It's a new day in Monkeyland.

Living in a house with a child with Autism is like living with a terrorist. You try your hardest not to let this little non-verbal dictator run your entire life, but it comes down to endurance. How many battles can you navigate before you eventually just fall over? You have to pick and choose your battles so you can make it through the entire day. You let some things go. You may let him walk to the car in bare feet because he refused to put on his shoes in the middle of winter. You may sit down and watch the same movie or cartoon at least once a day for months. You might let him turn the light on and off for an hour. It's all a balance of what you are willing to live with and what you have to stand your ground on. It's like parenting a toddler on steroids every day for years. Am I making the right choices? I have no idea. Will he grow up and become a person that HE can be proud of? I hope so. This morning was a huge turning point for us. Monkey didn't go to bed well last night, he gave me a hard time and ended up getting a consequence for his actions. The consequence was not getting to play computer this morning before school. As expected he didn't wake up well and was determined to let me know how angry he was. But I have to say he managed to pull it together after a very tense 20 minutes. He willingly got dressed and ate and even rushed to put his boots on when the bus came 7 minutes early. I still pray for the day that he can talk my ear off and tell me what is going on instead of these days of tantrums and tears. But I am cherishing mornings like this where he was able to pull himself out of that void and choose to play by his mother's rules.