2RMine

2 years ago, on April 17th, 2008, My son Samuel was diagnosed with autism. 3 months later, my son Myles was diagnosed with autism. I don't like to capitalize that word. It makes it too important. I like to capitalize "Florida" or "Tennessee". I like to capitalize "The Steelers". I like to capitalize "Banana Split" and "The Bible".

I don't capitalize autism.

Don't get me wrong. I know it matters. I know it influences my day to day operations. But it is not the most important quality that identifies "The Boys".


Last week, Sam brought Joy a DVD with no pictures, just words on it. He said "I want Wee-Poo". Yeah, you guessed it...It was a Winnie the Pooh Movie.

Myles asked Joy "Would you like to play with my trains?". It was the first time he has asked her to imagine play with her. Ever.

And when they were in the backyard, Myles hollered out "Sammy, be careful!", then ran to the slide and helped him climb up it backwards (oh, like you never did that as a kid !?)

We recently went on a walk to support autism research. And we saw other families there. And yeah...OK...it is important. Research leads to answers which leads to a cure. We all know that.

But 'The Boys" are not defined by autism. They are defined by smiles, dirt, trains, spaghetti.

The are defined by Love.

One in 110 are diagnosed with autism.

We are Once in a Lifetime

Played a game with Sam tonight before bed. I say "I"...then he says "love"...then we both say "YOU". And there is much giggling afterwards. I confess, I didn't come up with this game, the Joyfulness started it. But again, it is great to see Sam interacting with us so well.

Speaking of interacting, check out the dude helping me and PawPaw with the dishwasher.

Myles has been quite the daddy's little helper lately. Today he helped me bag leaves and rake and...yes, that's right....raking leaves in April. I have 4 oak trees and they are very big, OK?

Anyway...back to Myles. He has also taken to using my tools. He especially likes the table saw and nail gun....I'm just KIDDING! But he does like the screwdriver, and the pliers, and the mallet. And somehow he mixes that with cars, and animals, and trains. I'm totally loving the "imaginative" play.

You know, sometimes I wish I had a little Polaroid (am I dating myself?), so that I could take snapshots of moments with my family. Do you ever find yourself looking at the ones you love and just going "click". As the song goes "It's no accident we're here...we are once in a lifetime".

I challenge you this next week to take some pictures with your Polaroid eyes. If you look around you will see the moments. With your children or with the ones you love.

Just remember to say "click".