Friend

Today I met Lalo. Lalo is Max's first friend. Your eyes are not deceiving you. That's right...a friend! I heard about him from Max's teacher at Open House. She told me that Max favors two kids in the class...Lalo and Isabel. It was the best news of the night. Sure it was nice to hear about his academic skills and that he is a sweetheart, but hearing that he has a friend or even a couple was music to my ears.

When Max was diagnosed with Autism, I found myself coming back to the same few questions..."Will Max ever speak? Will he ever have a friend? Will he fall in love? Have children?" I don't think about these things very much anymore. Max has taught me to live in the now. I appreciate the baby steps and just the fact that he is a happy, loving boy.

Today was monumental. Max said goodbye to his classmates and ran to the door with a big, beautiful smile on his face like he does every day. That's where Lalo entered the picture. He asked the teacher something and she said "O.K.". Lalo had asked to come over to the door because he wanted to say goodbye to his friend Max. I played dumb and asked Max who the boy was. Lalo answered for him, "My name is Lalo". I had Max say goodbye to him and we turned to leave. His aide stopped me to say that she had to run and get her camera today because Max was actually playing with two boys. Max has never played with anyone aside from family members.

This might not sound like much, but it is huge to us. Tatum even got it a bit. She asked if Lalo could come play with Max at our house. Gotta love that girl!

Here's to friends. It is my dream that Max has at least one good friend. They enrich my life so greatly. I can't imagine living without them and neither should Max.

Love to you all!
xoxo Max's mom

Maxie Pie

Pic. #1 Shows Max getting ready to go swimming....his favorite activity!

Pic. #2 He looks so dang cute in his big boy underwear. Potty training is not easy, but I am still glad that we started. He is too smart and too old to be in diapers. I'd say he's going in the potty about 40% of the time right now. Yep, that means 60% of the time, we are wiping up puddles, but that's O.K. Lucky for me, our weather is amazing so we've been outside a lot. It's much easier to just hose everything down!

Burger King Rules (according to Max and Tate)

playing and thanks

Tatum has been begging me to go to the Burger King playground. I kept telling her that we would go "soon". Then, the other day she said, "Mommy we go to Burger King playground. Macky can't run away because there is a fence." She really is too smart for her own good. So, yes, I took them that day and it was actually fun. Max ate some fries and took in his surroundings for a while by doing some repetitive walking around the perimeter. then, he went into the play area for a bit. It really was a great idea. Guess I should listen to the little dictator more.

I also want to take a minute to thank Max's mom mom and great grandmom for saving their change and sending it directly to us for Max's therapy. We will use all of that money to schedule some extra time with our wonderful Melissa. She will be here tomorrow to help us with the beginning of Max's potty training.
Fingers crossed and happy thoughts for us please. Max is a smarty pants too, but also extremely stubborn so it could go either way.

Love to you all,
xoxo kim

max the talker

"Hi Dad." Have those words ever sounded so sweet?

Tatum helped me put Max to sleep tonight....

Could anything be more heart-warming?