It's 6:10 am and I can't sleep anymore . . .

I've been up since 5:30. I guess this is what happens to you when you get older. You forget how to sleep late. I want to sleep late, I really do, but I can't. Old habits are hard to break. Katherine had minor surgery at the Army Hospital yesterday and has come out of it well, so she and everyone else is going to be headed off to school this morning. The doctor had to sedate her with laughing gas to remove the back of an earring which had completely been swallowed up by her ear lobe. Noone ever tells you things like that can happen. So I'm hear to warn the world : check your child's earrings every single day and wear safety backs (those big plastic round ones). On a happier note, Rob, the kids and I joined a pool. It's a public pool here in Alexandria, and we went ahead a bought season passes because it was just so cool. It's run by the park service of Northern Va, but it's probably the coolest pool I've ever been to outside of a water park. There's a huge wave pool, a play pool that perfect for the kids with two waterslides in it, and there are three HUGE "straw pipe" slides for the people who actually know how to swim. Ben spent about 30 seconds being shy of the pool, lurking around the edge, touching the water with his toes, before he lost all inhibitions and picked up right where he left off last summer. That boy can swim, though I don't think he's consciously trying to. He goes under water and dog paddles, and for the most part, get along really well. He even went on the water slide with Rob and I twice! The girls still have a thing about dunking their heads, but had a great time playing on the slides too, after Caroline convinced Katherine that it wasn't so scary. We had a great weekend.

Nothing Profound, Yet All Is Well

Rob's back from Mississippi and for that we're truly grateful. Ben is still doing well on the potty, and all in all, things are as good or better than can be expected. Things are starting to come together for the summer, and I expect Ben will be in summer school for the month of July. He'll be getting 3 hours of therapy four days a week as well, so it looks like it'll be a busy time for him, unlike the two previous summers. I firmly believe that, like most other autistic kids, Ben needs as much structure as possible for as much of the day as is feasible. He is simply unable to entertain himself in a normal way. Even on a short trip to the bus stop or walking out to the car, his compulsions take over. But if he's busy, his spitting definitely decrease. On the whole, over the past few weeks, he's been exceedingly happy. He wakes up cheerful most mornings and has been sleeping well, in fact, yesterday he slept until 8:30! I'm looking forward to a constructive summer for him and the girls, who are enrolled in two week long day camps and an art class. Ben loves to swim, so I'll try to throw some of that in there too. That's all for now.