Our Amazing Kids!

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Registered: 03-26-2003
Our Amazing Kids!
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Sat, 06-04-2005 - 11:13pm

Another thread gave me this idea. Lets share stories from our kids that have melted our hearts. Those little amazing moments that brought us to tears or made us laugh. Maybe it was a story of when they finally did something you thought they would never do. They surprised you with some special ability. Or just were thier sweet loving selves.

Renee

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
In reply to: rbear4
Sat, 06-04-2005 - 11:28pm

I have a whole plethora of stories, but I guess I will start with this one. For some reason it is on my mind tonight.

First communion and any "rite" of childhood for me is very emotional. Anytime I see my kids do something I never dreamed possible reminds me of how far they have come and it gets me. Mike's first communion was "eventful" to say the least (and not all in a good way) and so was doubly emotional. But that wasn't the amazing day. The amazing day came about 6 months later. Every sunday after his first communion just before that sundays communion I had to remind Mike of all the steps involved. We had this ritual of "rules" we went through as kind of a mini social story. If I didn't he would freeze and forget what to do until I went up to prompt him. Half the time even if I did go through our routine, I still had to prompt him through it.

Then one sunday he says as I start our routine "Mom, I know". Then he went up and did everything exactly perfect. I still get choked up when I remember it. I just watched him the whole time in amazement. So this is what it is like.

Renee

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Registered: 06-25-2003
In reply to: rbear4
Sun, 06-05-2005 - 1:39am

Great thread! The best thing, about it; looking back, I am hardpressed to find just one story to pick out. I guess for Peter, this is the best one:

We are members of the Wildlife Conservation Society, (Bronx Zoo) due to Peter's obsession with animals in general and tigers in particular. About a year ago, I read a story to him from the WCS magazine about a sick wild tiger who was found in Russia, who could hardly eat, and the field researcher who was trying to nurse her back to health. Well, two amazing things happened: Peter understood the story. His reading comprehension had always been very poor -he didn't get the point of most stories, but he asked sensible questions about the tiger and was horrified to think that she may have been poisioned (turns out later that she wasn't - it was canine distemper). He couldn't understand why anyone would want to hurt a tiger.

So Peter determined to help the tiger in the only way he knew how. He drew a picture for her, to make her feel better. The picture showed her well and standing, eating meat from a bucket, with Peter standing by, happy. Peter made me promise to send her the picture!

That took some doing, but I eventually managed it. Unfortunately, the poor animal had passed in the interim, but the field researcher was chuffed that a little boy on Long Island had empathised with his story, and felt renewed hope that his work out in the wilds of Russia to save the tiger was not for nothing. We kept up an e-mail correspondence for awhile, but my schedule and Peter's waning interest in tigers meant it kind of fell off recently.

I learned two lessons from that incident:

1. Peter responds better to real-life stories than fiction.
2. An action taken in good faith, no matter how small and seemingly irrelavant, can have a big impact on someone halfway around the world.

-Paula

-Paula

visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
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Registered: 12-24-2004
In reply to: rbear4
Sun, 06-05-2005 - 9:05am

I guess my favorite story is of the time I asked Cassian if he had any friends. We had been reading books about friendship, and he had seen a Sesame Street show about best friends. At the time, I was really wondering what he would say because he knew children at school and around where we lived, but he didn't really play with them yet. I really had this feeling that we were going to have a deep discussion of his disability then, but he totally surprised me. Instead of seeming despondent, he beamed and said, "Yes!" emphatically. Curious, I then asked him who his best friend was. He quickly answered, "Daddy!" Of course, his Dad was thrilled with this answer when I told him. Since then, Cassian calls his Dad and me and my parents (Gran and GrandDad to Cassian) his best friends. He has started to call the other kids in his preschool class "friends," but they don't qualify for the "best friend" title. He also says that Mommy and Daddy and Cassian are all "married" and that we are "in love." So sweet!

Suzi

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Registered: 02-24-2005
In reply to: rbear4
Sun, 06-05-2005 - 9:17am
Okay, you guys have me in tears already. One of my favorite moments occured on field day when Chase actually won a rather complicated hula hoop contest and his whole class gathered round him as he jumped with unabandoned joy and they jumped with him cheering his name. Luckily I had sunglasses on so the tears went unnoticed for the most part. But one that occurs quite often touches me even deeper. My NT 3 year old son loves to terrorize his big 7 year old AS brother by pretending to be a monster and running after him with claws out. Chase gets really scared so I told him to turn to Daniel and "let him have it" if he hurts you. Chase said, "but mommy, he's only a toddler and I don't want to hurt him, he can't help it." He is often kind when others, especially his 6 yo NT sister, wouldn't be. Even when she is awful to him it upsets him to see someone get punished. His gentle heart is what makes him so special to me, but it is also what worries me most for his future. Vicky
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Registered: 03-27-2003
In reply to: rbear4
Sun, 06-05-2005 - 10:00am

My daughter was born in November 2003, a few days after Aaron turned 3. The whole pregnancy, he did not seem excited, or to get what was happening. He would point to my tummy and say there was a baby in there when prompted. The day Maddie was born, my friend Tiff kept him. She was trying to talk to him about it, and instead he would point, say, to a light switch and say, "look there's the light." This was before we knew Aaron was on the spectrum, but my friend and I were concerned about it. When Maddie was born, he would look at her and talk about her when prompted. Just not really interested. Exactly a year later this same friend had a baby girl. In this time, Aaron's verbal skills and social skills really took off. She brought the baby over for me to watch. Aaron was fascinated with her! He was kissing her and calling her by name. He and dad were on their way to OT, and he said he did not want to leave the baby! My friend was amazed too.

Also, the day of his 4th birthday, he finally got in the moonwalk for the first time ever. We had been to countless birthday parties where he would not get in. This time it took his grandpa enticing him with some candy, but once he was in there he loved it! It felt like a victory to me. One more kid thing he can finally enjoy!
Amanda

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Registered: 03-26-2003
In reply to: rbear4
Sun, 06-05-2005 - 12:33pm
John has always seemed to be empathetic to me.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-29-2003
In reply to: rbear4
Sun, 06-05-2005 - 4:05pm

These stories are great! Thanks for allowing me to share mine.

My dad passed away in Feb. 04. he died from complications of pnuemonia. It was a sudden death, because he had come home from the hospital, and thought he was on the mend. He went unresponsive on my sister, who was giving him a nebulizer treatment, and he was gone.

You'll need to know for this story, that my dad was an alcoholic. He drank alot of beer.

At the wake, my sweet boy Patrick, who adored his grampa, sat next to my step-mom for most of the receiving hours. At one point, my step-mom came over to me in tears, to tell me what Patrick had said to her.

Patrick had gone to the casket to kneel and say a prayer. He came back and and asked my step-mom if she wanted to know what his Prayer was. She said sure. He told her he asked God to give Grampa lots and lots of beer.

We were so touched. To Patrick, he does not really understand alcoholism. He just knew Grampa loved drinking his beer, and he wanted God to make grampa happy in Heaven.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-17-2003
In reply to: rbear4
Sun, 06-05-2005 - 5:28pm

My best Kadan story...every morning I ask Kadan "what's my name?" Somedays I'm Princess Peach or Dory or Beverly. One day he looked at me and said "you're Beverly my real Mommy, cuz you love me and take care of me". That was the best day of my life.

Beverly

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
In reply to: rbear4
Sun, 06-05-2005 - 6:13pm

Awe now Beverly I was doing fine with all those wonderful, lovely stories and you went and did it to me. I gotta get a tissue.

Renee

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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-03-2004
In reply to: rbear4
Mon, 06-06-2005 - 8:16am

I concur that I have too many stories. My sister has made me promise to write my Malcolm (age almost 8) Stories all down, and so I have started keeping a descriptive list. I hope this summer to start writing many of them down for posterity.

I have lots of stories about his burgeoning love life, but here's the goopiest, heart-warmer. He fell in love with a girl (Beautiful Alina) in his class last year (still planning to marry her and she agrees), and when I asked him what he loves about her, he said "Her beautiful eyes, her beautiful hair, her beautiful smile full of light. When I'm with her, I feel happy, I feel like everything's going to be alright!" Lucky girl...

And this story is a little hard to explain. We were sitting in a restaurant and there was a picture of the same restaurant in 1904. Malcolm pointed it out and remembered that that was when MY grandfather would have been 4 years old. THEN his little math brain calculated again and he announced that since his cousin Kenyon was born in 2000, HE (Kenyon) is Great Grandfather Elmer come back to life. I said "really!" and then he said "You want to know who I am?" I said "Yes", and he said "I am Grampa Paul come back to life" (my dad died when I was 30, never met Malcolm). Then he said "Do you know why I came back to life?" I said "No". He said "Because I missed you..."

He is the living end, that boy.

Sara
ilovemalcolm

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