Long Time, No See

        It's been 2 1/2 years since my last post. I can't really put my finger on the reason that I haven't blogged. Maybe it's because...well...life. Maybe it's because it's not as cathartic as it once was. Maybe it's because I'm working more than ever and every second of my time is spent packing school lunches, doing laundry and writing contracts. Maybe it's a mixture of all three. I love my jobs. Mom, Wife, Realtor. They are all hard, but they are all worth it.

        We are 6 days away from Jacob turning 12. TWELVE. XII. WHAT? That is an insane reality. Honestly I believe that the reason I haven't written in such a long time is because we have come so far with Jacob and the woes of autism have slowly faded.  The need to share our story to relieve stress is simply not there anymore. Is he cured? No! Does he still have autism? Absolutely! Are we still dealing with weird autism quirks? Yes. I could go into detail about this, but honestly, I will just say that we are hitting the pre-teen and puberty stage of autism and leave it at that. Your welcome.

        Jacob has become quite the comedian. He loves to make jokes and make people laugh. Every now and then he will say "Okay, who's ready for a knock knock joke?" Then, he proceeds to tell us a knock knock joke that doesn't make any sense and then dies laughing. We laugh along with him because his laugh is contagious. He is growing up to be quite a pleasure to be around. He is still dependent on me and Erick for a lot of daily tasks, but he's getting there. He's doing so well that in many ways, raising our typically developing 7 year old, is harder than dealing with Jacob. Erick and I used to worry that Jacob would still be living with us when he is an adult. The reality that I would have to take care of him for the rest of my life used to be daunting and unbearable to think about. Now, we kinda hope he sticks around. However, I would love to watch him branch out into the world and make it on his own.

        Recently, Jacob discovered the camera on his phone. He loves taking pictures of things.  Random things that no one else would take pictures of. Nonetheless, he's kinda found a hobby. Which is something he's never had before. I watch him as he perfects the exact angle he desires for his picture. Caleb is not as enthused with his picture taking skills though. I don't blame him. It's pretty annoying when you are watching TV and he rewinds the show 10 times to get the perfect angle of a door in the back ground that no one else even saw or cared about. I like the pictures and I like that Jacob seems to be interested in something. It's also better than the alternative video option. He will video him saying something really annoying and then play it over and over until I threaten to take his phone.

        So who am I kidding? This was totally more cathartic than I thought it was going to be. Sitting down and writing about how far Jacob has come, how far we've ALL come, has been really encouraging. Maybe I should do this more often. Maybe I will.