05/20/2009

My boys

Been thinking a lot about my sons lately. I've noticed that a lot of disabled adults walk kind of funny - with their heads cocked or shuffling around. I have resolved to try and be sure that #1, our autistic son, walks erect and learns to be lighter on his feet. I don't know how I'll do it, but I know at least one way *not* to do it. I tried taking him on a walk with the dog yesterday, but he ended up really scaring me, and a passing motorist, when it looked like he was going to run into the road and flag the person down. Man, my heart was beating. Next time this will be a solely human walk so I can focus on him better.

#2 is really gifted, musically. His first instrument, the drums, is coming along amazingly. I have been showing him songs I liked in my youth that had good drum parts and he has been learning them so quickly. It all started with some good videos I found on YouTube of Led Zeppelin playing "The Ocean" and he ate that one up. Then, just yesterday, I showed him "Why Go" by Pearl Jam and by this afternoon he was doing a good job of playing the drum part, including the intricate high hat close before each down beat. Amazing. I need to record some more YouTube videos so you can see how much more adept he is even than the last video we made. I also began showing him how to play guitar and he has taken to it so quickly - learning chords very rapidly. He has a kind of focus that I never had as a kid - I was much too ADD for the kind of steady progress that marks all of his attempts to learn things.

#3 is my artist and he has been really into several things lately - superheroes, jokes, and skateboarding. He came at skateboarding via an old Tony Hawk video game that the boys haven't even played in years. And then he wanted to try the real thing. I was an avid skateboarder in my youth, so this was a welcome development. Hopefully he can learn to control the board and dive in fully; it's a great individual sport (with social aspects). As for the jokes, they don't make adults laugh, but it is nice to see him find a way to make friendships with other kids in the class. He loves to laugh. And superheroes has been an interest for a long time, and it goes along with some of the art interest that he has. There is a tremendous drawing of Superman on our fridge right now that he made. Really good details.

#4 is a really imaginative kid. A lot of weeks he wraps a present on Monday and waits until Friday to open it. It is usually a box with some of his old toys inside, and the invented holiday is always something different. Maybe it is because his birthday is so close to Christmas, all the intensely present-heavy holidays of the year are confined to a two week period. I dunno. He also loves his mother a great deal. He told her, first, that he wanted to marry her when he grows up. When Ann explained that this was impossible, that she was already married to Daddy, he then told her that he was going to marry a girl who looks just like her someday.

Four completely different personalities, four completely different challenges, talents, and interests. What a responsibility!