Saturday, January 28, 2012

Marking today...

This is my beautiful son Sampson. Sampson will be 4 years old on May 9th. He is an amazing child. For those of you who follow my blog you may know that Sampson is Autistic. He sees the world in a different way than anyone else. He is obsessed with letters, numbers, and pattern. He can say all his ABC's and recognize letters out of order and spell things out. He can count to 100 and even count by 10's. He watches countless youtube videos on trains, letters and numbers and has a knack for memorizing things from the videos. He can also identify objects and animals and colors, all sorts of things. That's kind of amazing. In spite of all these amazing things that Sampson can do there are many things that are difficult for him (which I will not go into too much detail about). I try to focus on the things he CAN do and encourage him. He likes trains so we spend a lot of time at the train museum. He is attending a state funded special education pre school that has been amazing.

One of the hardest things for Sampson to do is to communicate with others. He has trouble turning all his words into sentences. He can identify an 'iguana' but can't find the words to tell me what he wants or needs. For all the words he has learned, there are many that he has 'lost'. Some words he learns and then never says again. Since he started school he has regained some of these early words. One word he said only once to my knowledge was 'Mommy'. he babbled it as a baby 'Mama' but around a year it stopped. I heard him say it once when my sister was in town, right after Juneau was born when I walked towards him at the zoo. He never said it again. I try to not think about it, but it's heartbreaking. I just want him to call me, to ask for me. Juneau calls me "mommy" all the time (she is 13 months old). As much as I love hearing my little girl say mommy, I have been waiting almost four years for my 'first love' to call me mommy.

Well I am marking today and sharing these things because today Sampson did say 'mommy'. I want to type about it, to share it because it means a lot. He was in the garden with Dad helping him water the tomatoes....Sampson calls them 'trees'. He was crouched down and holding the hose, his face near the ground watching the water. He enjoys seeing everything up close. He looked to the side a little (we call is his 'side eye', it's something he does to look at people without giving direct eye contact) and he said quietly 'Oh....is Mommy' and then turned back to the water. He didn't say it to me, or ask for me, or call me...but he acknowledged me as 'Mommy' with words...and that is enough. Even if I don't hear it again for another year, it was enough. Today was an amazing day.