Be Happy!

Last week was a little rough for me in one way.  In another way it was a reminder about how things affect my son.  My son has no understanding of what occurred last week, and I worked very hard to keep him from knowing just how much it upset me.  But not all of it could be hidden.  And my son, in his unlimited loving way, decided he would help.  So "Be Happy" has been his chant for over a week now.  Happy was a word that the aide's at school taught him a couple of years ago.  I've never been sure, until now, that he understood what the word meant.  But his use of it has been just as expansive and dead on as his use of "Quiet".

It all depends on his tone of voice and body language.  He will chant "happy, happy, happy" while bouncing up and down because he's truly happy with what we are doing.  He will chant "be happy, happy, happy" when he seems to think that he, or I, are not happy with what is going on.  He will distinctly look me in the face and say "Be Happy" when he seems to think that I am not happy.  He will give me silly grins.  He tries to tickle me.  He instigates tickle/wrestling matches.  He sneaks up behind me and gives me big hugs.  All while looking at me and saying "Be Happy".

Now please don't think that I've been down in the gloomy dumps for the past week or so.  I haven't, even though there was a rough day or two.  But it was the reminder of how things affect my son.  We've been doing very, very well for the last couple of months, and that has been drastically reflected in his behaviors.  Without the continual overstimulation and headaches Mark is behaving like a normal boy his age with little to no stim behaviors.  But if I get badly upset, he knows it and the tension goes up.  And his bad behaviors return because they are his way of dealing with stress.  Fortunately for both of us, since he was doing so well beforehand this episode has taught us both new things.  Mark has learned how to try to "cheer up" mommy and that he can do positive things to help his stress.  So, despite the severity of the occurrence for me, Mark is recovering from the stressors very quickly.  I'm hoping that by the end of the weekend he will have settled back down into his "new" level of wonderful behavior.  And mommy has learned to let her beautiful son "cheer her up" in his own unique ways.  Even if she's not ticklish.