That child is so amazingly bright and talented. She is a joy to all who love her. Seriously, there's nothing snarky here, she's just a great kid.
But there are things that she can do that it would never occur to me to expect from Liam. He's the same age, but...come on. The kid's got a unique kind of brain. The things he learns, they take different paths.
It turns out, however, that his capacity for learning goes far beyond my expectations of him. And so, he keeps blowing my mind with things it would never have occurred to me that he might know how to do.
Today at lunch I was trying to work, and (like usual), he was trying to type on the keyboard with me.
"W W W" he said, "wa, wa, wa."
"That's right, W says wa" I answered him with a teensy hint of annoyance. I had things to get done, and I really just wanted him to eat his food and go take a nap. But I don't want to discourage him. I'm excited about his love of letters and numbers.
"Q Q Q" he continued, "qwah qwah qwah."
I was starting to tire slightly of my alphabet lesson, pretty sure I had them mastered over 30 years ago, but was still going along, hoping he'd be done soon, when he completely threw me.
"Liam," he said, "L-I-A-M. Liam."
I think this was something like the face I made:
What?!?
My 3 year old may not be able to spell his last name, but I'm pretty damned excited that he can spell his first name.
Sure, he may think that the main function of my phone is to take his picture. And he's still banging his head against the wall as if it were a job for which he would be paid. But my little boy is learning. And he's learning some things so much faster than we ever expected. I'm so ridiculously proud of him.
We've got to take the wins when we get them. Right? And I think it's important to remember that, special needs or not, we can't underestimate our kids. They're capable of so much more than we realize. And how much more could they do, if they knew how much we believe in them?
*****
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