We went to Avi's play group today. It was different. Avi's old teacher is gone and the new teacher is a little. . . well different. He's much less animated than the other teachers and doesn't seem as attentive. It didn't seem to bother Avi at all. He loved the swings, the ball pit, and everything else. After play time we went to the work room and some of the kids were sitting at the table. Avi pulled up a chair and sat down with them. The teacher reminded them that it wasn't time to sit at the group table, but at their private tables to do the learning box. I was really surprised to see Avi following the lead of the other children. He has become such a social little guy lately. We seperated but Avi was eager to join back up with the other children. He played with the playdough, even though he HATES it and even played with the rice/beans box. He started off not wanting it to touch his hand but eventually was putting his own hand into the box and feeling the rice and beans. He did really well. Then we sang our songs and he started doing the wheels on the bus by himself. We left and he was so sad. I'm sure he'll be excited to be back at the playgroup on Thursday.

The weekend and the Monday were amazing. It turns out that Avi loves fireworks almost as much as he loves his cousins. He loved playing with them and begged to go back to them when we came home. Then yesterday we went to play with the other children who live in our complex. Avi normally plays around them but yesterday was different. I will never forget the image of him standing at the box where the other children were playing. He looked up at them and smiled and laughed and really played the game along with the other children. It was amazing. I've never seen him so social! Little things really give you a lot of hope.

We saw a "biomedical" doctor yesterday too. It was interesting but I'm really confused now. He suggested a few different diagnoses that he believes we should look into. It doesn't come cheaply. I'm not sure what to do, but i want the very best for my little Avi.

I hope that Avi knows that I love him, that nothing he does can change that. I hope he learns to believe in himself as much as I believe in him. I believe hat he is fully capable of anything. I hope he knows that Autism (or whatever it turns out to be) is a diagnosis, not an excuse. I believe that he can over come any obstacle placed before him.