Today’s visit was far better than usual. In fact, it was one of the happiest for him since he’s left home. He was running around and smiling and giggly and I have no pictures or videos to show for it!
Unfortunately, Alex’s behavior has been so spotty lately that we didn’t want him to be driven all the way to our home just to beat himself up and be driven all the way back, so we’ve been making the drive out to see him. It’s not a terrible drive, but it takes about an hour round-trip. It’s also been hard on our youngest son, and tonight we decided I’d just go up by myself, while my wife and he stayed at home. I helped make that decision, in fact, as I have been pretty burnt out and sort of wanted to just skip the visit entirely – but we know that Alex needs to see that even when times are tough, one of us will still be there for him.
So instead of having the whole family up to enjoy Alex, it was just me, and without a video camera.
Now we just have to hope this is a result of his allergy meds. Because if allergies have been contributing to his self-injury, then maybe he’ll start showing us more smiles than face-slaps.