Our Life With An Autistic Child: Week 83

Last Sunday Ryan had a play date with his friend James. This was the first time that we left Ryan at another person's house that was not family. These are good people and Ryan really gets along with their youngest son, James. He stayed for a little over an hour at their house by himself and did fantastic. When I picked him up, Ryan and James hid so their play date would not end. I let him play for a few more minutes and when it was time to go, he put his toy away and thanked James' parents. He gave each of James' sisters a hug and then he gave James one. He did such a good job that they invited him to come over any time. James's mom remarked that if we did not tell them that Ryan was diagnosed with Autism they would have never guessed.

This past Saturday, we had our last soccer game for the fall season. Ryan scored another goal and the rest of the team did great. We were so happy that Ryan kept with the soccer. At one point during the season he announced that he was going to quit soccer and it took Dawn quite a bit of convincing to keep him in soccer. He really bonded with Coach Mark, the other coach, and he will only play with him. We were really glad that he kept with it and hopefully the spring season will be a good experience as well.

Here are a few pictures from the week.