Going Back Home Again

For instance:

Martin sat through his first real haircut from a professional stylist. He no longer looks like a child to whom Sally Struthers asks you send money.

When greeted with open arms by his little friend, Laura, instead of welcoming the embrace Martin did something akin to setting a pick in a basketball defense.

Martin found a Youtube song about the presidents, a ditty with a PG rating. I realized this had happened when I heard Martin singing: “James Monroe told Europe they could suck it and Richard Nixon was a dirty filthy liar.” Time for more parental controls during computer time.

Martin helped me plant some basil and insists on watering it every day. He’s never taken interest in our garden before. I think that’s because he never got it. He couldn’t comprehend that you put something in the ground and it grows and you eat it. Now he does. He can hardly wait to visit the plant each day.

This last story shows me how much Martin can be interested in the world once he understands something. I often interpret his response to new things to be disinterest. But more likely, Martin is simply baffled by the new thing and lacks the words to communicate that he is baffled. There are so many things that Martin took a long time to do because he simply couldn’t understand what people were talking about when they told him to zip his jacket, use a pair of scissors, ride a bike, or swing across monkey bars. And there’s been no single way to teach these things to him. Every difficult thing requires consideration of how to present it so that he might understand.

Now we’re talking about what to do during the few weeks before school starts.Tomorrow, sports camp at the YMCA. We’ll see how that goes.