Sunday, October 30, 2011

Weekend Wrap up...

                                      "A Stranger, From the Outside. OOOOOoooooohhhhh!" This weekend was actually one of those weekends where we felt like we were somewhat of a normal family! Which translates to: Nick only had a few meltdowns and we got through two hours at the skating rink instead of one. We also invited another person on this outing! A "Real" person. From the "outside".  Outside meaning she had no connection in any way to anything remotely having to do with autism. Which means also that the things we no longer even think twice about, i.e. a 7yr old speaking happy jibberish in the backseat, look very STRANGE to outsiders. See, everything we do revolves around this planet of Autism. We are fluent in "Nick-lish". We can decipher between happy noises, not-so-happy noises, we know when we have to leave a situation immediately, or when we can stay for a while. The way we even speak to him is a lot different than you would normally speak to a 7yr old. Short sentences. Most of the time describing what we are going to do in order that we do it. I always struggle with just how much to tell people. I don't want him to be defined by his autism. I don't want to open every single encounter with the general public with "This is Nick. He is autistic." But, now, more than in the past, his behavior IS being defined by Autism. I feel like our house is on a completely different planet from the rest of the world.

For instance, Halloween. It is still a work in progress with Nick. He enjoys it just a little different than your average kid. He could care less about dressing up. This year he is going as a skeleton. He doesn't do masks, so we usually skip that part. He assumes that if you open the door, that he could just walk right in. He will walk right past the candy (cause he could really care less about that too!) and right into your house. Which is why we have to escort him and hold on to his hand. By the end of the night, he is really enjoying going up to every house and having people give him things. We don't have the 7yr old diving into his candy upon returning to the house either. Michael usually gets most of Nick's candy. We are working on getting Nick to eat even some pieces of chocolate bars. But remember, this is a kid who just a couple years ago started eating his own birthday cake. We are stoked if he eats one piece! He does enjoy the colorful reflective lights that are normally handed out though! Who knows, maybe he will have it down by the time he is 14.