A Worry and Hope

Shane does not play nicely with children his age. The day-care people have mentioned that he doesn't really interact with the other children. He has a tendency to scream, screech, or cry if another toddler or preschooler comes too close or tries to use the same playground equipment he's using. There was a girl on the playground near Carrie's parents when we visited. Shane would throw an absolute fit whenever she tried to come within ten feet of him or interact with Carrie or I.

It doesn't help that our therapist through the county wanted to make sure they tested Shane for autism. She thought that his intense/borderline-obsessive interest in certain things might be an indicator that he was on the spectrum.

The specialists concerns did not concern me at first. Shane's fixating on his interests comes directly from me. Nana coined it 'what I liked, I REALLY liked." An addictive personality. My brother, Patrick, was similar. There was a span of time he refused to wear or drink out of anything that wasn't green. 

The lack of interest in his peers does pull at me. Originally, I was going to write about my concerns and use how nice he is with Baby Cole as a counterpoint. I've seen Shane interact, but his current screaming and raging around peers definitely caught my attention. The specialist's mention of autism keeps creeping back.

I don't think there's a lot of substance to it, though. I think Shane is more spoiled with attention and not needing to share than anything (the perks of being the only child, I suppose). I've seen him interact very nicely with younger and older kids.

Yesterday, Yordy and Kirby visited Nana and Pop to celebrate Kirby's birthday. Shane asks about the boys whenever Nana takes him to watch the school bus at the bus stop. He remembers them.

When Yordy and Kirby first hopped out of the car, Shane began to go into tantrum mode. I told him to "be nice! Nice boys are happy and friendly!" 

Thankfully, he recovered.

It was an absolute blast to watch all of the boys play with Pop-Pop on the trampoline. Shane charged around saying "I gonna get choo!" Kirby and Yordy laughed and stayed just out of reach or turned the tables and started chasing Shane! 

There were some pics on Nana's camera, but here's what my crappy phone captured:

Shane's in the dark blue shirt. He's dive-bombing Pop in the second photo!

I was an outside observer through the festivities. The trampoline's weight capacity was already close to maxed so I just sat and guarded the entrance. Indy kept me busy by begging me to throw her nasty tennis ball! 

If only Shane didn't say "Daddy go away?" it would've been perfect! Somewhere along the way I picked up the rep as the "Taking Care of Business" parent. I'm sure he was partly afraid I was going to make him leave party-land before he wanted! One day the toot will be old enough to realize I revel in watching him cackling, hyper, and enjoying himself.

The IEP for Shane is set for next week on Friday. I don't think they're going to find him on the spectrum, and I'll be relieved to hear that confirmed. Even if they do say Shane has some form of autism, I think he'd be super high functioning and it'd be more something I'd define as "quirky."

Quirky just means you're more interesting, because you're not cut out of the normal mold. 

You know, like Shane's old man!