Gavin had his preschool graduation this week. He was so excited, and I think also very proud to get his certificate. He had been going to the Child Development Center (CDC) since he was two years old, it has been a huge part of his development. When he started there, he was completely "non-verbal and low functioning" - in layman's terms that means he couldn't speak and he was in his own little world all the time. Now he is just a social butterfly and sometimes talks too much! When he gets around his school buddies he is definitely the class clown. His speech is by no means perfect or on par with a typical five year old, but his social skills have really come a long way. Having him in this school has been great. They have been able to let Gavin's naturally sweet personality flourish while setting rules, getting him accustomed to school routine, and always pushing the limits of his abilites. I doubt he would be even nearly ready for kindergarten next year if he hadn't had the awesome teachers and classroom experiences he's had for the past 3 years.

To kick off the ceremony, the teachers herded all the graduates up onto the stage and they sang two songs together. Gavin was right in the middle of all his friends, just belting out the words like a little rock star. Every now and then he would pause for a second to yell out "Mama! Daddy!" Pointing to us in the audience. Though somewhat lacking in tonality, (Simon Cowell might say "He's a tad bit pitchy") he made up for it with robust volume and energy. Gavin is actually a really good singer, I catch him all the time singing to himself. This performance just turned out to be a little more "Punk Rocky", since he had a big captive audience. He always has to be the "Black Sheep" these days, it seems.

The actual receiving of the diploma was pretty funny, too. He was so excited, but he sat nicely right next to his teacher, on the edge of his seat. It took forever for his name to be called, since it's toward the end of the alphabet. As each child walked (or ran) to get their diploma, their picture was put up on the screen. Gavin couldn't wait to see his picture up on the screen, which I'm sure to him looked like a giant flag. If you've been following these posts, you'd know a little about Gav's flag fascination. He is very proud of his diploma, and he's been carrying it around with him all week, even to bed! Here's a little excerpt of "Brown Bear, What Do You See?"

This is a blog post I've been dreading. I write this post with a very heavy heart, because one of our greatest supporters and fan of Snugfits is now with God. Sara's wonderful Grandma Micki passed away. She was known to us as Grammy, but to our boys as Grammy Great. And great she was! She was such a beautiful soul, so full of life and laughter. I've always written these posts with her in mind, knowing she would be reading them with a smile. It was a way to stay connected beyond phone calls.

We did make the sad journey back to Nebraska with these three tots in tow, but not without complication. For starters, we were late for our flight out of Wilmington's tiny airport. It was our fault, of course. In the chaos of getting ready we had written the departure time down wrong. The plane was still at the gate when we arrived, but they wouldn't let us on. US Air was less than amiable. We told them we had to make it for Grandma's funeral, but they still wouldn't let us on the plane. Not a friendly bunch, there. At least they didn't charge us to re-route, but we had to fly out of Raleigh the next morning at 5:30. Also, in order for us to all get to the funeral on time on the same flights, I had to pay $170 for a first class ticket and switch to United Airlines because they only had enough room for 3 in coach. So we drove 2 hours to Raleigh and stayed at a relative's, got up at 3 a.m. and made the flight out of Raleigh to Charlotte, then to Chicago.

The flying part wasn't so bad, it was the traipsing across these gigantic airports that presented the challenge. Bodie, the 8 month old, was easy. We had a stroller for him. Gavin and Garrett were just too excited. The corridors were just buzzing with people, and these boys just wanted to run around and look at everything. It was "Like herding cats" as Sara's uncle Dennis said later. I could keep them in my grip for only so long, then one of them would feign a trip and sprawl along the ground, giggling. NOT FUNNY. I would scoop the joker up as the other one wandered off into the swarm of travelers. What a nightmare. Not good listening, that day. I had to resort to the old "Dad is MAD. You will hold my hands and walk with me or we will miss the plane." Holy stress test, Batman. But keep reading - the plot thickens...

So we made it to the United gate at Chicago in time after many shenanigans and tomfoolery. I went to the desk to check in, and low and behold, they have no tickets confirmed for me, Gavin and Garrett!!  What What What?!?! Unbelievable! Apparently the gal from US Air in Wilmington didn't finish getting us all on that flight to Omaha. She just confirmed the first class ticket for Sara and Bodie, and not the rest of the crew. I pleaded with the lady at the desk, but they were already boarding and there was just no room at the inn. We were going to miss the funeral! There would be another flight to Omaha this afternoon, she promised. Sara tearfully entered the jetway with Bodie, to the cacophony of wails from Gavin and Garrett. It was like a scene from a Lifetime movie. There should have been a film crew there to capture some of this Emmy quality high drama...

I had to move the boys away from the gate, and find an open space where Gavin could have a full blown autistic meltdown. Unlike Tom Cruise in the "Rainman" airport scene, I didn't try to contain it, or yell to everyone "He's all right! He's all right!" I just let it happen, which is all you can do. It is an unavoidable fact of life with autism. Meltdowns happen, and when the smoke clears the child will see much more clearly. Garrett actually calmed down pretty quickly after I told him we would go get some pop and french fries from McDonalds. He sat in my arms and watched Gavin twisting and writhing on the floor at gate B-2, O'Hare. When it was over, the boys sullenly trudged with me to the McD's where I delivered on my promise of fries and pop.

Appetites and emotions temporarily suppressed, we headed back to the gate to discover our fate. The lady at the United desk was very helpful and empathetic. She did her best, but could only find three seats on a flight that left at 5:51. That meant we had to wait 8 hours! Holy smokes! Eight hours in Dante's 1st Ring of Hell: Limbo. I couldn't believe it. What would we do for eight hours? These poor kids had been up since 3 a.m, had watched their mother and baby brother leave us behind, and were both running on empty. I decided we should post up at Chili's for awhile, drink some chocolate milk and eat some grilled cheese (a classic). Chili's was a Godsend. The dark, muted atmosphere really calmed some nerves. Garrett ate half a sandwich, chugged some chocolate milk, and fell asleep with his chin on his plate. I could tell Gavin wouldn't be napping that day. Though somewhat tranquilized, he still had that unsure, dubious look in his eye. He needed a place to hop around and stim, so we left Chili's and found a nice quiet wing of the terminal where no one was sitting.

Gavin literally bounced off the walls and climbed on the seating for 2 or more hours while Garrett slept in my lap. It was raining cats and dogs outside, with lots of lightning. Flights were being delayed left and right. That was yet another element of anxiety to throw in the mix! It wasn't as bad as it sounds, though. The stress kind of waned, and it actually became a nice, relaxing time for me to sit and reflect on all the fun times Sara and I had with Grandma Micki. She probably would have had a good chuckle at all of our bad luck that day! It was really sad to think that at the end of this journey, we would get to Grandma's house and she wouldn't be there with hugs.

I also found it interesting just to observe the thousands of people pass by. Some running, some lazily meandering, some looking bewildered and lost, etc. Poor Gavin kept looking out the huge windows at all the planes moving around the tarmac, and every time he saw a United plane he would shout "There's our plane daddy! We don't have to wait!" Then I'd have to burst his bubble again and again, telling him "No Gavin, that plane is going to Saskatchewan (or somewhere equally hard to say) not to Omaha." He would look at me confusedly and try to pronounce the word, "Sas...Saska..."  deflecting some of his disappointment. We had that exchange every time we saw a United plane. I'm not kidding! I was running out of polysyllabic geographical names, and just making stuff up. He doesn't really understand how time works yet, so telling him we had 7, or 6, or 5 hours left didn't mean a thing to him. He just remained hopeful that the next United plane he saw would be for us.

"There's our plane daddy!"

"Sorry Gav. That one's going to Madagascar."

Finally Garrett woke up and we moved on. I found an information desk and asked where the best place for these kids to play would be. She directed me to this really nice playground in the airport, put up by the Chicago Children's Museum. It was about a half mile away, it seemed, but awesome! The boys had a blast. We spent most of the rest of the day there, blowing off steam and playing with some other cool traveling kids from all over the country.

At long last, the time came to start shuffling the crew back over to the gate, I had kept an eye on the flight monitor and was thanking God the plane would be on time, in spite of the nasty weather. We arrived at the gate, the plane was being fueled, and it looked like we would be boarding soon. From out of nowhere, a pungent, familiar funk hit my nostrils. I thought we were home free - but alas, Garrett had a stinky surprise waiting for me in his Lightning McQueen pullup. I couldn't believe it. To top it off, Sara had the diaper bag with her for Bodie, and neither one of us thought to leave me with an extra dipe. Great! I was not about to let Garrett sit on the plane for an hour and a half with that mess. I had to spend $9.00 at the Hudson News store for 2 pullups and 8 wet wipes. Thanks goes out to Hudson News for a super crappy deal. (No pun intended.) We did a quick change in the "Family" bathroom and made it to the plane with little time to spare. As the plane took off, both boys were already asleep and I sank into my seat to decompress...

In the end, we didn't make it to the funeral, but we did get to see all of our family. Sara's family is so awesome. They are spread out from one end of the country to the other, so it was nice to have everyone back at Grandma's house one last time. It was nice but bittersweet. Grandma's house was filled with family and friends, and full of love. The house was full, but it still seemed very much empty without Micki's laughter. I'm just glad all three of our babies were lucky enough to be held in their Grammy Great's arms. She is a very special person.

Last weekend I took the terrible trio to the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher, which is a pretty magnificent place. We go there quite a bit. Its a cheap date - only 8 bucks! They've got a huge tank full of all types of the local sea life, and at 10:30 on Saturdays divers swim around in there and put on a show for the kiddies. These boys love it. Every time, Gavin wants me to go in there and help the divers. He says "You can have a diver suit, daddy. Just like a diver!" And every time, I suggest to him that he might like to swim in there with the sharks. He looks at me wide eyed, gets a little panicky, and we quickly move on to see the octopus.

The aquarium is great. When you first walk in, you're greeted by a huge (and very realistic) stuffed alligator with mouth agape. Very intimidating, but apparently not to a 2 year old. See photo! My favorite part is the Cape Fear Conservatory which is like a huge greenhouse filled with all the local reptiles, birds and fish that live around here. The harmless critters are allowed to just roam freely, while the more lethal variety are obviously penned up. Gavin and Garrett love the alligators, who mostly just float motionless. Bodie is content just to study his brothers as they gawk at the animals.

Here's Gavin asking a silly question "Who's in the water?" He's funny with his questions. He knows I love to hear him ask questions, but he usually asks a strange one that he already knows the answer to. Its a funny little quirk of his. So I'll give him a silly answer, like "Those are big green beans in that water." Then he gets serious: "NO daddy. Those are NOT green beans. They are alligators." For a boy with autism, this kind of dialogue marks a great milestone in his development. I am just so glad he can interact with me in a meaningful way. An even better question came this morning. I was making breakfast and had the eggs sitting on the counter. He came up and looked at the eggs and asked "What is inside the eggs?" I told him yellow yolks are inside. Then he asked "Who put the yellow yolks in the eggs?" He really knocked my socks off with that one! I told him chickens make the eggs. He said "Yes. They do that at the farm." ...NICE! I love these conversations.

It's ironic that the best part of the aquarium visits for these kids is the bridge over the little turtle pond. They spend a good 20 minutes there every time just looking down at the native turtles, oohing and ahhing. You would think after seeing all the exotic sea creatures, a few little box turtles would seem pretty mundane. Not to Gavin and Garrett. They've become expert turtle watchers, counting turtles and labeling each as "big or little". Important stuff! Somebody has to keep track of those turtles. I would love for these guys to grow up to be marine biologists someday. They've got a good start!