Perfectly Imperfect
From: Happy Aspies
“If I could design street signs, I would make them really fancy and when I put them on the posts, I would make them tilt-y.” Wolfie said this to me while eating dinner. He was dressed in his tuxedo pants, a white button down shirt, and his tie. He has been dressing like this pretty consistently when we are home. He says he just likes to be fancy.
He has gotten back into the street sign making thing this summer. It seemed to be on hold for awhile, but we are in full swing around here again. My kitchen counters and pretty much every door jam has a sign fastened to it somehow. He has added a new addition. The clearance sign. Not to be confused with the “sale” sign. The clearance sign lets you know how much room there is above your head when going into a room or under a door frame. He has measured all the door frames and it seems that we have 6′7″ of clearance.
It is amazing to me what he notices. We were driving on the highway today and he kept making announcements. I would hear, “Attention. Low 9 – 0.” Then it was, “Attention. Low 7 – 8.” It took me awhile, but I figured out that he was announcing the clearance of all the bridges we were passing under. He makes the clicking noise too. You know the one that you would hear if a person was making an announcement over a loud speaker. I had to laugh to myself because it really did sound like he was using a microphone. I love his imagination.
I am fascinated with this new style of dress he has shown an interest in. It seems so unlikely that he would enjoy dressing in clothes that are so restrictive. He likes to lounge around in a variety of positions and he doesn’t seem to be aware of where his body is in space, so the choice to dress in clothing that inhibits movement seems strange. But then again…
I looked out the kitchen window this afternoon and was watching him play in the yard. It was drizzling slightly and he was running barefoot through the grass, tuxedo pants and all, holding a street sign he had just made. He was running to place the freshly made sign on a post of some kind and I was struck by how beautiful he is. My heart swelled with love for my quirky little man. He is the perfect mix of brilliant professor and Tom Sawyer. Fancy and tilt-y.
It was in that moment that it all made sense to me.
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@aspiemamma – Cute was watching him do this in the cart. Adorable was watching other shoppers grin at it. Moments like that were what held my nerves together by the end of the day, I’ll be honest.
He’s a teen these days, high-functioning, moderately autistic, and still has a handful of quirks. Developing quite a unique sense of humor, now that he’s figured out some of the basic formulas to what makes humor funny. Sometimes, not just in what he says, but the way he says it, and that he’s adopted something of a peculiar grin to his repertoire of facial expressions- which makes for contagious smiles – it’s always something new.
The kids do grow fast…
@moonlightmisto@xanga – Thank you. Seeing him do the things that make him happy and fulfilled without the social constraints that are so often present allow me to fully appreciate how unique and wonderful he is.
@the_kcar@xanga – This is hilarious! My son makes the same sound when we back out of the garage! 🙂
I still remember when my kids were little – ages 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 – and my youngest [moderately autistic] was seated in the seat part, my oldest in the basket part, of the grocery cart at the store.
Maneuvering the cart, sometimes I had to draw in reverse, which my youngest started grinning at. Softly, he started singing, “beep…beep…beep…” – imitating the trucks and other large vehicles in the region that, when pulling in reverse, have the warning tone to them.
Writing it doesn’t do it justice, but it was too cute to watch, indeed…
This was a beautiful post =]
People don’t always appreciate how perfectly imperfect the autistic people in our lives are. They have a specialness to them that is so endearing and innocent, and because of this, I can’t regret the disability as much as others do.