, as for now...we believe! Rolling back some to recap...we had a nice Thanksgiving with Michele's brother and his family. My brother and sister-in-law moved here back in the summer from Ohio. We decided to share the holidays with them and her parents as well as two friends of ours from here in Charlotte. We had a great time, ate entirely too much, and then it was home for bed. Greyson did really well too. The crowd wasn't too much for him to handle and he did great. The more people in a place the greater his anxiety/stress level is. As the expert put it at the conference I attended, "Children with Asperger's stress is proportionate to the number of people in the room." So....thank goodness on Thanksgiving the number wasn't enormous.

As far as school goes he is starting to come into his own some. He has had a much harder time this year and that really had me worried. He paced in class much more, avoided his work and spent alot of time on Ms Alex's sofa. He is starting to come participate more now though. I actually got a part time position at the school working in Ms Jodi's K,1,2 class from 8am until 12pm so I can be there with him some. It started out to be too much for him and he wanted to be down in my classroom all the time. I worked with his teacher and we have a schedule for him now that promotes his participation in class and rewards him by letting him come visit me and show me what he has accomplished. It seems to be working great for him and he actually listens to me when I say what time he has to go back to his class. Sometimes he even reminds me, "I have to go back now mommy Lynn." It is very sweet. I so love him and I do worry about his academics but not to the extreme you might imagine. I figure it will come and it will be what it is. He is perfectly capable but he will only do so much and he will only show you so much of what he can do. He is highly intelligent and continues to surprise me all the time. He is just Greyson, what more can I say. To know him is to love him with his silly, quirky, eccentric self. Last Friday his school had a Winter Ball...His first dance if you will. I had decided to opt out and just to donate money to the cause but he had other plans. He wanted to go because his friend Zoe was going. She is a very sweet girl in his class who he hangs out with. She is very helpful to him and seems to love some of the same things he does. She helped him the other day through something at school that scared him pretty badly. Some of the other boys were playing zombies and chasing him. For Greyson Zombies rank right up there with spiders on the scare factor of 10+!!!! One boy had pinched Greyson pretty hard and in his panic over them saying they were zombies and going to eat his brain he was flailing and hit one of them in the nose. No one was hurt too badly but for Greyson it was a 10 on the panic scale. He was crying and came down to see me for comfort. I loved on him some and reassured him things would be ok. Then I headed up to talk with his teacher about it. After talking and helping him calm down some we headed back downstairs. I saw Zoe and she came over and sat with him, talked and read to him for 30 minutes until he was ready to head back to class. It was magical and I was thankful she was able to help him regain his composure like that. I need to know others can help him when I am not available. Now, back to the Ball. We got his suit ready and headed off to the winter ball all snazzied up. Momom stayed home as social networking is not her forte'. Hahahaaaaaa We got there and he immediately panicked and went into full melt down/solitude mode. He realized the music was at a decibel level to burst your tympanic membrane, there were more people in a small cafe' than should be legally allowed for fire safety purposes, and the compliments alone from him wearing a suit were enough to send him into orbit. So....that being said, he ran into the stairwell, stood looking down and not talking and continually slapped himself on the back of the hand until it was blood red. I tried in vain to calm him and stop him from hurting himself but he continued. Finally, Zoe arrived. Once she got there he preoccupied his time with her for a while looking at the baskets for the silent auction that were in the hall. You couldn't hear the music there. He tried several different times to brave the crowds and loud music but ran out almost immediately each time. Finally toward the end of the night he went into the cafe' with me. I stood behind him and he had placed my hands over his ears so he could dance. He danced a slow song with me too! He was a trooper and I admire his courage for staying and hanging in there. Had he wanted to leave I would have gone immediately but he did what he had to do to stay and hang out for a while. When he said he was done I took him home. What a sweet night for us.