Mittens on My Heart

To many of you reading this, this looks like your basic 3 year old's craft project.  For those that have children, young or old, you've probably recieved countless scraps of these  works of art, with nary a care to post them on your fridge or bulletin board.

To me, this is the most beautiful art I have ever seen in my life as a mother.  This, my friends, is Sam's first non-forced, totally on his own art project. Glued strips of paper to a pair of cut out mittens.  I could not be happier right now, and I'm going to Hawaii in March, for goodness sake.

My son has...something. Autism? Asbergers? We don't know yet. The team of therapists that work with him 2 or 3 days a week haven't been able to wrap Sam's issues up into a pretty bow with a name yet. They may never be able to.  All we know is, he is a different child. A brilliant, happy, thriving child, but a different child.

He's always marched to the beat of a different drummer. He's shy to those who don't know him, and cautious even with the ones that do.  He can read countless books to us, count to 40, but cannot tie his shoes or put on a shirt.  He has never in his 3 years and 5 months of life taken it upon himself to make something with his creative mind.  We've always sort of joked that he doesn't have a creative mind.

Until today.

I am the proudest parent on the planet today. He did art!  Therapy really is making a difference in him, in the way he interacts with people, and the ways that he plays and laughs and loves.  I cannot wait to see him reach his full potential, to be able to deal with the ins and outs of what makes Sam tick.

I know it will take time. But for now, I patiently wait...one art project at a time.