I dropped The Critter off at the Landmark College ELO-STEM program this morning. It has been somewhat of a lesson in "Calm down Momma, cause your kid is fine" which is a fairly new experience for me, so it's a learning process. I kept waiting for his anxiety to kick in in its usual unavoidable avoidance way, but zip....simply excitement excitement excitement as he responded when I demanded 3 emotion words for how he was feeling. He danced around the waiting area, greeted the director and started introducing himself to a few other kids that were hanging around the model of campus. I keep waiting for it...... As he begins to lecture/hold court/whatever word you use to(MAYBE there was a little bit of WITH in there) the other kiddos hanging around the model about its accuracy, when and how it was made, etc. something very odd happened. Not only did none of these kiddos walk away, not only did none of the other parents start to look around for whose kid this was, BUT the group of 6-8 kids in a circle on the other side of the room walked TOWARDS the model to participate. This does.not.happen in most camp/school circles in our experience. However, apparently surrounded by other kiddos that don't quite fit, maybe The Critter fits??? I know that when he returns to the daily grind, the same "walk away" behavior of others will happen again, but hopefully(dare I??), this will stay in him and he will know that it is not a personal deficiency that causes this, but the brightness of his differences.
.....and MAYBE down the road, he will learn to speak in code a bit more so that his brightness does not make others feel diminished but helps them light up as well.....
OK. Back to the job that pays the bills that I am ever so thankful allows me to drive >700 miles and work via cell and wifi.
Don't worry, despite the newness of a kiddo that is okay for camp, I still have my cellphone on and turned all the way up....just in case....
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