My boy doesn’t talk much. He’s getting better, and growing in confidence daily, but compared to any other “normal” gone-three-and-a-half-year-old, he’s pretty much non-verbal. He’s quiet, and when he *does* try to talk, it’s difficult to work out what he’s saying, either because of volume if he’s unsure, or because what he says is mostly unintelligible due to his lack of articulation. We’re working on it in weekly Speech Therapy, and it’s improving no end, but it’s still mostly guesswork based on context with him. It’s one of the more-obvious autistic characteristics he has.
Which is why my whole world stopped yesterday afternoon. It was just gone 4.30pm and I’d finally sat down after a brilliant five straight hours of Bloxham Marketing work with two amazing friends, followed by another couple of hours of intense garden work (and I live on an acreage, so before you start to laugh – to me, gardening involves taking out saplings and digging up tree stumps) and so sitting down, with my phone, and finally checking twitter for the day, was a good moment.
So I’d sent a few tweets and was in a conversation with @fionawb re her lack of communication while in the Emergency Department at Caboolture Hospital, and Miss 4 and Mr 3 were riding their bikes, when it happened. It was one of those “Did that *really* just happen??” moments, when suddenly your concept of your own daily existence smashes hard up against something completely unexpected, rocks your world, and leaves you shaking your head and questioning everything that you previously knew.
Mr 3, down on the driveway and a good 5 metres away, had been riding his tricycle. But he had stopped, faced me, and said with an audible voice from that distance away, “Mummy, I love you.”
My jaw hit the ground. I stopped breathing, and my heart skipped at least a couple of beats, I swear. I just stared at him, tears in my eyes, absolutely incredulous. My son, my boy who is only now, finally, learning to talk, told me he loved me! And said it intelligibly! Just sooooooooooo amazing and incredible and wonderful and precious.
And what was even better? Last night, when I was putting him to bed, he interspersed our usual giggles and cuddles and kisses and tickles with some more “I love you, Mummy” practising. It was an unbelievably gorgeous way to end the day!
So – just a little something that I wanted to share with you, dear readers. Here’s hoping that your day today has precious moments in it, too!
