Autism-World

For some reason we don’t get invited to very many playdates. A couple of times out in the neighborhood I haven’t been able to catch my son(Alex,who has autism) before he rings the doorbell of a neighbor that we know has kids and is home. While Alex has behaved (I think) very well and kept his clothes on,wehaven’t gotten any invitations to return.

One of the aides from Alex’s class is going to watch him for a couple of days while I go to the ASA conference. Her kids go to the same school, are close in age and come to the class every day. Perfect! Anyway, we decided to have a playdate at her house to let him get used to her house. When I dropped him off, I immediately began to worry because the house was immaculate. Furniture in excellent condition and clean, floors and walls unmarked, no handprints on the appliances or glass. Yikes! I repeatedly told her call me if you have any problems, I’ll be right here. 2 hrs later I show up to everyone in the pool having a great time.
The kids run up and pepper me with questions Can Alex stay for dinner? Can Alex spend the night? When can Alex come back? I tell Denise that no one has ever WANTED Alex around before. She just laughed and we arranged a play date at our house for this past Tuesday. It went like this:

We- shot baskets, played darts,pool, air hockey (4 people, 4 pucks),
inspected the laundry chute”Can I slide down it?- No-Why-You’ll get
hurt-Why-It’s too small and why would you want to do a face plant in
a pile of dirty clothes?”, played with the burp gun “Can we shoot
toys off the edge of the laundry chutewith the burp gun?-
Sure??next time”, terrorized the cat “Where’s Mikey?-Around-Where?-
Hiding- Where?- I don’t know- Can we look for him?- No, if he’s
hiding that means he wants to be left alone”, played with bubbles.

I then said Let’s go swimming. “Can Mikey go swimming?- Mikey has
been hauled halfway out the door and has a very disgusted look on his
face. “NO!!!CATS DON’T SWIM!!!!” back in he goes. Ahh a few minutes
peace. Had the fan plugged in, ready to sit down on the patio “Mrs.
R!-Come swimming with us!” Ok, sure. In I go. “Watch me do
a front flip- Watch me do a back flip-Watch me do a flip with the
tube on!- Can I jump off the rocks-Just the ones by the jacuzzi- This
one’s loose- Don’t step on it-This one’s loose too.What should I do
with it?-Leave it alone and don’t step on it.-Here’s another loose
one what should I do?- Leave it alone and don’t step on it (they’re
loose because it’s supposed to be a stream bed)-Can we heat the
jacuzzi-No-Why?-Because its 110 and the water is already 90.- The water’s getting hotter-No it’s not the heater isn’t turned on-Alex is
throwing golf balls in the pool, can I throw them in too?-Sure just
throw out in the middle so no one gets hit-Can I throw them ALL in?-
As long as you dive for ALL of them-Can we play on the trampoline
now?-Sure, just let me drag it across the yard into the shade. They
were on it all of 90 seconds before tearing back across the
yard. “What’s wrong, I ask, that didn’t last long”- ummmm it was
boring (translation- it’s 110 and we’re hungry)
“Alex is naked!” sigh- a sign he has had it.

We pop the popcorn and dig into Fritos “Can Mikey have popcorn?-He
won’t eat it-But can I give him some-OK, but he won’t eat it. My
bad, it seems Mikey will eat popcorn and fritos.

“There are rabbits in the yard!- uh-huh- Why don’t you catch them?!-They’re wild- You should catch them- They wouldn’t like to be pets- You could let them go the next day!- Then they wouldn’t come back to play in the yard any more- Can I try to catch one?! – Sure- first step in the yard and the rabbits are long gone.

Just then the doorbell rings- MOM! Yay! we all shout. “Mom can
we have a cat-No we have a dog- I’ll have them clean the litter box I
say. That’ll put an end to wanting a cat.

Goodbye!-waving- door closes- they drive away. Elapsed time: 2 1/2
hrs.
Whew- I’m exhausted! It was good though. Socialization is one of my focuses this summer. Although he couldn’t keep up the whole time, I did a fair job of keeping him involved- until he got naked. He went MIA upstairs and I figured he’d earned it.
As I relayed the story at dinner, my husband cracked up??I hope it made you smile too.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 18th, 2007 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Autism Stories.