My wife, Lovely English Lass, has written about my son and daughter and their idiosyncrasies. I've found watching them to be a great study, but also one of the most puzzling things I've ever had to deal with. (And that includes people whining about their housing for no reason.) Here's some of the stuff we've had recently.
The other day, Crazy Little Man walked into the TV room while his mother and I were sitting together. He immediately takes off his shirt and says, "Who am I?" His mother responds with one of his classic witticisms, "A fighter who fights for sport!" He replies, "NO!" Immediately strips down to his underoos, flexes, and growls, "NOW I am a fighter who fights for sport!"
Lovely Little Girl had a wiggly tooth for about a week. The other tooth had already grown in behind it, and so it was only a matter of time before this one came out. (I told her mother this was just like LLG. Not getting rid of something until the replacement has already arrived.) Last night I looked at it, put my finger on it, and it came right out. Now, tooth loss can be a bit perplexing for people on the spectrum. LEL had read up on how to handle this, as it can be confusing. However, when the tooth came out, LLG just kind of shrugged and got on with life. All the planning and worrying down the drain.
CLM is quite the ham when it comes to groups. At first he acts shy, and won't say anything, but then he needs to be the center of attention. Much like Glen Close in "Fatal Attraction" he will not be ignored. We went to Durban the other week for a weekend. It was a lovely time, and we got to see our friends that live in the area. LEL met Ms. Brightside through her work in Autism. Her teenage son is on the spectrum, and is much more reserved around people he doesn't know than my kids are. However, that didn't stop CLM. After dinner, CLM went to watch cartoons with him while the rest of us sat and talked in the other room. Suddenly, we hear this low-voiced sustained laugh coming from the other room. When we went to see what was going on, we found CLM hitting this person he'd only met briefly twice with couch cushions, and piling them on top of him. They were having the best time! CLM just decided he wanted a reaction, and he wasn't going to stop until this stranger laughed with him.
Both of my kids are super good at doing puzzles. LLG does lenticular puzzles easily, which I could never do. Although he's only 4, CLM has really started doing puzzles with a vengeance. He does 48 piece puzzles in minutes, and is ready probably to move up to a new challenge. The other day he did a Batman puzzle. LEL told me that when he got to Batman's face, he got really close to the picture, scrunched up his eyes into a squint, and finally popped up to exclaim, "That looks like Daddy!"
Finally, CLM has decided that he loves space. He has memorized the planets and how many moons they have. He will also occasionally bust out with a factoid for you. One of his favorites is to tell you who the first 4 men who walked on the moon were. (For those of you keeping score, they are Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Pete Conrad and Alan Bean.) Not many people can tell you that.
So after being married for 8 years and being a father for almost 7, I can safely say I still have no idea what I'm doing. But I'm happy to be along for the ride with these two.
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