I'm so glad when Daddy comes home!

At the end of each day, I start my 35 mile commute knowing I'll have to wade through traffic and horrible drivers for the next hour. I look at the time and just sigh to myself that I now start my commute about two hours after I usually got home at my last job. I try to find a good radio station, but all the stations happen to be on advertisement breaks at the same time (funny, during rush hour? Go figure.)

I make my daily calls to all the people that make my commute feel shorter. Luckily I get free minutes on my work phone. Thank goodness for Kate, Kathy, Aaron, Dave, Van, and Forrest. They make the commute seem like 10 minutes instead of 45 minutes or an hour. Sometimes they don't answer, and I end up contemplating how traffic comes to a dead stop in the left lane of a freeway. Ugh.

As I cross the bridge over to Washington, I make the call to my wife. I always save her until last because I like driving up to the house and saying "I'm here, I'll be right in!".

Then comes my favorite part. I pull into the driveway, grab my laptop, lock the truck, and head up to the door. No sooner does my key turn the lock than I hear my two boys shout "It's Daddy!!!", and a storm of footsteps heading for the front door. They both jump in my arms and hug me like I've been gones for weeks (which isn't far from the truth sometimes). Then I go in and give my cute little wife a huge hug and a kiss.

What a great way to start any evening.

I love my life.

Cute Kids!

My 3 year old is such a cute little kid.  He is autistic, and doesn't speak well, yet.  He is learning quickly, however, and I learn new things about him everyday.

Today I was reading a pamphlet about autism and learned about "pop-up" words.  These are words that suddenly appear in an autistic child's vocabulary, sometimes sentences, and seem as though they have been practiced a million times.  Then they either disappear or stick in their vocabulary, could go either way. 

Today I was spinning around on the floor in the kitchen trying to make him laugh.  I hit my elbow really hard on the fridge handle and yelled "ouch!"

Korben didn't miss a beat.  He gasped and said "Are you OK?" with the most sincere voice he could.  This seems like a small thing to most people, but to me it was a huge step in Korben's speech progress.  He was concerned, and asked the most appropriate question someone would ask in the moment, and I had never heard it before.  We didn't teach him that.  Apparently it was a "pop-up" sentence.

I love that little guy.