He is in the fourth grade.
He is obsessed with Harry Potter.
These days, I have a son who twitches and ticks much more than he used to. I've done all my reading and watched all the documentaries. I knew that for him hormones would bring more....movement, in addition to all the other things that every other pre-teen has to adjust to.
I must say that lately, Aspergers is my BFF compared to Tourette's. Gavin's 'awkwardness' and strange sense {or lack there of} of social norms has always been what made him so endearing. It's what gave him his muchness. It's what set him aside and made Gavin....Gavin.
Asperger's was what prompted old friends to ask things like, "Does he still hide behind you when he meets new people?" "Does he still have a million Thomas trains?" "Remember that time you tried to put a scarf on him and he FREAKED out?", when I run into them after years of hiatus. These things can be called quirky. These things make him different. But, in a society that is ever evolving into one that has a huge appreciation of Gamers, Nerds, Alone-Lunch-Eaters, and Different-Beat-Marchers... I wasn't all that worried that he would be labeled "Weird", rather he may even end up the "cool kid" who has enough mystery and wonder to him that he would be intriguing to his class mates.
Then... We get to the Tourette's.
The twitching and the ticking.
The visibility of it.
The in-your-face shuddering, shaking, shifting that his 734,110 year old body goes through in a day. It's here, and it's here for serious these days.
{DISCLAIMER: I know that there are people out there who suffer MUCH more greatly than our Gavin is.}
I worry what it will mean for him on the playground or at the lunch table.
I wait every year to see if there's that ONE name that makes it through from one year onto the next.
That One solid, sturdy, always-there name.
I wait for a Johnny, Eddie, James, Kenneth, Alex, or Tom.
But, alas.
He is never there in our talks.
I wait for that name.
Hoping Gavin has found a Best Friend.
You know, the kind that when you're 7-12 years old and someone is picking on your Buddy you run over and kick them in the shin first, and worry about punishment after. Then I wonder if the Asperger's limits him from having ONE friend that close to him. I wonder if maybe he will just have a childhood of friendly-enough-faces, and a handful of acquaintances that he will pass by in the halls.
I love my Boy.
I love my son. I love my Gavin.
I love each and every one of his ticks, his twitches, his awkward jokes, his wand ability demonstrations, and most of all each and every one of his hugs.
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| I cannot believe in just 30 days, My Little Wizard will be 10 years old. |
