Still can't believe it...

I am overjoyed today! Over the past month, Gabriel's autistic tendencies have really heightened. He's having on and off days. Some days, he is good with playing alone and others, he has to have me around constantly. He had his first public meltdown in Target over the weekend. He didn't want my hands on the buggy.  I took him out and tried to hold him and I knew that he did not want to be held. He wanted to ride in the buggy, but not with me touching it.  People were staring at me, while he slapped and pinched me and himself. I felt so hopeless, we actually left the store without making our purchase. I didn't yell. I didn't fuss. I only held him closer, covered his ears and walked toward the door. He wasn't being a brat because he couldn't have a toy. He wasn't being "bad." He simply couldn't tell me that he didn't want me touching the buggy and couldn't understand why I kept touching it after he pushed my hand away.  It was definitely an eye-opener for the people with me who had never seen him do this before. Finally, someone understands why I choose not to go places whenever possible. Not because he's bad, but because when his routine is broken and something happens that he doesn't understand, he flies into a fit like this. Gabriel's therapist had told us to start the dairy-free/gluten-free diet and to give it 30 days. She promised that we would see improvement in behavior and sensory/speech skills. I was skeptical because it just made no sense to me.  Today is day 5 of no dairy and my son is walking around SAYING "no no." He's also been sleeping through the night and waking well rested! I had no idea that these were the results we would see! This no gluten/dairy thing has been the hardest task so far. It's already a struggle to feed him the foods he likes, now we're trying to force foods that we don't even really like. Not to mention, these foods are the most expensive foods we have even bought.  If this is the result, though, it is worth every single penny and every last effort! It felt so strange to hear him sounding out a word, it almost made me cry.  We just had to reward him ;) He had his first visit to the park today! We had to make him play on the toys because all he wanted to do was crush the pine cones and pick at the rocks. He had so much fun :)