The Hubby, Scamp and Spiff. My fellas.
This photo is one of many hundreds of photos taken over the course of a family trip. Can you spot which one of my children is Autistic? To an untrained eye, it is rather hard to tell. Both of my boys can be rather well behaved in public places, but then there are those times; the ones where Spiff starts flapping his arms or waving his bracelet around. These moments usually happen in more crowded spaces. Not long after this photo was taken, we boarded a Green Line T train in Boston full of people and he began to flap his hands wildly to calm himself in that situation. While it attracted many stares and puzzled looks, it helped him relax. It's incredibly important for him to be comfortable in any situation, and he has learned how to calm himself in just about any kind. It's been a long road, and we're still on it.
The other day I was going through our family photos as I was transferring them from one computer to another. As I glanced at photo after photo of my kids, I noticed there were so many of my son in a group or family photo where he doesn't look at the camera, or is sitting just a touch away from the rest of us. Or both in the same photo. There were more than I realized. We chalk it up to one of his many quirks, and we are fine with this one and all the others. Other people might look at these photos or us when we take the photos and think he is being rude; but he is not. He might look uncomfortable and like he doesn't want to be a part of the "moment", but deep down inside he does. He really does.
He's just being him. Beautiful, beautiful Spiff.
It's perfect, perfect. That brought tears to my eyes.
ReplyDeleteIt is a perfect photo. They all do this. I swear to you on my life if I manage to get a shot with him looking at the camera it is a miracle. Besides, the ones without him looking at the camera always come out better anyway. They are more real.
ReplyDeleteThanks, ladies. Your posts bring tears to my eyes too, and remind me that we are all in this together. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteShash
Just wanted to say - what touched my heart most was the fact that your hubby was touching him - even though Spiff, as you say, set himself apart - your husband still reached out to connect to him in the small way he would allow. Perfect shot.
ReplyDeleteActually my father, who is, we think, very mildly autistic, does that as well. A number of pictures of him as a child show him looking in a different direction from the rest of his family.
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