Congratulations to you and to Anna.

Now she knows that she can keep her cool and act positively while under duress. That will always be an Ace up her sleeve!!

yeah, keeping your cool while the little animal brain in the back of your head is going "aaaaaahhhhhhhhh" is a big asset.

She's starting to get it. She's still a typical Tween a lot of the time, giving us sass, and not wanting to do homework or chores, but other times, she just makes me smile and say "that's my girl"

Congratulations Charlie...always great to get one of those moments.

Dave

Yeah, I know that feeling.

My son has a mild form of autism that makes him very sensitive to sensory issues and unwilling to, well, go outside the "usual".

Three weeks back at Boy Scout summer camp, at the request of his only real friend in the troop (another autism thing), my son did the Wilderness Survival merit badge, including spending a night by himself in a shelter that he built with nothing but a knife, two matches, a poncho, and the clothes on his back. Cool.

VERY VERY cool - Beats Anna by a mile. I have 2 friends in my life that I would trust with anything. They are "Brothers by choice" (we are each only children, and are real close). One of them (won't use name here, but) has a son with moderate Autism, and has the usual sensory problems, so I have some clue as to what you experienced there. Last time I was at his house, his son saw a cloud or 2 in the sky. The son has serious problems with Thunderstorms, and he refused to leave the house (they were not thunderstom clouds - just nice puffy cumulis clouds). Took about 2 hours to talk him into going outside, but we did eventually

That's funny. My son does the very same thing. Any hint of weather issues on TV or from the weather radio will bring my son into the family room asking me to look on the internet and TV for details. He'll worry constantly until I find something that can reassure him that things are OK. It started with severe weather training at school and blossomed from there.

Kids with autism are real treasures, so long as us less "gifted" people have some patience and understanding to do our best to see things from their perspective. There are days when I'm stupid and think there is something wrong with my son. Then there are the other days when I realize that he is sooo gifted in many areas - that maybe he's the next step in our evolution (in a way).

I'm one very proud pappa.

it is moments like that which includes an emotional attachment that will stick to her for the rest of her life