My heart is just pretend...

I never knew how hard it could be to explain internal organs to a 4 year old. Dom and I were putting this ABC puzzle together today and the letter H piece had a heart for Valentine's Day. I told Dom that he has a heart in his chest. He lifted up his shirt and said, "there is nothing there". I then told Dom that it was inside your chest and that you could not see it, but can feel the heart beat. He looked at his chest again and then said" hmm..."my heart is just pretend".

Dom is pretty much a realist, he has to see to believe....what a riot!

Why do I put myself in these situations.....

As a mother of a child with special needs you will try your very best to give your child every opportunity that other typical children have, but at what cost to a mothers own sanity?

My adorable, wonderful, energetic Dom is your average 4 1/2 year old boy with Aspergers Syndrome. He likes to run around, discover new things, look for ABC's and numbers and take his Mom along for the ride. Throughout his little life we have tried mommy and me classes, gymboree classes, playgroups, music classes, piano lessons, soccer and now the wonderful world of gymnastics!

Let me step back for a second, i dont know if it is the world of today but i currently have friends who do swimming lessons, backetball classes, gym classes, etc., so as a mom with a child with special needs I feel that it is my duty to not let my son's disability stop me from getting Dom involved in the same sorts of things as long as Dom likes it. So here came gymnastics....

Dom loves going to this class, he calls the class gym-magic class. He has a great first 15 minutes of the thirty minute class and the whole second part of the class I am there to get him organized, remind him of what he is supposed to be doing and chasing him around as he hides and ignores the instructors. As the other toddlers and 3 or 4 year old are doing the routines and following directions, there i am getting Dom who is hiding in the corner and trying to bribe him with french fries to just make it through the last five long minutes of the class.

Now class is over, so my stress is gone, right, WRONG!! Now it is time to get Dom out of the class and into the car, this is where the whole challenge really begins. As soon as he gets out of class, he goes into the play area, runs around like a crazy person, throws toys and screams, SHUT UP and WHAT THE HECK while all the other moms give me and him dirty looks. I could typically take these looks, but not after working all day (4 hrs), picking up dom from school, giving him a speedy dinner and making it to our 530 class for thirty minutes of fun aka stresscity!! So, we finally make it into the car after twenty minutes or so, i finally take a relaxing breathe and thank GOD that i made it through another gym magic class and think.....why do i put myself into these situations!

Brown Boy, Where are You?

As many of you know Dom is as white as can be and the cutest too. As a 4 year old having Aspergers he definately sees the world in a different way. This past week we headed over to the McDonalds on Holland Avenue which has an indoor playground. For those of you who are not from Albany, Holland Ave is by Albany Medical Center which is in a pretty busy downtown area and has mixed ethnicities (this will be helpful later). As we entered the McDonalds Dom was his usual shy self but after only one minute of asking him to go on the slide he went. He was having a blast and even met a "friend" The two of them were playing in the slides and i couldnt even seen them, but from what I heard they were having a blast. Then all of a sudden i hear Dom saying pretty loudly..."brown boy, brown boy, where are you? i can find you brown boy". As being a pretty white girl in an eating establishment with 80% minorities i was a little embarassed. But Dom kept on calling him brown boy, brown boy.......eventually when Dom came down from the slide, i told him that maybe he should just call him "boy" since he didnt know his name, so that worked out a bit better. It is pretty funny to understand how Dom sees things. Oh to be 4 again....