A Very Autistic Thanksgiving!

    Well its the day before Thanksgiving!  After our meeting for an evaluation with an OT yesterday it was our hope to take today as well as the holiday to relax, hang out at home for some very low sensory stimulating family time, & an unhealthy amount of burnt/over/under-cooked food!
     Thanks being said I thought I would take a short bit to blog about the differneces between a Neurotypicalfamilies Thanksgiving & our Thanksgiving.  I know it is WAY different for every family with an Autistic child let alone a child with Asperger’s!  When I was growing up our Thanksgiving consisted of turkey, mashed potato’s, gravy, green beans, drooling kids, bad TV, & more gas than I care to remember.  While all three of my sons are pretty particular about what they eat no one holds a candle to Jayden, my 7 year old AS son.  Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Tuesday, it doesn’t matter at our house.  When I was a boy & pictured being the man of my own house, stepping up to the table with my knife to carve up the butter ball, I never pictured the reality of life today as I step up to my table with my over sized spoon to delve out a helping of my world famous home cooked frozen popcorn chicken nuggets!  Sitting at your computer I’m sure you can almost see your plate filled with potatoes that are sure to be very white with NO discolorations, pumpkin pie filling with no crust, & possibly a PB with no J sandwich.  I know, I know, try to stay in your seat!
     My wife & I stop sometimes to laugh about things like this.  The changes we have in place or the things yelled out in our house.  While I feel like we are so painfully normal in every way at the same time we have all these seemingly odd things we do that to us are every day life.  Its not until someone gives you that “What are you doing!?!” look or get enough gumption to out right ask why you are doing something that you realize…maybe we are unique after all!  As Samantha & I sat with Jayden in an Olive Garden yesterday having this conversation about how painfully boring & normal we are, how we never really do anything crazy or out of the norm, that we were interrupted by Jayden spitting a little bit with a look of disgust on his face.  We both gave a little laugh & asked what was wrong only to be told that he had taken a bite of the chocolate mint bar that they leave with the check & he did NOT like the mint part!  As he said these words and swallowed the last little bit that he had in his mouth he took another bite only to have a horrible look on his face.  “Jayden, why are you taking another bite if you don’t like it!?” & he informed us “Well, I like the chocolate part it’s just the mint part that’s nasty!”
     Even now, as I am typing away at the laptop, I can hear Jayden letting his brothers know that according to the instructions to the Plasma Ball we got yesterday the is a possibility that if they touch something metal to it there will be an explosion.  It didn’t really say how big of an explosion it would be so he knows with out a doubt that if one of his little brothers touch metal to this ball of electricity the house WILL explode!  Its times like these that are the norm for our house but it sometimes does me good to remember that its not the norm for everyone.  We joke that when those shows come on TV that laugh at some of the things that kids say, they have no idea!  I’m happy we are the way we are, it makes for some hard times but more often than not they are more fun & way more interesting than if we were from Mayberry. (Besides, that Floyd from the barber shop freaks me out a little!)
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