Life Just Slows Down when Your Sleepy Child Crawls in Your Lap
Sean is 7 1/2. It was estimated at 2 1/2 by doubling his height, that he would be 6‘4” fully grown. I have no doubt.
Sean is a gamer, and loves his iPad, PS5, Roblox, and all the other things that gamers do. When Covid hit, and everything was closed down, I signed Sean up at five years old for Chess. The kid could see things as they were in folding, and saw patterns. He had a chest coach, and really began to master the game. Then games came into his life, and he put chest the wayside. He can still play with the best of them, but he prefers to get lost in his games in a noncompetitive manner. I just need to keep my eye on the time, but he is pretty independent went on the iPad. Have to remind him that I am here, and often throw a game in front of him that we can all play together. Or a puzzle, or coloring pages. His latest thing is flags. He knows just about every country’s flag. He also knows which flags have the same colors, but are rotated. Yes he is pretty amazing and his mind is mind blowing.
because his mind is so active, it is hard to get him to be still. He has ASD and ADHD. He also is in ABA therapy to help him navigate the world as he gets older. Sometimes the world is just pretty difficult for him to deal with, as he can be inflexible and rigid. His anxiety isn’t as prominent anymore, but it has not been all roses. Sometimes it’s just those quiet moments with Sean that I remember how vulnerable and young he really is. A lot of times he is such a smarty-pants, and I really have to put my thinking cap on for his math homework. Whatever happened to the old math we used to do? Was it broken? It still works. But they had to find some new way to do it just to break us parents.
Before this photo that I took quickly took happened, I was talking like I am now into my iPhone. It was about 4:15 AM, before I was headed to the gym in my meditation area. I thought that I had woken him up, but he said he didn’t hear me. Sean will just come in in the middle of the night and asked me if he can sleep in my bed. What am I going to say, no? With the trouble that I have with dropfoot, and no WalkAide at night, I can’t exactly walk him back to his room, even with crutches still groggy.
no matter, how tough things get with a young child with autism, I have to remember it must be pretty hard for him inside that body, trying to navigate that world and figure out why things just don’t make sense to him.
One of my favorite times during the day is to watch him when he is asleep. I know I did everything I could to keep them, active, learning, healthy and happy during his day while awake. Now he can sleep peacefully and how thankful I am to have him sleep peacefully in my lap as his choice. I am one lucky mom.
