This morning I heard the sounds that many summer parents do… The lovely sounds of siblings fighting. I had the hope that the 3 of them would work it out but unfortunately it ended in a slap.

I dropped what I was doing and quickly found my oldest apologizing to my youngest. Still physical confrontations are not ok. My kids come from big genes and I don’t plan on any of them being little adults. So we take physical self control very serious.

So after Mr. L had a time out, I went into his room to talk with him and I’m so glad I did. We sat on the floor and figured out his feelings and then I asked him why he had hit his sister. After he had initially said he didn’t know, he worked out some new words.

Mr. L explained to me that he gets frustrated when he is trying to tell Little Miss A something and then she starts talking. Because sometimes she talks really loud and really fast and he can’t understand what she is saying and it upsets him. And my heart burst with pride and I felt for him.

I was just SO proud of how he worked through his thoughts, pieced together what had upset him, and then was able to articulate what had happened.

I sympathized with Mr. L, reminded him that his feelings were valid, and I let him know how proud of him I was.

When my autistic son meets these milestones it gives me hope not just for further growth and for new milestones. But it also gives me hope for his educational experience, that he will have the words and ideas to navigate sticky future situations. Because so many times, things get blown out of proportion because of misunderstandings, and if he can explain himself better… Hopefully less blunders will be in his future.

Todays blog post might be shorter then usual, but it’s summer right? And I’ve got library visits, public pool activities, and kids karate classes to keep up with ☀️ I hope everyone is having a relaxing summer this year 😎