He went Trick or Treating!!!

Wow... what would be life without the Son Rise program!

I am an incredibly happy Dad right now! When I came home with a promise to go out with my duaghter "trick or treating" for Halloween little did I know that Aditya (who had shown NO INTEREST in this crazy thing until last year) had made plans to join us!

As soon as I was home both of them quickly got ready in their special Halloween costumes. Aditya was the fireman!

Uh-oh! We had only one pumpkin to carry the candy (who knew Aditya would ever want to carry one around?)!

Both voted YES for the last minute decision to let go the pumpkin, and take two Whole Foods paper bags! The twins then took turns leading to the next house to "trick or treat". Every single time he led the group, Aditya went up and clearly and cheerfully smiled and said "Trick or treat"! When I smiled (proudly) and said "Happy Halloween" to the host, Aditya cheerfully said "Happy Halloween" too! Sister seemed delighted too. Last year, only she and I had gone around the neighborhood. This time, she had her own twin brother with her, who was her buddy, her competitor, and sometimes her leader too!

A couple of funny incidents:-) Which also do show some of his current challenges. Outside the first house, there was a huge bowl of candy.  We rang the bell anyways to say Trick or treat. When a teenager opened the door, Aditya handed him a KitKat:-)  The boy smiled although he probably did not get why this child was giving him candy. Aditya, not having been exposed to Halloween until now, had no idea what to do when presented with a huge bowl of candy. (He knows his parents don't allow him to eat any... so he really was doing the his best:-)

The second host asked "Did you guys just start?" noticing that their bag was empty.  Aditya replied "Yes I started going to school. I have completed 50 days of school".  Cute.... although I am not sure the host understood why he said that.

The three of us spent that beautiful half an hour, then returned, and without blinking an eye Aditya (and sister too) counted their candy. Then completely ignoring the candy, they went upstairs, washed their hands and came down for some delicious home made dinner by Aai!  

A few interesting incidents

A. I attended a meeting at the kids' school last week. Next day, Aditya asked me how the meeting went. I told him that it went good and asked him to guess who I met.
Aditya: I don't know. You could tell.
Mom: At the meeting I sat next to Andrew's mom and Natasha's mom.
Aditya (smiling): Oh, so you met Julie and Carrie! (All names changed)
Mom: Oh, wow! I am amazed that you know Andrew and Natasha's moms and you remember their names too!
Aditya: Yes, Carrie aids at PE and Julie helps me write stories.

(At his school, everybody is addresses on a first name basis, including teachers and aiding parents)
I was blown away! A little over two years ago, after we returned from a month long vacation with my parents and brother, he was unable to recognize their pictures. I remember how scared I was in that moment. Today I rejoice as I see him take in the world and remember people for who they are.
As a side note, he enjoyed viewing pictures uploaded from his various class activities and recognized most kids.

B. This morning, after picking up Aditya from school, I was busy in my thoughts, while he was in the playroom, bouncing a ball. He walked down the stairs, talking to me, while I was busy crystalizing my thoughts about a game I wanted to play with him. Coming to me, he said, "Excuse me, Mom! Why are you in your own world?"

C. Today we also had a lengthy discussion on the purpose of making birthday cards and the importance of thoughtfully choosing things of the persons' liking on the card. He said that he really loves his teacher and wants to make a card for her birthday but does not "really know what all she likes" :)

Changes at school, Kilos and Pounds, and "Social" chit-chat

After watching Aditya inside his class as well as before and after school for about a month, we have requested that Aditya went to school 2 hours a day instead of 4.  This continues to give him the opportunity to be in the "real world" (as opposed to his playroom and his home), but it limits the exposure he has to an unpredictable, chaotic world of 6 year olds. It also gives us a chance to provide him with better support (joining) when he ism's after coming back from school.

In the meantime, he continues to be very interested in knowing ways (Pounds, kilos, Newtons, elephants, jars, etc:-) in which people of the world what to measure weight.  He also has some concerns what might happen if he mistakenly changed the setting on the scale to read Kilograms instead of Pounds.  (He mentioned he was worried about getting a time out for this!)  We  think that in order to feel in control about this he has been talking of inventing a new scale which knows what measurement to show depending on who stands on it.  At another time he mentioned he would be a strict dad and give his daughter (interesting... not son) a 85 minute time-out if she made the mistake of changing the setting when no grown up was watching.  She would be given a 170 minute time out if she repeated the same mistake in spite of that.

We discussed this with our teacher, and made sure we were not over-simplifying/over-complicating our response to this.  The last thing we told him about this is we were okay for any one in the house to change it to their preferred setting (kg or pounds).... because it was easy to change it back if we did not like it!  He seemed to smile when he heard this (was he also feeling relieved?)

Lastly... we have had two new candidates interview for a position on our team. Of course, both were also interviewed by the man himself.

"How was your day" he asked a candidate, who met us yesterday.  ("Wow!" I thought when I saw this.)

"My day has been going well.  I played with kids.  I do that for a job."

"I have a friend named XYZ who used to play with kids at the day care. " ("WOW!  A social comment that has no "purpose" besides just flowing with the current conversation!)

"Really, and now he does not play with you?"

"No, he played with me for LIKE a month".   (The LIKE is something we have been hearing a lot these days.)

Every new interview, we see a new and improved boss who does his part of the interview!

He also explained what he plays these days (1-touch) to both candidates and clarified himself when he thought they did not get it!

Cricket (and breakfast)

What a way to start our week!

Aditya had breakfast in the playroom with Baba (Dad).  He decided to eat a little bit, then play a game of Cricket (and it was his demand, not his cricket-crazy dad's!) and then eat the rest of his breakfast.

All in all, he was fully "in control", and relaxed! He and Baba took turns getting each other out, discussing how to play that "yorker", and even pretending to walk back to the Pavillion and coming back as the "new batsman" when someone got out!

He made A STORYBOOK, then read it to us!

Without further ado....

What you see below are pages from a story book Aditya made all by himself, then read to us, kind of like his class teacher.
(What was that again about autistic children not being able to read body language and facial expressions?)

Since he spells phonetically and writes in his own unique style that we understand but maybe you won't.... I am providing the "text" below each page of the book.

(The cover page:  THE TRAIN BOOK Illustrated by Aditya)

(On a bright sunny day, a train co-pilot was very hungry.  And a man was eating chocolate cake, and M&Ms and cotton candy and Honey smoothie ice-cream and Kit-Kat. And there was some music. And the co-pilot loves train ride.)
Baba's NOTE:   At the top he wrote something then scribbled all over it and believed that was the equivalent of erasing it.  Huge. Two years ago he would throw away a sheet of paper if he or someone else made even a slight mistake.

(Looks like this page has our family going somewhere on the train on that same bright sunny day!  The box on top of the girl  hanging off of a line is the automatic food delivery system on Aditya's imaginary train.  The food box travels in the air from the pilot to the passenger... like the Gondolas at Lake Tahoe!)

(On this page:
"Train rides are fun" says the co-pilot.
"Can you hear the music" said the co-pilot.
"Yes I do"
"Do you love it?"
"I do"
"I heard it when I was a kid" said the co-pilot

(This page has another picture of the train.  Hmm... perhaps it is the end of day?)

(Train rides are nice.
"Happy Birthday to the co-pilot. Here is your birthday card"
"Thank you" said the co-pilot.
The co-pilot was laughing.)

(And the train again... to end this cute little story of (what follows is Baba's interpretation....) a co-pilot who was hungry on his birthday, watching a guy eating everything sweet he could lay his hands on, while all the co-pilot wanted was for someone to come chat with him and say Happy Birthday to him!)