From Signs of Love to Words.... Our Journey Part 11

It was now summer, and the days had slowed down quite a bit. Joshua had turned 3, and as Peyton was turning 1 it was time for me to head back to work. I decided to go to Penticton and visit one of my most wonderful friends Jen, and her two kids. She was 7-8 months pregnant with her 3rd baby, and her son was the same age as Joshua. Because Joshua had such a hard time with making friends I thought that it would be great for him to hang out with kids he has known since birth.

It was just Joshua, Peyton and myself travelling the 3-4 hour drive up to Penticton, and it is really a beautiful and relaxing drive... except there were forest fires and I really wanted to "stop by" and visit my aunt and cousin. They are in Kamloops, and usually it is easy if the roads aren't closed but they were so I drove 3.5 hours outta my way for lunch. But it was completely worth it because my cousin and aunt are wonderful! As well both are nurses (my aunt retired) and so they were able to see Joshua and offer any bit of input.

It was a full 8 hours or more of driving that day and while Joshua is really good in the car Peyton isn't, so when she would cry Joshua would become upset and then it would be me pulling over to try and help Peyton... it was a VERY long trip in that sense.

So we showed up at Jen's house (which is a big house on a huge property) and as it was late the kids ate a snack and went to bed. The next day Jen, her husband and mom got to really see Joshua (Jen already had seen him) but after a day I was getting the "I have no idea how you do this all day every day." I guess I never thought it was noticeable, I didn't really have any other friends that had kids so for someone else who had two typical kids Joshua wore them out. The signing, the wondering what his "AAAHHAHAHAHAHAAA" meant. If I wasn't there and Joshua wanted something he would try and communicate it but to a person who had not seen him in the last year or two it was stressful. And to boot Peyton had a ear piercing scream and she loved to let that go.

After a few days everyone had picked up some sign and the stress had lowered, and we were now leaving as it was only a two day trip. I had this whole time and the week prior been talking to people about getting a therapy dog for Joshua, I wasn't sure about it until I saw him having a little chat with the cat at Jen's (and a cat was out of the question as Chris my hubby was allergic.) So after this trip I was really sure that we should get Joshua a pet of some sort, a dog that we could take with us and would be a friend for Joshua. So we got a little Brittany who we named Copper Flash. We picked him up August long weekend, and a day later I was making dinner with Chris and Joshua looked up at us and said "hi." His first word!