You Might Live With Autism If....

Here are a few snippets of life with Aaron from the past few days – otherwise known as:

You might live with autism if:

·       You poor one cup of coffee for Aaron, knowing that he always has three cups.  You tell him that you are brewing more coffee and will pour his other two cups when the fresh coffee is ready.  But he won’t let you take the one cup to his room until the other two are poured and ready to go.  You don’t take ONE cup of coffee to his room…..ever!  You take THREE cups!!

 

·       You hand him a piece of sausage that he wanted in a napkin, to be eaten similar to a cookie.  Silly you!  Sausage goes on a plate, not in a napkin.  You just do it with no argument, because you know that arguing about these critical matters is useless.

 

 

·       Aaron has watched four seasons of The XFiles.  For Christmas he received the remaining five seasons.  He decided to finish watching The XFiles, but instead of starting with season five, he is going to start watching from the beginning – again.  You try to talk him into just starting with season five since he’s already watched the first four and he seems to agree, but later walks back into the room, obviously in discomfort.  You give your blessing to him starting with season one, despite how long it will take now to watch the entire series….because you know he’ll do it that way anyway.  So you may as well remove the burden from his shoulders and let him fully enjoy the ENTIRE series, watched the way he wants….all together the way they should be.

 

·       Aaron had a couple seizures during the night, so on Saturday he was very tired.  He decided to lay back down later in the morning.  Then you have this conversation:

Aaron – Will you get me up?

Me – Sure.  What time do you want up?

Aaron – Before 1:00

Me – OK, I’ll get you up before 1:00.

Aaron – What time is that?

Me – I don’t know.  Just sometime before 1:00.  What time do you want that to be?

Aaron – I know!  Get me up at 1:00.

Bedroom door closes.

Bedroom door opens.

Aaron – How about 12:30?

Me – 12:30?  Are you sure?

Aaron – No.  Let’s do 1:00.

Trust me.  I got him up at 1:00.  Not 12:59.  Not 1:01. 

1:00!!

 

·       Aaron has a bad headache after having seizures.  While we changed his sheets, because it was Saturday and we always change sheets on Saturday, I asked him how his head was feeling.  He told me it still hurt, so I made a sound of concern.  You know, a soft murmuring sound…..mmmm.  Aaron’s response:  “You’re weird, Mom.”  He doesn’t appreciate soft murmuring sounds of concern….or crying…..or most hand gestures…..

 

You might live with autism if:

·       You go on a walk with Aaron and he finds a “thorn seed pod,” as he calls it, and he carries it proudly home.  It is given a place in his room among all the other treasures he has found on walks, in stores, at his day group, etc.

 

 

·       You go on another walk and Aaron finds a feather this time, which he carries for the remainder of the walk, trying to feed it to our Great Dane…who has no interest in feathers that anywhere matches Aaron’s.

 

·       You go to the grocery store and as you look up from the self check-out register, you see Aaron sitting on the empty display shelf in the front of the store.  Smiling.  Content.  Not one bit embarrassed. 

 

Which is how I know I should be with Aaron, even after I say, “Let’s go, Aaron.”  And he answers with, “OK, babe!” 

“How come you say only Dad can call you babe?” he asks for the zillionth time. 

And for the zillionth time, I know that life will never be mundane or usual with Aaron. 

You might live with autism if:

·       You know it’s really all right that life will never be mundane or usual with Aaron.  Most of the time it’s fun.

 

·       You think of song titles at times like this.  Titles such as “I Like You, Babe.”

 

·       And thinking of what Aaron says, not all the time but most of the time, makes you smile.