Already a Week

Already---- a week has gone by---
So many things swirling around in my head yet I question the importance to others who might read this.I guess the real purpose of a blog is to express whatever you think or feel and not to be concerned with the "observers".

Looking back at "a year in a glance" there were many ups and downs . We lost a very important component to Dakota's independence and that was huge-- His friend,coach and mentor Brad Loula died in his sleep last June.The hardest part about his passing is the residual effect that it potentially has on Dakota--Autism is a very strange "animal" when it comes to emotion and feelings. Perhaps even the issues that we have had just recently could be Dakota feeling the loss from so many months ago and they are just now surfacing.
As for behaviors that too has been somewhat of a roller coaster. He has been having extreme highs and lows with several aspects of life. He had been attending a program specifically for Autism and somewhere things went sideways and he was lashing out at the person who was working with him so we have temporarily discontinued the program till he seems ready and accepting of trying again.
Add to that the extreme emotional acting out that has been on going for the past year -- it is continuing BUT I have to admit that it has drastically calmed down and in fact I have made some in-roads to acknowledge it and even discuss with Dakota about recognizing it and handling it --The occurrence level seems to be reducing. He and I continue to do the dance around the hair twisting and if I have not written and except about this I will -- although I know it has been an ongoing problem for several years-- since he broke his leg---AGAIN  i will give him credit I have seen improvement in this area also;so I guess I have a lot to be happy about! 
Dakota did take a "Get up and Move" Dance class that was very beneficial-- however not enough sessions so I hope that another one will pop up in the near future>

I have to admit that my prayers ALWAYS  ask for baby steps of improvement and I cant ask for more-- in that respect I have to say 2010 was OK.Every day we can get up and muddle thru without incident is a day I want to cheer. If it is a day with incident as long as it can be managed or is less than awful ya gotta cheer, too!

Its really about just being thankful for life not being anymore complicated than it is..... Kinda the old adage that "when life hands you lemons you make lemonade" BUT you gotta add the sugar!