Sunrise over the wetlands preserve.
My son is turning sixteen soon, and I spent the day birthday shopping. I spent hours looking for this PS2 game he wants, but no luck. It reminds me of the years when they were little and I would drive all over the valley, going from one McDonald's to the next, looking for the Happy Meal toy all three kids had to have. Or the time when he HAD to have the Talking Riddler action figure and I had friends all over the country looking for it.
You might consider this indulgence. I suppose it is. It's also autism. My son gets these fixations that would drive him to distraction if ignored. He can't tolerate it. That's not to say he can't handle being told 'no' - he can. But once it gets in his head as one of those bugs, that's it. Too, his social world is other Asperger boys his age and they all have the same fixations on the same things: Yu-Gi-Oh and very specific video games. Their internal society revolves around the games they all play, the cards they all have. To deny him the game is to cripple him socially.
You might also think it's gotta be tough raising an autistic kid, and it is, but I can't imagine my son as "normal". I used to - I spent a lot of years crying over the things he's lost, the life he could have had (the one I imagined for him) and especially over how hard people can make it to be him. The thing is, I genuinely love him the way he is. I love his personality. I love how brilliant his mind is and I love how funny he can be. A few quirks come with that, but which one of us doesn't have our little bug-a-boos that drive someone else nuts? It helps that, being an Asperger person myself, I get him.
It would be breaking the worst taboo to say I am glad he is autistic. I'm not sure it would be true, because I want so much for the world to be easier for him. Still, having known this boy all his life and loving him so much, I don't know that I would want him "cured" if they came up with one tomorrow. I'm glad he is the person he is and so very grateful to be his mom.
The bunny is doing well. Glopped up intestines, easily treated and (hopefully) prevented. He will be home around Wednesday or so.
The computer and camera are still broken. My wonderful, generous, intelligent and oh so handsome husband says I might be able to get a new one before August. If so, I want this one. Checked with my buyer's bible, Consumer Reports, who gave it an excellent review. Don't scoff - bought my car that way and twice survived major crashes.
