My Son Isaac

     My son Isaac is now ten. This picture was taken a Coronado Beach a few years ago. We discovered he had autism when he was twenty months old. I had been working away from home at the time and when I returned he would not look at me.  At first I was looking for some magical cure, but after a while I realized that it was not a short term problem. He was born a month early so that is what they thought was the probable cause.
     There really wasn't much development from the time he was two to eight years old., but the last couple of years he has been making quite a bit of progress.
      It has always been difficult to get him to eat, for a year all he would eat for breakfast was chocolate milk, then popcorn.  Since he won't eat what everyone else eats sometimes we forget he hadn't had a meal, which we learned the hard way when the ran into a gas station, grabbed a candy bar and started madly devouring it.
     He can communicate after a manner, we just have to figure out the code. Usually something about the movie he wants to watch.  For the movie Napoleon Dynamite, Isaac would ask for key chain and when he is hurt or sad he asks for a band aid.  He loves movies and will include a movie with his routine of pouring water, tying shoes and tormenting his mother. His favorite movies are: Rocket Man, Over the Hedge, Chicken Little, Napoleon Dynamite, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Matilda, Spirited Away, and Toy Story.
     He enjoys dropping dice, dominoes and balls on the tile, and countertops to hear the sound. When we are at the beach he loves to fill a bucket with water then drop sand into it..
     He has been difficult, at time overwhelming, at times a puppy dog in a little boy's body; but he is like someone gave us a million dollars, he is precious to us. Of course he has been a million dollars worth of work as well. I think having an autistic child has been a great blessing, forcing us to reach out of our selves and serve him. He requires our very best effort. We are fortunate to have him in our family.

    This little video reminds me of Isaac.  My brother Hyrum.