Isaac-isms

All of my kids are unique and very special to me. I love to listen to their perspectives on life, and to watch them experience new things. My 7 year-old, Isaac, is particularly insightful and gives me many opportunities to laugh every day.

Isaac's mind is unique. He was diagnosed with autism right before he turned 3. The neurologist told me that 10 years ago he would have been diagnosed as being a "quirky child", but with the push to "recognize and diagnose autism" she was giving him the diagnosis of "autism spectrum disorder." Isaac was a tip-toe walker, showed signs of high anxiety, didn't speak until he was 3 1/2, and had severe sensory integration disorder ... all highly indicative signs of autism. I was told he would probably be "slow". Silly doctors! If they could only see him now!

Anyway, back to my original point ... Isaac has a unique way of seeing how life happens around him and I want to share some of his recent observations with you.

Last week at his basketball game Isaac was having a problem dribbling the ball. After the game he came up to me and said, "My ball was all out of bounce, Mom. Next time I'm going to ask for a new ball."

This weekend Isaac came in from playing outside in the snow with Andre, our 10 year old black lab. They both flopped down on the floor in a heap, obviously worn out from an hour of playing and romping around together. I told Isaac that I had fun watching them play together. He said, "Well, Andre isn't as old as he looks, Mom. I think he's faking it when he gets all cripply and can't get up from the floor. Did you see him running? He's better than me playing tug-of-war!" I said, "I saw that! He made it hard for you to catch him too!" Isaac's reply was, "Well, ya! Think about it, Mom. He has four legs and I only have two! That's not a fair competition!"

Isaac loves math. You don't have to teach him a mathematical concept twice. He's already mastered skills that my 12 year old daughter can't grasp. Isaac finds math in everything that he does. Last night he was playing arpeggios on the piano. I asked him where he learned to do that as he's never had piano lessons. He said, "Mom, it's all about math. Remember how you told me the keys are in sets of eight? Well, eight is a number and you can divide it lots of ways. So I made sets of eight and just divided them by two. I can play the sets together and they sound like church music too!" Then he proceeded to play chords! Genius! ;-)

Isaac is very fond of my youngest daughter's biological brother, Chase (who I have mentioned in many other previous posts.) Chase spends a lot of time with our family ... often coming for a few days at a time. We consider him a part of our family, and the kids all call him their baby brother. This past week Chase came to visit for a few days. He became quite ill his first night here and had to be taken to the hospital after the other kids went off to school. When they returned home, they were so sad to hear that Chase had to leave. Isaac was the most devastated of all. He cried and cried ... worried that his little brother was so sick. I told him that Chase would get better and he'd come next weekend. Isaac said, "But, Mom. Chase is in my heart and when he leaves he takes a chunk right out of the center and it makes it hard for me to breathe. It's like God decided we were meant to be brothers a long time ago, even if we didn't get to live together all of the time. That's how we're connected, by our hearts. When he's not here it's like my heart doesn't go thump-thump, thump-thump. It goes thump, cry, thump, cry." I tried to explain to him that is how love feels. Sometimes it's an ache in your heart because you love someone so much. He said, "Well, if loving my brother hurts this bad I'm NEVER getting married, cuz loving a wife must be like having the flu! Is that why you never got married, Mom?"

Until Tomorrow,

Kathy ... Momma to the best 7 year old in the world!