Rain

It was a gorgeous day today. Andy and Joey got to play outside. Andy even got a trip to the park. Next week, Andy will be three, and have good look-over by our developmental pediatrician. I mentioned this to one of our ABA therapists today, because the Wednesday session is cancelled next wek for the event. I was a little taken aback when she replied, "yeah, you'll want him checked for Asperger's. He got enough oddities, I thought you'd get him checked sooner or later." t was a bit of a bite-the-lip moment. Most folsk when I say I'm havig Andy checked for something, they laugh. After all, he does so much better than Joey did at this age. But there are still the random meltdowns. The echoing when he gets upset. The toe-walking. The sensory oddities. The motor-planning and articulation issues.

Joey had OT today, and I sat with some of the other parents in teh waiting room, watching the rain roll in. The sky gets so black, and then it flashed, and came down in sheets. It wasn't as good as a monsoon rain, though. We were in Calcutta, and the rain was so heavy you couldn't see your hand a foot in front of your face, just from water. Or waking up in Allahabad, to find you can't leave the hotel because the courtyard is flooded, and the river was a twenty minute rickshaw drive away yesterday. They brought our breakfast to the verandah. The rude tourists who were with us, they let them wade through the flood to their bus. But not us. We weren't allowed to touch the flood water, too dirty, stay inside today, tomorrow it will be better, Auntie. WE bring the food to you, no problem, we are used to it.

The rain poured all the same, and we had to go home. Mom and Andy were waiting. We waited for the worst to pass through, took a deep breath, and ran. Joey like getting his feet in teh water as it flowed like a river over the parking lot and under the car. He loves water. He would have stood there all evening if I had let him. But into teh car we go, and home through the storm. JOey chats a little about the weather. "It's RAINing. Look at the water. Water, mommy. Rain... sun... rainbow! It's RAINing." I try to think of rain songs, and I hit one he knows from Little Bear (It's raining, it's pouring, the man in the moon is snoring, he went to bed with a cold in his head, and he won't get up 'til morning...) We sing it a few times. HE goes back to the perseveration. It's practically over when we get home.

But there has been a fatal error. Joey's toy shopping cart, that he has been using for the last couple of weeks to track through the house, has been left accidentally outside (where he was tracking on the deck). It's wet, and can't come in teh house like that. Disaster. Now its twenty minutes of "Cart! I want cart! I want cart NOW!" and screaming, as he can se the cart outside, through teh window, but is not permitted to fetch the beloved possession. When the rain stops, I run out and fetch it in, and dry it (and its contents) carefully. But disaster has struck already, and we are off-kilter for the rest of the night.

We'll see what tomorrow looks like, when we rise in the morning.