Monday, August 23, 2010

Double Digits

AJ turned 10 this year.  Such a huge milestone, and so much progress has been made.  But, at his birthday party, we saw the evidence of the most important progress of all - he has friends!!

For his 1st birthday, we invited all our friends, and the kids from the parent/baby group.  Everyone came, the babies cried, slept, and drooled.  A fun time was had by all.

For his 2nd birthday, we invited all our friends, and the kids from the parent/baby group.  Almost everyone came.  The toddlers babbled, pulled each others hair, and drooled.  A fun time was had by all.

For his 3rd birthday, we invited some friends, and the kids from the parent/baby group.  One kid came.  They had fun.  We were sad.

For his 4th birthday, we invited some friends, and the kids from pre-school.  One kid came.  They played, but not together.  They had fun.  We were sad.

For his 5th - 9th birthday, we just invited friends and relatives.  He didn't want to invite other kids - he kinda gave up.  He said he didn't care.  We did, and I think he did too.

Then we started home schooling.  He made friends.  He was successful in socializing.  This year, we had to trim the list.  There were TOO MANY kids on it.  We wound up inviting 7 kids.  They ALL came.  Everyone had fun.  We all had lunch, opened gifts, played outside, had cake.  It was AWESOME!! 

Were there bumps in the road?  Absolutely.  Did AJ have any meltdowns?  Absolutely.  Did we have the best party ever?  Absolutely!

Kudos to our boy, our friends, and their fantastic kids!

Tween-ville, here we come!

2 comments:

Anna said...

Love this post! Yea for all of you!

Anonymous said...

How wonderful! Yay for AJ and his friends!

Will you elaborate more for those of us who are still working/struggling on the social development front right along with you? What things made the biggest differences in his gaining friends? Are his peers neurotypical or are some of them also Aspies? How had he met them? Has his own attitude about being around people changed, and if so, did it happen before he began to make friends (thus inspiring him to work at it)?

Thank you for sharing your success!

Denise