Cured? Matured? Maybe Adjusted?

We celebrated the birth of our fourth child and slowly got back into routine and life with 4 kids. Slowly we could refocus and try to see what was going on with MJ's schooling.

We met with his teacher and she seemed to tell us everything was great. We saw some of his work and his grades, and it looked as if there was some huge improvement. One thing in particular was his handwriting. Before he had shown terrible terrible shaky handwriting, and yet all of his work we were looking at now was super improved.

MJ's teacher said she had seen such a maturing in him over the last several months and that he wasn't having the problems that he had had before. She said he was fitting in well with the other kids, and he wasn't appearing so awkward as last year. His speech was improved and he was really shining as a 2nd grader.

OK, so it was weird. I'm not saying we were upset or disappointed that he was doing well, but it was just so weird that only months before he had been the "what can we do for/how to fix/how to manage" child, to now the "nothing is wrong at all/superstar student/well adjusted" child.

I mean, maybe he was cured? Maybe it was just a maturing thing, like some kids can grow out of their asthma, maybe you can grow out of Asperger's? I still saw him walk around on tippy toes, and I still saw his awkwardness and his speech was still in spurts, but it's not like any of that bothered me. He still had his meltdowns, and he still seemed to fit all those autistic things (don't worry, I'll post more characteristics posts later), but we were used to it, we understood and accepted him. Maybe his class and teacher just learned to take it as a part of him. Maybe they learned what worked and what didn't. I don't know for sure.

So, maybe this was wrong at the time, but I gave up the idea to worry about any I.E.P. and any monthly meetings with the teacher, and I even discontinued the therapy sessions with the childrens hospital that MJ was going to.

Maybe this wasn't any big deal. Maybe he just needed a little growing up to get a handle on things. Well, the year went well for MJ, but we were soon to see things differently as he entered 3rd grade.

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