It is the last few hours of the Labor day weekend, and as I look back at it, I am beyond awe-struck with what I am seeing about the new Aditya and what that means for our.. seemingly... new... life!
1. We decided on Sunday afternoon that we would spent Monday afternoon going biking (bicycling)-- with all four of us riding their own bikes. Since we the parents have been sharing a bicycle, we decided to go and get a new one from Walmart. (We used to avoid going here with Aditya at all costs until 2 years ago.) When we went there on Saturday night, a few bikes were left, and Baba checked them out, tried them, etc and both the kids were super interested... not just patient... with this. But the sweet bonus came when we told Aditya we had to leave this place as they did not have their best bikes in stock as it was late evening. We would have to come back another time, maybe tomorrow. To this, Aditya who usually avoids going shopping suggested we go to the next door Target so Baba can get a bike and we all can still go tomorrow! I was of course blown away, thanked him profusely, and in fact, that was something I had not considered. We went there and even got a bike. Aditya, in both stores, was super excited about the gears on all these bikes! He asked me over and over again how I like my new bike with gears:-)
2. On Saturday before we went to Walmart, we had actually been to the nearest park to our new home, with the kids on their bikes, and Baba on the common bike that Aai and Baba were sharing. (Aai came later in the car.) Over there, I (Baba) saw a boy I had never seen before. He INVITED a girl to join him and Shreya on the tyre swing, saying: "Come on, join us!" Later he and some other kids played together on a wheel that had to be turned around either by walking on it, or someone pushing it by hand. It was like a tilted merry-go-round. (Frankly I do not know the name for this thing.) Two things: the kids totally accepted him in their "tribe".
THIS IS A FIRST.
Oftentimes our grown up friends do not get what after all are his challenges, but then their kids meet him, and then SHUN HIM. He is just not interesting and inviting and social enough for their kids, even if he can talk easily about cars and various forms of energy... for hours.
But today, the kids were actually finding him to be one of them. (Do you guys know how much we have waited for this day?) Some specifics about this. The boys and girls actually took turns pushing the wheel, and Aditya followed the "tribe rules" as they were being defined and re-defined on the go! He still was not picking up certain really advanced cues like "everyone is taking turns pushing it", but when a girl yelled about how girls will push and boys will sit, followed by boys will push and girls will sit, he totally followed it!
3. Today, it is close to dinner time, and we have decided to make fresh pesto pasta using rice pasta flakes and freshly made pesto. Aditya asked, "Can I make the pesto with you?" "What did you say?" I say to him. "Can I be part of making the pesto?"
We celebrated him for this obviously, then quickly made a deal that he would go to the backyard with a hammer and break open the walnut shells, while Baba will clean and cut basil leaves. Before Baba knew, Aditya was done both breaking the shells as well as neatly putting them in a bowl! Where is the guy who just wants to consume the already-made-bowl-of-pasta?
There were a few other challenges observed over the weekend, but the top 3 news are what you already read. Anyways, here are some challenges.
1. Very distracted by light coming through window shutters. Our new volunteer did not know this, and did not help Aditya by closing the shutters. GOOD! That's how we came to know he still has this challenge.
2. Anxious when the volunteer is even 2 minutes late. Before another volunteer's arrival, stopped eating 10 minutes in advance, and sat at the door and looked for the volunteer's car to come.
3. Rigid about not wanting to go to the library.... which is something we did on Saturday too in order to get him excited about the library and books in general. Once there, he got pretty excited though when Baba helped him find books about simple machines, energy, and airplanes!
P.S.
1. Baba and Aditya had played a quiz game earlier in the week about simple machines. Since then Aditya is hooked on to finding examples of levers, pulleys, and inclined planes, wherever he goes!
2. He also has a new found love for conversion between milli, centi, deci, deca, hecto, and kilo-meters, grams, and liters.
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