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It's been busy this week with spring break. All 3 kids at home all day and family visits along with all the other things we do each week. Overall we had a good week. He did well but but he's getting to the end of his rope right now. He loves school but sometimes you can't tell. He doesn't always have very good days but he has to have the structure of school. It's not just the structure though he really likes going. He likes the rooms and the other kids. He really loves the bus ride. It's great visual stimulation for him. He does understand calendars, the days, weeks and all that but it's just really hard to tell him he has so much time off of school. I don't know if it's because he still can't really grasp how much time that is or if it's because he knows how much time it is but he just can't handle it. If he has more than 3 or 4 days off of school he starts looking out the window crying that his bus must have run out of gas or has a flat tire. When he gets upset like that about something that he can't do or have he gets really detached and can't respond to you anymore. Then he's very touchy too and gets set off again by smaller events (ex. can't have chocolate milk) and will have a tantrum. I mean falling on the floor, throwing things, biting, hitting, kicking, screaming....I know it sounds like a normal terrible 2's type thing, and maybe I'm just a bad mom who didn't teach her kid to grow up, but I promise it's very different than just the words listed here. If you don't have an autistic child you've probably never seen this. So those can get to be some horribly long days. Anyway, this week has been okay, but he's been getting more touchy each day. He's ready to get back to school. We will be going away to a family get together for the weekend, like so many others. Ours will be a pretty small affair though. It's very over stimulating for him to be in the middle of so much activity and he falls apart after just so long. We have been working with him a lot on this and he's finally starting to be able to handle longer periods of time before he falls apart. My hope is that I can find some way to help him cope that will carry him through the whole event. I probably won't be finding that this weekend but maybe I will be one step closer. Here's hoping that all other special needs families survive the holiday weekend with their sanity. I know how hard these times can be. I know it can be painful but it's well worth the fight.