Ache (#217)
Heartache is something we Autismland travelers are over-familiar with as we get through our days loving our children even as we bottle up a loss that can’t be erased. I mean the loss of raising a child whose <a title=”differences can be both our greatest sources of joy and also the font of our worst … Continue reading
Quiet Day (#216)
We had planned to take the train into New York or up to <a title=”Hoboken: “Yes, ‘strain,” Charlie had said yesterday when Jim asked him. Rain and a lingering cold kept us home. It was a quiet day of small happenings. I asked Charlie to get his own shirt; he opened each of his drawers … Continue reading
The Comfort of Stims; or, Coping is Worth Its Weight In Gold (#215)
Growl whine squeal hiss. That was Charlie’s response when Jim said to him “Hey pal, your shirt’s on backwards!” Charlie had gotten up laughing, took off his pajamas, put on his jeans. Then he walked up to me and asked “s’irt on.” Jim and I paused at Charlie’s exclamation and he ran to sit on … Continue reading
Circular Logic (#213)
The very concept of the "waiting room" feeds into Charlie’s worst anxieties. What is a waiting room but a bland space of generic chairs, coffee table-like tables, old magazines, fusty toys, a TV playing the same old Disney movies—and, even more, a bland space that is prelude to more waiting in an even blander examination … Continue reading
Symbiosis (#212)
It was some years ago that Jim and I said to each other, “Charlie will be our <a title=”only child”–that it would just be the three of us, Charlie, Daddy, Mommy. More than a few parents have told me, “If we hadn’t had our other child already, we would not have had any children after”–After … Continue reading
Whopper Minus All (#211)
Charlie has been on the <a title=”gluten-free casein-free diet since June of 1999, when he was 2 years old. I grew up eating <a title=”white rice every night; my sister and I always thought we had a “night off” when we had scalloped (never mashed) potatoes or tuna casserole the nights my mom worked the … Continue reading
The Lovely Boy (#210)
“Luv-ee booyy!” Charlie was standing under the hot water spraying out from two shower heads in the visitors’ locker room at our town’s indoor pool. (Boys over five years old are not allowed in the women’s locker room.) “Luv-ee booyy!” he declared again, smiling. Charlie’s articulation can always be better; “his speech needs to be … Continue reading
Reading Charlie 101 (#208)
Charlie talks all day long, mostly requests for things that we have taught him (“I want eat white rice,” “shwimp!”, “piggy back Daddy,” “b’ack car”) and a lot of discernible syllables, vowels and consonants that might be words, but I’ve yet to figure them out. So I have to translate or “read” these. There is … Continue reading
We Go With Him by kristina chew 