Who is this child???

So I am not sure if it's the mix of going back to school, getting back into a routine which he thrives on, having normal sleep since his tonsils have been removed,  or the meds that we decided to try, but I look at Caden and I am in awe. I struggled with the idea of giving him medicine for his anxiety. I felt like it was an easy way out, but after talking to lots of doctors and from talking to his therapists and them feeling like we were just not getting any where we decided to try it. A friend said to me... If he was diabetic would you give him insulin? So after getting over my guilt we decided to do a trial period. While things are not magically beautiful - we have seen huge improvements. We have worked on eating certain foods for 3 years with tears, anxiety, and endless battles. The past two weeks he has eaten two and enjoyed them. He still looked at it unsure, but he put it in his mouth without feeling like it was going to kill him. And then the biggest moment was last week. I saw him at Wesley's birthday and he was swimming. He was still wearing a life jacket, but he had his whole face in the water and was swimming around. We have worked for years on baths, showers, and washing hair and it has not been pretty. On many occasions I was pretty sure the neighbors were going to call the police on us. He was so excited and counting down for swim lessons - that has NEVER happened. I am not going to lie there have been several happy tears this week. After suffering the hardest few months with him that  made us question so many things about how to handle him and put a huge stress on our family, I feel like we are finally able to breathe a little. Caden's case manager has been so great and told us she sees these roller coasters with kids. We are happy to be finally sailing down the roller coaster right now.  So while I wish I had a magical mirror to know what it is that is helping things click - I am just so happy to have these days and these experiences with him.