Autism with Love and Hope

Been a long time since I have posted anything from Matthew!!!
I am still so very busy, helping Matthew achieving his goals.
During this time many things have happened, so will try writing a short story.
Throughout this recent time I did not post anything, Matthew and I were working on his school, (for those of you who do not know, Matthew was homeschooled), we travelled to another state to visit his younger sister, along with many another projects.
First before anything, Matthew, Graduated from High School!! It was a very big event, he turned 18 in February, so our goal was for him to Graduate before 18, but this was not easy, neither for Matthew nor the bureaucracy of the system. I requested special accommodations for his final and that tool nearly eight months until finally they grant the request! Matthew was fully prepared, and he waited so long. So, I was continuously motivating Matthew was a challenge. Until all the exams were completed and everything was done, he graduated in February, two days after his birthday.
Now I am helping him transition to colleges, currently this is a work on progress.
Second event is Matthew continues with his coding at Code Ninjas, he is not so happy about this, but he needs to finish his course. He is not too excited, so I continuously need to find new ways to motivate Matthew to go, like giving him more time on his games!
When Matthew’s behavior is not good, like talking back to me, complaining, not listening, and talking too loudly he loses his games. I have had this rule all his life, how I do it is simple!
Matthew has several electronics such as Xbox, Nintendo, TV, tablet, and phone. I give him one a day for short period of time, for example, when he was on small boy, I gave tokens. This was a system I created for him. After 4pm when he finished his school, he would get five tokens, each good for 15 minutes with breaks of 20 minutes between them. He could lose all of them if his behavior is not good. This process has been in place for most of his life.
As Matthew grew up, the system was modified, too, Token time increased from 15 to 30 and finally to 35 minutes by January 2023. In January I sat and talked with Matthew, explaining to him that I will change the entire system when he is 18 years old. Matthew was very happy, and I also told Matthew that I will give him the phone permanently with the following conditions.
1. Phone is not for playing or watching games but is only for talking, sending messages, or something important. Also, the phone is not allowed on his room at night, no electronics are allowed in his room. Matthew complained, but he accepted my conditions.
2. Any time he uses a bad word, especially towards me or dad, he loses his Xbox (the Xbox is his favorite electronic) for two days.
3. If he screams or does not respect me or another female, he loses all his electronic for 30 days. Matthew complains and says, “Mom, this is too much.” I told him he does not need to worry as I am sure you will continue respecting me and other females. Matthew said, yes, he will do it, but he questions me why only females and why not males? I told him I had not finish yet. If he does not respect dad or another male, then I will on vacation to his sister and come back in a week. Matthew got up and said mom you really are too extremist, you will abandon me and not love me, how can you do that, poor me, I cannot control my laughter. Matthew is very dramatic, lol.
4. Now Matthew has more time with his electronics, still waiting until after 4 pm as he needs to continue studying (it is very difficult because Matthew does not want to do it, but slowly I am working on this). I promised Matthew that after graduating from High School I will be more flexible and give additional time, which could be up to 45 minutes or one hour, still requiring him to do breaks. If he complains, he loses one electronics for the day, and the next day a different electronic. That way his behavior does not increase. This is because if Matthew engages in a game too much and he focuses so much on the game, his behavior increases proportionately. To avoid that, while teaching Matthew to control his behavior too, time is limited and with required breaks. I do all this process helping Matthew all his life. It has been and still is very difficult at times, but today I can said he doing fantastic, even though there still is work to do, but I am so very proud of Matthew.

Another thing Matthew continues meeting with a BCBA. Carrie, his BCBA, is Incredible, she really helps a lot, and Matthew loves her being part of his life. I know this is not forever, but she will be part of our life forever.

One other thing is traveling, which was difficult for Matthew as he is afraid of airplanes and going through security with so many people. Before traveling I contacted the TSA Contact Center, and they helped on the day we traveled going through the security screening process. Matthew was very stimulated, so he used his noise cancelling headphones which muted all the noise. This was helpful. Finally, when Matthew travels during the flight he brings his electronics. I told him he can play for 30 minutes and relax 20 minutes, and then listen to music for 15 minutes. In this way he does not get sick on the flight. During all this I try to control his games, and behavior, telling him before we travel, he needs to behave, if he cannot do that, he will lose all the electronics including tv for two weeks. Matthew said this will be difficult because of the huge numbers of people and being on an airplane. What he has leaned all these years he can to put to practice now. Matthew said he would try if I helped him. I reaffirmed Matthew, I am here, and I will help him.

To be honest I did not help him a lot as he does a fantastic job. He tries so hard, and I am so proud on my boy.

To all the followers of Autism with Love and Hope, thank you so much for continuing being there, you all are giving me lots of motivation. Sometimes went I am feeling sad, I look at Matthew’s page, Autism with Love and Hope, and read your comments which inspires and motives me.
I will try to post any another weekend.

Thank you, beautiful souls, around the word.

Matthew photography crashes his sister’s wedding.
First, I truly apologizing for not posting sooner, I have been so very busy preparing the decorations for Matthew’s younger sister’s wedding, and also with all Mathew’s programs, too.
Try to be short with so many things that happening around Matthew.
Like I stated, Matthew’s younger sister got married.
Between his therapists, Doctor, and family we all tried helping Matthew with the news, because Matthew is very close with his sister. We worked with him going to the wedding, because he did not want to go and to the reception.
Matthew continuously said he will not go anywhere, was annoyed, reminding us that these types of events he doesn’t like etc. Matthew was very confrontational about the situation, so I worked hard and tried to convince him he needed to go to the wedding while at the same time I was preparing the decorations. I hand made all the decorations. What is interesting while I was making the decorations Matthew was with me all the time even late night, accompanying me, like a supervisor lol. He told me all the time, “Mom, you need to be very careful and not break any of the decorations.
The day came and we traveled in our car carrying all the decoration with us. Matthew was very over stimulated by the situation especially he was worried about the tree of life that I made for his sister’s wedding. He was continuously complaining with dad to be careful how he drives, be careful how he parks the car all the time. It was so interesting how worried he was, especially since Matthew was not interested in going to the wedding. We traveled for five days as his sister lives the Pacific Northwest.
When we arrived at our destination, Matthew insisted we take the trees of life out first to see if they were ok. I told Matthew do not worried if something is damaged I ca fix, but he said, “Mom, all has to be perfect for my sister’s wedding.
He helped us to unload the car and relaxed after he saw the trees of life were undamaged. Matthew then said all of you are ready for the wedding, I don’t go anywhere. I told Matthew, “Ok, if this is your decision, but you will talk to your sister personally and tell her what you just told me as I am not telling her.
The wedding day:
That morning I started arranging the decorations. Matthew’s younger sister’s friends helped me, and Matthew also helped without said anything. Matthew was very serious. When the time came, I told Matthew, “Ok, change into your clothing you picked for the wedding (he had chosen black sport clothing: long pants and a polo shirt). Matthew asked to me, “Does he have to go?” I told him, yes please. At the wedding he sat in the front row with dad and I, he was very sad. We the wedding started, he told me, “I am losing my sister” and his eyes were watering. He was really serious, but he changed a lot when he listened the vows, he told me that is very impressed with what his sister’s new husband said.
Matthew stays for the entire ceremony.
I had previously asked Matthew’s older sister to helped look after him when the wedding was finished. I had reassured Matthew that he could stay with his older sister the house we were staying in next to the wedding locations. To our big surprise Matthew was chatting with Kristen Honeycutt, the wedding photographer, before the reception started. Matthew was very happy with the Kristen lol. She really was so nice explaining to Matthew about photography. When his older sister offered food to Matthew, I approached the photographer and explained to her that Matthew is a high functioning Autistic. She said that is ok, he is very polite and very interested in photography.
For the reception, Matthew’s younger sister had bought instant cameras so anyone could take pictures and put them in the wedding album. But when Matthew’s younger sister saw Matthew was so interested in taking pictures she changed her plans and gave Matthew the four instant cameras. Matthew was so happy he, and then he really crashed his younger sister’s wedding as a photographer lol. He started taking pictures behind the photographer like a professional and approached people and took their pictures and then gave the picture to them. He was completely another person. Very happy and stayed for the whole reception until everyone leaves. This ass so impressive how he did it, and how much love he showed to his sister on her wedding day. In the end, I told Matthew to thank Kristen. Matthew approached her and shook her hand saying, “Thank you very much was a pleasure working with you lol.
I am so very proud of Matthew all the time, but this day more special seeing what Matthew can achieve.
I know there is still work to do especially now when he is a teenager, and so many difficulties on this world, but I am big believer in him and with love and hope all is possible in this beautiful word.
Thank you too all off beautiful souls that follow my son Matthew page, sending a lot of light, love.

I apologize as it has been a while since I last made a post to Matthew’s story. Too many things have happened in life, the covid situation changed humanity and many people’s lives around the word, we were not an exception. The daily routines are always full of so many items, and while this is on the list, I never find time to sit and write a something. Matthew’s day has always been very schedule dominated; something we have shared many times over the years. That daily schedule, coupled with Matthew’s poor sleep patterns, and the days just seem to disappear.
As we have recorded in the past, one of the most difficult things for children and young adults on the spectrum is having consistent, reliable, and useful services. Matthew, like so many others, needs this in order to develop and one day be able to have a normal place in humanity. At present, Matthew and I have a very good team of people from various backgrounds helping and coaching Matthew. The current team is likely the most helpful since Matthew was a toddler over ten years ago. Some have been with us a while, others are new. What is more interesting is some of our assistance is not face to face; it is through online meetings and coaching sessions. That is something which I did not foresee all those years ago. Previously, Matthew always required that personal touch. Someone who could “read” him and communicate with Matthew even when he was not fully cooperative. Another area where we believed online coaching would not work was when Matthew’s anxiety level increases, he must pace. While Matthew has for short periods (usually less than ten minutes) been able to control or delay this reaction, it has never been for any length of time. The made it difficult for even in person assistance to interact and work with Matthew. As I have mentioned before, pacing is Matthew’s method to think and assimilate his surroundings. For Matthew, pacing is meditative and allows him to enter that plane where his mind if free to analyze and absorb new thoughts and extreme levels of creativity. The key recently has been how to contain and redirect this contemplative and creative mindset or zone and keep Matthew focused on the immediate task at hand. Amazingly with the help of his new personal online coach we have been able to make this not only happen, but also to have great sessions where Matthew is engaged for up to an hour at a time.
First, a short list of what services Matthew is currently receiving. Matthew still receives weekly speech assistance. This has been the one therapy that Matthew has received an ongoing basis for many years. While long ago Matthew’s speech has developed remarkably fast, he still has difficulty with the give and take of conversations. The therapist works on broadening Matthew’s range of topics and the social skills of having a conversation. How to interact with others, allow them to talk and have their say and opinion, and not interrupt continuously. Many things we all take for granted, but Matthew like many on the spectrum, these concepts required continued development and reinforcement. Second, Matthew still has a BCBA. This is not ABA therapy per se, but more guidance and coaching. The individual therapy ended a while back as Matthew, the therapist, and me had reached a point of no return on that type of service. The BCBA has suggested some new therapists, but we have not found the right fit for Matthew.
The BCBA continues in like an advisory role making suggestions to Matthew and me on improvements or alternative choices. It is a different model but is offering a positive impact. Both the speech therapy and the BCBA are in our home. The new one is Matthew’s online personal autism coach. He is a young man with a background in working with special needs children in the school system. Matthew and he meet in weekly online sessions. The coach lives in New York. The New York connection is how the coach initially engaged Matthew. Matthew was born in upstate New York and even though lived there only about a year so associates with that as his home state. Consequently, the both of them being New Yorkers was how the ice was broken and Matthew begin participating in the online coaching sessions. They have advance past this and discuss a large number of topics. Also new is I do not personally involve myself in the conversations. I monitor from nearby in case Matthew requires reinforcement to stay a part of the session. So far this has not been required. Matthew fully participates in the weekly sessions and looks forward to them. The online sessions make him feel important as he is regularly having a meeting with someone who is somewhere else in the world. To date this has been a positive impact. Matthew is listening and working on the “assignments” given to him by the coach. The final assistance Matthew is receiving in one way does not have autism as its primary mission. Matthew is receiving online nutritional and fitness counseling. Again, it is a younger gentleman, and I was at first reluctant to see the benefit which could result from this. What is remarkable, he and this young man interact and engage very well. As much as I have worked with Matthew eating the correct type of foods, not overeating, and doing some form of exercise it was not enough. As with most teenagers, mom and parents are not experts on anything; our opinions are annoying and non-productive. Matthew receives pretty much the same message from someone else, an expert, and is willing not only listen to the message and advice, but actually follow through and make the changes required for the advice to work. Again this is an online service and has been helpful not only in making Matthew more health conscious, but in enabling Matthew to engage with a person who primary goal was not associated with autism.
As you can see, Matthew and I are daily engaged in a multitude of activities. Add homeschool, daily chores around the house, and the errands necessary time just blows by. The positive is Matthew is making continued behavioral improvements. They are noticeable and are making Matthew more “aware” of his surroundings and how his behavior impacts others. The great thing for me is that I am still Matthew’s go-to person for advice and questions. What is different now is the therapists and coaches are raising a lot more questions in Matthew. I work with Matthew on assimilating that new knowledge and applying it to his daily life. It is incredibly rewarding for Matthew and all of us hope these improvements will continue.
Time goes by so fast. The holidays have come and gone along with the New Year. Everyday Matthew and I have so many things to do and places to go. There is one event recently I would like to highlight, and it was very remarkable and eye opening to me. A little background first. Matthew earns small amounts of money for completing chores around the house. Over the year he had saved this money and along with money he received for Christmas, we purchased a pre-loaded debit card. This year for my birthday Matthew took me to lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Olive Garden. In the days leading up to my birthday, Matthew was very excited about taking me to lunch, but a little worried in having to pay for his own meal. He knew I usually only eat salads, but Matthew likes his bread and pastas and as with all teenage boys eats a lot. Matthew had a good amount of money on his card (enough for several lunches), but he plans out all of expenditures to the last penny, and he did not know how much lunch was going to cost. In the end it was nothing he should have worried about. Then, on my birthday Matthew and I went for lunch. I had my usually salad and Matthew his large plate of pasta and lots of bread. Matthew behaved really great during lunch, engaging the waitress, and telling everyone in the restaurant it was my birthday. Also, as we always do when are together talking and talking and talking. When it came time to pay and the waitress brought the check, Matthew gave her his debit card and said, “I am paying for our lunch since it is my mom’s birthday.” He was very serious, sitting up straight, and feeling very good about himself. Matthew paid for our lunch which concluded a very wonderful event for both of us. Matthew’s actions and mannerisms made me so very proud. My little boy is growing up and while the road to this point has had it setbacks, Matthew is becoming more of an adult and more responsible with every event. This truly was one of my most wonderful and beautiful birthdays ever.
Thank all of you who follow Matthew’s story. May Love and Hope guide and make all of your wishes and dreams happen and come true for the people who you care about on the spectrum enabling them to develop having successful and meaningful achievement in their lives.

First! Autism with Love and Hope is so grateful to all the followers of Matthew’s page. Thanks to all of you and your continued patience following my son’s page.
February was a very long month, full of incredible and interesting situations for Matthew.
First was his birthday, Matthew was so happy to have his good friend K being with him celebrating, playing games, and eating pizza. Matthew had one small episode when he was not so happy, but he separated himself in his room from everyone for a little bit and was ok. Matthew did complain a lot about one specific gift!! His younger sister gave Matthew an interesting gift; a blanket that is very special which weighs 20 pounds. The blanket is supposed make people relaxed and clam. Matthew said he loved the present, but not on my birthday!!! I told Matthew sometimes the universe sends you things that we don't always understand. I also spoke with Matthew saying maybe this gift will help him in the future (thank you Katherine for the blanket.)
The words became prophetic because maybe many of you know what happened in Texas a couple of weeks ago. The weather changed unexpectedly. We had an intense cold front and blizzard that hit us and almost all of Texas. When the snow started Matthew was happy, like most kids who only experience snow on rare occasions. Then when everything started going badly Matthew was very afraid. He did not leave my side, especially when we were without electricity for 36 hours and the temperature inside our home dropped into the 30s. I then gave Matthew the blanket his sister had given him on his birthday, and it was a magic blanket. Matthew was so calm and feeling so good. I always have lots of heavy blankets covering all of us. Matthew even slept with us as he was afraid and very worried about the kittens. Matthew and I put a lot of blankets on the kitten’s houses (which are covered beds shaped like a house) and they were all fine with us in one room. Matthew was confused about what happened and being so cold. I attempted in the day time to make him to do some exercise to help make Matthew warmer and more comfortable. We have lucky we did not lose or have our water freeze which made everything a little bit easier.
Now, to move on to another subject after all that happened Matthew continues do his programs and I continue looking for more things to help Matthew. We are working with his BCBA and speech therapist. Dr Kaplan from Texas Children’s Hospital has continued helping me find a solution to improve the quality and length of Matthew’s sleep. We are working on this together with his pediatrician Dr Berg (Matthew look towards his pediatrician like a mentor) with all of us working as a team to helped Matthew.
From another side many of you who follow Matthew’s history knows that I continuously attempt to find helped for Matthew. With 99% the door closed on my face, without anyone giving a chance for Matthew to achieve any goal, but I never ever give up and always with a lot of love and hope I continue knocking on door after door, sometimes what seems like millions of times. These days with the virus I know is difficult but never impossible, and then I saw our local community recreation program was offering class of Archery (our town is amazing always trying to positively helped the community to the best of their ability. I know Matthew loves Archery. I enrolled Matthew in a class which meets once a week, but Matthew is having a very difficult time with this class. Most of the children are very small and Matthew has problems following directions from the coach. I will continue posting on how this develops.

Another class that is being offered is tennis. Previously I have offered to Matthew that I can teach him to play tennis, but his answer was, “You are my mom; I am a teenager now, I am lunge of this.” I therefore enrolled Matthew in the tennis class. In this class Matthew plays with adults. Matthew is still taller than everyone, but what is interesting with this class Matthew is incredibly following all of the directions from the coach. Matthew is like another Matthew and is so very happy. The coach knows Matthew has autism, and he treats Matthew as a normal person; exactly the same is everyone else on the court. Coach Jack is really an amazing person. I am grateful that our city has recruited people like the coach Jack.

And again thank you, the followers of Autism with Love and Hope. Y’all make me feel I am not alone in this chapter of my son Matthew’s life and continue giving me lots of support and encouragement.

I wish to thank everyone for continuing to follow Matthew’s story and wish that everyone’s year will be wonderful with lots of love and hope.
The time just flies by and a whole month of the new year has already disappeared and ha now became the “past.” Tomorrow is Matthew’s birthday. My little baby boy turns 16. Last year we had Matthew’s first real birthday party; this year because of COVID protocols, mostly Matthew, and me too, wearing a mask for any length of time, we will be remaining home, celebrating quietly with some cake. There will be other years with memorable birthdays once again. Matthew and I are very thankful to living through what has in many ways be a difficult year.
A look back on Matthew’s story for 2020. The year started out very promising and on a very high note. Matthew had a wonderful birthday party with his friends and family. Bowling, playing games, and enjoying pizza at a local bowling establishment. Everything in early February was looking up and as I commented at the time might be the best year ever. Then the COVID crisis evolved. Everything shut down; for Matthew his therapy stopped, Code Ninjas closed or went remotely (something Matthew was unable to manage successfully), and Matthew and I were sheltering in place to use one of the new phrases of this era. For over three months this was Matthew’s existence. Matthew did ok as he most often prefers to stay at home, but even Matthew likes to go somewhere once in a while. On top of this at the very end of the lockdown period, Matthew’s younger sister whom he is closely attached to moved back to Washington state. Even though her move actually resulted in our only trip to help her out when she ran into a problem in Colorado, her absence has been very difficult on Matthew. As has been the case so very often in Matthew’s life, it was once again just back to Matthew and I. By August Matthew’s therapy restarted. The BCBA directed therapy has its ups and downs. Obviously one of the purposes is to challenge Matthew, to put him in a uncomfortable place and expand his abilities in dealing with the myriad of things life throws at all of us. Matthew is absorbing a lot and progress is being made but not at the same level as when he was a toddler and young child. Of course at that time Matthew had a long ways to go and the challenges were immense. Now, we are attempting to polish off the rough edges, so the change is more gradually and not so easily measurable. Shortly after in September, Matthew also restarted Code Ninjas. Now, Matthew learned about social distancing, wearing a mask, and having a lot fewer peers around as class sizes were very limited. The social distancing is a good lesson for Matthew as he did have issues with remaining a proper distance from someone when he was speaking with them. Now with everyone thinking the same thing, the concept is “keeping one’s distance” while speaking finally was driven home for Matthew. Wearing a mask is another story. Matthew is very sensitive with things on his face, so as you can expect wearing a mask is something he does not enjoy or tolerate very well. For the hour of his Code Ninjas sessions is about the high level of his tolerance. Matthew, like I am sure many of us is waiting for the day when the mask wearing “requirement” ceases to exist. Finally, as the year closes out with the holiday season, Matthew has done well. He participated in both large meals at Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. They were good lessons in social etiquette for him and he showed very good progress. Overall Matthew has handled what is probably one of the more challenging years of his short life. He has made steady progress in so many areas and I am very proud of his maturity and interactions with others. It has been a year of growth and success like all of the years of his life. So events were new and had to be dealt with accordingly, but Matthew overcame the challenges presented to him and makes me a very proud mom.
I am sure 2021 will also be challenging. Matthew and I are still talking through his goals and items he would like to achieve this year. This is something new as he is now a teenager and I am including him in our plans. Our biggest hope is life and society will inch its way back to “atypical” to use an autistic phrase. Maybe everything is not quite the same but without all of the major changes which are now in place. We are looking forward to the coming year and both Matthew and I wish everyone a Happy New Year and may all of your dreams, goals, and wishes be fully fulfilled and Love and Hope are prevalent throughout your lives.

First, I want to apologize for not writing a post in such a long time. It is not as if anything has purposely prevented me from posting, it is the days just fly by. Matthew and I have fallen into a daily routine which does not vary much day to day. This is likely a good benefit for Matthew, but things do not happen outside of the routine too much anymore; like writing posts. I apologize for that and will make a better effort of communicating Matthew’s story going forward.
Overall, the routine schedule every day, like I alluded to before, has helped Matthew. He has always had his greatest success when the days are planned without much variance. A large part of Matthew’s day now is working with his BCBA, and therapist, who is here most weekdays. The plan is working on Matthew’s social skills in the home setting (very limited opportunities for in public) and increasing Matthew’s responsibilities around the home and in the areas of self care. The therapy at times is challenging for Matthew. He does not like to pick up and clean around his living area. Consequently a lot of discussion takes place every day on the reasons why picking up the paraphernalia around to him, his clothes, vacuuming and dusting, and other small tasks are important. As Matthew’s therapist is his only outside contact (Matthew is still receiving speech therapy) they work on his social skills and interactions with other people besides mom and dad. Progress has been steady but without the leaps and bounds I saw when Matthew was a toddler and young child. Now, learning these social skills has not only to overcome Matthew’s autism, but also the natural push back from being a teenager. The combination as predicted by Matthew’s first autism/behavioral doctor at Stanford 15 years ago was going to be the most challenging time of Matthew’s life. The big difference is Matthew does not have the complete meltdown as when he is young. Now, he gets upset but is better a manipulating the situation as he is more cognizant of what the expected outcome should be. For example, the task is vacuuming his area and bedroom he knows this is a responsibility he has to complete, but just due to typical teenager slothfulness does not want to do it at the moment required. Matthew knows he is awarded for completing his tasks, so he will hold out and attempt to negotiate an increased award for completing the task. Early on the therapist and I increased the aware and then realized Matthew’s pushback was a scheme to gain more rewards for the same task and his non-compliance was an act. These are the new issues of a teenager with autism that I experience nearly every day; the behavior of an autistic child/teenager stacked on the reactions of a typical teenager is quite amazing and has some very interesting outcomes.
As with everyone COVID-19 has impacted Matthew’s life immensely. We do not go out in public very much anymore. One for safety reasons (our local area is the hot spot in the United States for the last couple of months) and two because wearing a mask is very problematical for Matthew (I am sure it is for many of you who have children on the spectrum). We have tried a large variety of different Matthew styles for Matthew and the only one he tolerates willingly for any length of the time is the NS95, which are difficult to come by locally. This mask does not lie completely against Matthew’s face and mouth which, for him, makes it tolerable. We are still making forays into public places; mostly the small local grocery store on slow days and sometimes to the local community center for Matthew to play basketball and racquetball with his therapist. The trips are short and infrequent. The new item during the recent holidays is Matthew and I have gone a few times to the craft stores for items used to decorate our home. These trips are really quick as these stores are not that interesting to Matthew (though he is getting better) and they are crowded a lot of the time. Matthew and I have discovered with so many people working from home, there are more people out shopping during the day when they are supposedly working. Finally, Matthew still is attending Code Ninjas which reopened in late summer. He is doing well even though he has to wear a mask for the hour he is there and the number of other children is very limited. Times are scheduled and no more than three students are in the area during any hour long sessions. Matthew is just about to finish his orange belt as he only has two projects remaining. Since Matthew’s interactions with other people is so limited at Code Ninjas we have had to constantly redirect Matthew to complete his work as he naturally wants to talk too much to the sensei instead of working on his project.
So everything is going well for Matthew though just a bit mundane. With the anticipation of a vaccine early next year both Matthew and I are hoping for a return to normalcy. Though it will be interesting seeing if humanity does return to its old ways or forges out on a new path. As has been written, Matthew life has been limited but is not without progress and challenges. I am proud of how Matthew has handled these times and continues to advance and develop his skills to eventually become a better young man .