DS2 turns 5 on Saturday. For the last two years, this board has effectively been my workplace - but I (tentatively) think it's time to move towards semi-retirement - though doubtless I'll be like one of those retirees who still insists on popping into the office, and indeed may seek to return on a consultancy basis 
. Ds2 is still a bit different - but we're basically there. He talks, he understands, he's tuning into others at a steady pace, he has friends. As a teenager, he may or may not decide to seek an ASC diagnosis. But the key issue for me is that I now think he will one day be independent in the full sense of the word. I will not be responsible for him when he is an adult. So it's no longer appropriate for me to be as intensively focussed on his differences from other children as I have been. It's better for him and me if I decompress a little!
This forum is an extraordinary phenomenon really, and has changed the life of everyone in my family, especially DS2's and mine.
Two semi-parting thoughts - Firstly, I believe that a SN clasic threads section would be appropriate. The days in the life of Amber, Moondog's miraculous ABA techniques for teaching the concept of time, MrsTurnip's patient explanations that autism is not one thing, these would be among my nominees. People move on, but some of these discussions should be preserved - some of them need reading and rereading, they are of such high quality and so rich. I'd also unabashedly nominate my own threads disseminating the information on receptive language that was so disgracefully hard for me to find.
Secondly, I believe a SN book review section would also be appropriate, with one book title per thread, and would be glad to cut and paste my comments on Hanen books and Greenspan's work into such a section.
Drinks are on me