My Son is Amazing

Yep, my son is amazing. Both of them are, but this story is about Isaac and something very heartwarming that happened today.

James and I took the boys to the park that is located only a block away from our house. There was a girl there who looked to be about 10 years old. She was standing on one of the play structures. Isaac, being the little social butterfly he is, stood right in front of her and said, "Hi!" Very loudly. When she didn't respond, he repeated "Hi!" again very loudly. Still, she said nothing. Just sort of groaned. He shouted his greeting one last time, and then decided to head for the slide.

It was pretty clear that this girl wasn't quite right, but after watching her for a bit, it was fairly obvious that this girl had some degree of autism. She was unable to speak, and frequently made "raspberries" with her mouth.

A few minutes later, Isaac started playing with two little girls. They were a little older than Isaac, and decided to go swing. Isaac followed suit, only he'd never swung on a real swing before. It didn't take him long to figure it out, though, with me there showing him how to pump his legs and giving him pushes. A few swings over, the mother of the girl with autism sat, swinging and watching her daughter. She looked sad. I thought about how hard it must be to watch all these other kids, interacting and playing, while her daughter stood there in her own little world. It made me think about how amazingly blessed I am to have two perfect little boys. After a while, the mother left the swing and sat at a nearby picnic table.

A while later, Isaac went over to that same play structure where the girl was still standing. He went over and stood right in front of her, looked right at her, smiled really big, and started laughing hysterically. The girl looked at Isaac, and then started laughing, too! They stood there and interacted for about five minutes, just laughing and making strange noises at each other. The girl would playfully push Isaac lightly on the chest with two fingers, and Isaac would pretend to fall backwards. The girl's mom started to call out her name when she did this, but I was right there and it was obviously playful, so I called out to her mother "It's okay, they're just playing." After a few minutes, I looked over at her mother at the picnic table, and she had a great big smile on her face.

Eventually, Isaac moved on and played on the slide, with other kids, and with his pail and shovel. But for that five minutes, that mother watched her daughter have a typical childhood experience, which I'm certain doesn't happen often. It warmed my heart to know that my child did that. It's amazing to see something like that. He didn't know anything was wrong with this girl. He had no preconceived notions or judgements. She was just another kid, and he wanted to play with her. And play they did. <3