November 30th, 2005

I love Christmas...it's by-far my favorite time of year. I love the decorating, the shopping, the cheesey music...all of it. I'm looking forward to Christmas Eve church services...still trying to decide if I'm gonna take Jakob. The last time I took him to church, it didn't go well. I don't know...he may do great. He's been handling unfamiliar surroundings pretty well lately. I'm gonna wait on making a decision...I'll wait til we're leaving the house on Christmas Eve.

Jakob loves the decorations...especially the lights on the tree. He's figured out how to get most of them on...the ones he hasn't figured out yet, he drags me over to them and does the sign for "lights". The sign for lights is elbows out to the side with hands down...but Jakob flaps his arms like a chicken. It's the cutest darn thing.

Jakob did great over Thanksgiving. It was just the three of us and my parents. Jakob sure does love his Grandma and Grandpa. He and Grandma did a lot of dancing together and my Dad is a pro at rowdy games. They all had a ball. It was pretty peaceful and nice. Jakob has improved so much at dealing with changes in our home environment...including lots of people and noise. I can tell when he's had enough and needs a break. The beautiful thing is I can take his portable DVD player and put it right in the middle of the living room and he'll sit there and watch it. There's no more rushing him to another room when he gets a little over-stimulated...that makes life so much easier. And God knows I'm all about easy.

Now that we're definitely inside for the winter, I've been trying to get the house ready for cabin fever. I know we're gonna suffer a lot from that...as well as seasonal depression. I don't do well with cloudy, dreary days. All I wanna do is sleep. So...I'm trying to provide us with plenty of fun things to do inside. Organization has never been one of my strengths...that becomes really obvious whenver I start a project in the house. I'm trying to minimize clutter but still have enough activities to keep us busy for a while. It's going ok...just slower than I'd like. I need to find a different place for his train track...it's all over the floor in the foyer. Whenever you walk into the house or come down the stairs...there's a train track. I'm getting him a train table for Christmas but I can't exactly put that in the middle of the foyer...I need a bigger house...ha...like that'll ever happen.

I almost forgot!!! The other day, Jakob opened his first present. It was actually a half-opened present from last year that got buried in the laundry room and he found it. He pulled all the paper off and it was so very exciting...more for me than anyone else, I think. Right now, I don't have any of his presents under the tree...primarily because I can't not give him a toy that I've already brought in the house...I'm weak, so very weak. I'll just have to go shopping again and wrap the stuff immediately...yeah, that's the trick. My best bet is to not buy him anything else until Chrismas Eve...fat chance.

Ooh..one more thing! Jakob is now repeating sounds! We say "O"...he says "O". We say "E", he says "E". (Those are his 2 favorites). I ask him to say "Mama", he says "ah-ah". There are a bunch of words that he'll make sounds for...we're getting there and it's so encouraging. Finally, some sort of language. Amen. I don't wanna say anymore about it right now...I'd hate to jinx it.

With all the craziness that comes this time of year, I simply continue to try to do the right thing when it comes to Jakob. More than one person in my life think I'm nuts...well, either nuts or on the verge of a breakdown. Sometimes I wonder myself. But all I have to do is take one look at Jakob and I feel pretty good. He's such a joy. I was explaining to one of his therapists that it's as if I'm living with an 18-24-month-old inside a 4-year-old's body. He's doing so many things that a typical 2-year-old would do. He's so affectionate and happy. He's constantly wanting attention which is awesome...I can remember when he didn't care whether or not I was in the room and now he's constantly wanting me with him. He'll pull me out of the kitchen and put me on the couch. Then he'll climb up on my lap and give me a huge grin.

I wish I could have a camera rolling at all times in this house. I think people would have a whole new perspective on autism if they could just see how cool Jakob is. He's sweet, he's funny, he's smart, he's adorable...he's perfect.

Jenn