Project 52 Photography Challenge | 6/52: Happy

I can’t believe we are already into week six of the Project 52 Photography Challenge! That also means that we are six weeks into the year, and my goodness does this year seem like it is already flying by. Is it summer yet?

Project 52 Photography Challenge | 6/52: Happy

I can’t say that this week was a very happy week around our house. This week, our family said goodbye to our family patriarch, as my grandfather passed away last Wednesday. Sadly, he was the second grandparent I’ve said goodbye to this winter, as my dear grandmother also passed away in December. So, when I received this week’s theme of “happy” early Sunday morning, I really wasn’t sure how I was going to find happiness throughout our week.

Enter this moment of my son, Simon, in the bath tub…

Some of you may know that our son has autism. For those of you not familiar with autism, it adds a little, okay, a lot of quirk, crazy, challenges and joy to our lives. It has certainly made for an interesting ride! One thing that has always been a struggle for our son is play. Children with autism often just don’t know how to play, and the play they do participate in is often scripted or very physical in nature. It is so rare to see Simon play pretend or imitate me or my husband, like most children his age would do with their parents.

For the Christmas of 2013, Santa brought our son a play shaving set. My husband has quite the elaborate shaving set-up and Simon is often under-foot when he is shaving. He loves watching the process and so we thought this would be the perfect gift. Sadly, it sat for over a year, barely touched until this week, when he suddenly decided that he too, wants to shave- just like Daddy!

I can’t tell you how happy it made me to see our little boy mix up bubbles as his “shaving cream”, apply them to his face with the brush (he has a lot of sensory issues with water on his face) and then pretend to shave the bubbles away.

While we have had our fair share of struggles, as we learn to help our son navigate life with autism, it is moments like these that fill my cup to the brim with happiness. Autism has brought its share of challenges, but it has also brought many gifts. After-all, this would likely be just another overlooked moment in childhood, if it were not for autism.  I am so happy to have shared this moment with him and for his continuous progress!

In case you missed it, you can check out last week’s photo challenge on the blog. I can’t wait to see what is in store for next week!

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