Entering His World

  Christmas has come and gone…which in itself is hard to believe.  This year Cam was more into it than he ever has been, which made the holiday with him and his sister so much fun. Christmas morning came and knots came to my stomach. Will he like what Santa brought? Will there be a meltdown because it is too much? Worry and knots filled me starting around 2 am when I couldn’t sleep out of excitement to see their little faces in the morning and also out of worry. Then around 6 am I got the best Christmas present I could have ever asked for…Cam came running into our room screaming, “Santa came mommy!! Santa came!” He was SO excited and it just went uphill from there. Each present he opened he was grateful for, he was excited about and he just enjoyed the entire morning. He is typically a grateful child just doesn’t know how to show it and if he doesn’t like something you know it right away. But, this morning was different. I could tell how grateful he was in his sweet little face and he kept screaming “thank you Santa! This is the best Christmas ever! Thank you Santa!” It truly was a magical morning.

  For Christmas one of Cam’s big presents was the game Skylanders Swap Force. Now to be honest I knew nothing about this game really, except that it was one of the only big things he wanted for Christmas and that for the past three years my son has loved anything that has to do with Skylanders. But when it comes to the heroes, villains, etc I haven’t a clue. Well, that is until now. Cam asked me to come in and play with him the other day and I said I would but that he had to promise he wouldn’t get mad at me when I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. He promised and off I went into Skylander world with my son. About an hour in I realized why he loved the game so much and there he and I sat laughing and spending some really great quality time together. I entered into my son’s world instead of making him enter into mine. I am sure that sounds a little bit crazy so let me try to explain. Since Cam’s diagnosis I have made it a mission to always make Cam come into our world, not stay isolated and not allow him to use his disability to avoid anything. But, I believe in my whole learning to be ok with his Autism that I discussed in my last blog that this is a part of it for me. Going into his world and not forcing him to just be in mine. So we sat and played Skylanders for a couple of hours, his sister at one point even came in and cheered us on, laughed with us and she helped me in some areas that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I typically don’t allow him to play any video game for that long, but this time was an exception. For the first time in what feels like FOREVER I felt like I was a part of my son’s life….a part of HIS world not a part of the world I make him be a part of. When I told him it was time to stop playing there was no meltdown like there usually is, he stopped playing and came out and we played board games and just had fun…something that we haven’t done without meltdowns or attitude in a very long time.

 So I decided to continue going into his world. After all it really wasn’t so bad. So each day since Christmas he and I have played Skylanders and we have laughed and we have bonded. What is funny is that he hasn’t wanted to just play that, now he has wanted to do things his sister wants to do, things that I want to do, he has been more at ease with everyone. Maybe I am wrong…but I think finally allowing him to be him and being a part of his world has helped him feel a little bit better about himself and has made him a happier little boy. Only time will tell….but for now I am enjoying being a part of his world.