It’s dinner time on Friday night. We’re all seated around the dinner table, happily eating, when Jasmine begins to sing.
Jasmine loves to sing songs, you see, and she has any number of pieces available in her repertoire. Way back in October or November, she learned Ring Around The Rosie, which has since made a come-back in popularity.
So as I said, we were all sitting at the dinner table when Jas starts to sing Ring Around The Rosie. She gets to “…ashes, ashes…” The next line should have been “we all fall down.” Instead, Jasmine fell off of her chair!
Trying desperately not to break down into a puddle of hysterical laughter, I breathed deeply and asked Jasmine if she was OK.
As a general rule, Mondays are the worst day of the week. In fact, if I were to do an informal poll on the subject, I’d be willing to bet money that more than 95% of the responses would be in favor of skipping Monday altogether.
I, on the other hand, had a great Monday! Truly, it was one of those days when everything went right, and it all started with… a dance party.
Normally, Russ handles the morning routine of getting Jasmine ready for school and dropping her off, but he needed to get into work early on Monday, so I took on the job. It’s nice to get to step in once in a while like that, but I’m always a little nervous about subbing in on well established routines. I’m afraid I’ll miss some critical step, and that it will negatively impact the rest of the day. Still, it’s a nice change to my own routine, and even though I spend all day with my girls, I cherish every second I can get with them.
So fast forward to around 9:10 a.m. Jasmine’s school has a loop that is specifically for dropping kids off. In fact, it is a literal loop, so that is all you can do: pull up, drop off, move along. We were just about to make the turn to pull into the loop, when Lady Gaga’s “Americano” comes on the iPod. Jasmine absolutely loves that song! I looked in the review mirror and see her bopping along to the music, something that always brings a smile to my face. Unfortunately it was going to be short lived since we were already, more or less, at the school. So I pull up and get out, leaving my door open, then I open Jas’s door and help her out of her car seat. The instructional aid from Jasmine’s classroom came out to help, and I reached into the back seat to get Jas’s coat and hoodie. That’s when I heard her little voice say, “Mommy, dance with me.” Her face was so full of joy, how could I refuse? The aid and I looked at each other, and, with a line of cars behind us, we danced. The other teachers and a couple of the parents joined in as well, and it really became a dance party then! I looked down at my little girl, and I can tell you without doubt, she was so happy! From her curly hair down to her painted pink toes, she was happy.
Our little party lasted no more than a minute, but that was enough to set the tone for the rest of the day. When I went back to pick her up, I made every green light on the way there. I got a great report from her teacher. She ate well at both breakfast and lunch. I got another great report from her teachers at Kennedy Krieger. That night for dinner, Jasmine ate pizza for the first time in 2 years. Laurel, the baby, was happy and playful all day. Even Russ came home reporting a good day.
Later that night, after she had gone to bed, I peeked in on Jasmine while she slept. Her face was so peaceful and angelic. As I brushed a curl off of her face, I realized that I learned a very important lesson that can only be taught by a child.
A couple of weeks ago, we went to the zoo with our local chapter of the Autism Society of America and had a great time. The weather was perfect, everyone was in a great mood, and it was just fun, fun, fun. Jasmine loved seeing the penguins and the big cats, and she tried to touch an owl and the giraffe. She found many interesting rocks along the way, and even a few sticks and leaves that she thought were cool. She waved hi to the rhino and the zebras, and thought the ostriches were hilarious. Yay zoo!
“Look, it’s a volcano!”
So we were looking at the antelopes…or gazelle, what’s the difference? Anyway, there were these tall mounds of dirt in the antelope area, they kind of looked like ant hills. Russ said to Jasmine, “Look Baby, gazelles!” To which Jasmine pointed and replied with, “Look, it’s a volcano!” Yes, yes it is. HA!
Several weeks prior to that, one of the ladies that comes to our home for in-home therapy for Jasmine suggested I narrate my day to her. “Pretend you’re a host on a cooking show.” OK, sounds easy enough. So one day we’re on our way to the grocery store, and I’m doing my best to narrate the drive. I described the trees, the road, the river and the bridge, the train tracks, the other cars, anything and everything I could think of. Finally, from the backseat I hear this little voice trying to get my attention with an ongoing series of “Mommy.”
Once we arrived at the store, and I got the two girls all settled, I began narrating the produce section. I started with the bananas, “Look, bananas. They’re yellow. Bananas are long. Bananas are curved. They come in a bunch.” Jasmine looked at me quizzically, and I took that to mean she was processing what I was saying to her. “Good,” I thought. We moved on to the grapes, and Jas continued her questioning look, but now her look also seemed to contain what I can only describe as sympathy. I was confused and concerned by that, but decided to forge ahead. Finally at the apples, after describing their color and shape and taste, Jasmine looked at me, patted my hand and said, “Good job.”
Different, Not Less 