he gets around

ID bracelet.
GPS tracking device.
Talking carrier pigeon.
Mr. Incredible suit equipped with real homing signal.
Some sort of flexible, invisible, impenetrable force field.
Automatic flame-resistant voice-activated flare gun.

Oh - hello.  I'm just making out Jack's Christmas wish list.

If you've followed our family blog, you'll have read just a handful of stories outlining some of the worst moments of my life, and they all involve Jack starting somewhere and turning up some dangerous elsewhere.  Jack wanders.  And escapes too.  He has MacGyver'd his way out of cribs, strollers, pack n' plays, houses, churches, cars, gymnasiums with one door that I'm sitting right next to...

After sharing many of these stories with them, our autism resource team gave us some literature about autism and wandering. As all parents of little children do, we keep alert to the big "uh ohs" for our under-fivers: pools, lakes, cars, the street.  But I was startled to learn that kids on the autism spectrum are twice as likely as their typical peers to die of drowning or prolonged exposure.  This is in part due to their tendency to wander and their natural curiosity about water (like many other children).  It is a great challenge, we're finding, to keep track of a little kid that often doesn't respond to his name and who is well-versed in "tuning out" people and things going on around him.  He doesn't know he is lost or in danger.  We read that oftentimes these clever little ASD kids are aware when attention has shifted away from them and will take the first opportunity to bolt.  I can't tell you how many times this happens to us.  We lean over to pick up Camille's pacifier off the ground, or help Livvie with her coat, or say hello to a friend standing in line at the coffee bar and he's gone - fast.  And we've noticed that he sort of camps by a door and slips out behind people who are leaving.  Thankfully he is getting more predictable and we have learned the hot spots. But when we're somewhere unfamiliar it is a major issue.

This is just another reason we know we are creatures designed to live in community and not alone.  Hillary was right - it takes a village.  We have so often relied on the watchful eyes of friends and the kindness of strangers.  It is sobering when you learn that you cannot always meet the 'basic requirement' of keeping your child out of a life-endangering situation.  To our amazement, there are actually state funded options that we can consider.  There is even money for improving your home to include special locks, alarms, and even a backyard fence for "runners".  We are looking into some of those options.  In the meantime we thank you for all the times you have found him, retrieved him, and not run over him with your car.  We owe you a talking carrier pigeon.