Beckett wants to enjoy watching football games with me.
However, the reality is he can’t sit through more than a few commercial breaks before he’s off to do something else. It’s just not exciting enough for him.
He likes the idea of watching the game with his dad but he gets bored pretty quickly. When he gets uninterested after about 30 minutes, he gets chatty and can be distracting because he covers and questions a variety of topics, none of which have anything to do with football.
During a game last Sunday, we sat down in our favorite room to watch the Patriots lose (I wish). He made it to the third commercial break before telling me he would be back. He then went upstairs to his room, coming down a few steps every 15 minutes or so for a score check. I think he was doing it for me because his reactions each time were different no matter the score and who was winning.
For his part, Carson doesn’t even feign interest in football. However, he always makes an effort to ensure I’m aware of a game anywhere around me. For instance, before taking a seat in a restaurant it’s common for him to look around to see where the televisions are in the place. He will then point to his eye and arrange the seating so I can see the games.
At home, during the conference championship games last weekend, I was on a call in another room during one of the games. He demanded I come with him, pointing to the television and ordering me to sit down. He then closed the doors to the room to give me some privacy I assume.
x
Some conversations with kids need to be remembered forever.
Since I don’t trust my memory, this column provides me a unique option to do just that.
Our kids have grown up listening to Bob Marley. They know his music well. They also think every reggae song is by him.
A couple weeks, I came across a Marley biography on television and stopped to watch it for a few minutes. Beckett came into the room and asked what I was watching. When I told him, his response was quite kid like.
“Wait, Bob Marley is black?,” he asked.
I couldn’t help but laugh because it never occurred to me he wouldn’t already know that. The color of the man’s skin is irrelevant, of course, but it just goes to show how kids think.
When I asked him if he thought he was white, Beckett said he never really thought about it. He was just surprised, he said. Then, in typical fashion, he said he didn’t know why he was surprised and didn’t care one way or the other, as he sang the chorus to “Three Little Birds” and was off to bed.
The next morning, he informed us of a plan to grow his hair into dreads like Bob Marley did during the summer months.
x
Early dismissals are nothing new for Carson, but this week was a bit much.
There were only three full days of school scheduled this week with Thursday and Friday being half days.
He had speech therapy on Monday, followed later at night by two hours at home with his Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) team. He had a medicine check appointment with a doctor on Tuesday followed by another ABA session (which was cancelled due to illness and replaced by watching one of his brother’s basketball games). He had speech therapy again on Wednesday. On Thursday, after his half day of school, he had an appointment with a naturopathic doctor to explore solutions for his chronic constipation. It was a full week.
The constant running to these appointments combined with the work scheduling issues they cause is exhausting for his parents. However, I am constantly amazed by Carson’s willingness and laidback approach to everything that is ever asked of him.
The patience, work ethic, willingness and cooperation he shows during his speech therapy sessions overwhelms me. Since we usually divide up his sessions, Pam and I like to think of his speech therapy as our weekly doses of inspiration.
Watching our non-verbal son, who has verbal apraxia and lacks the motor planning skills to speak at this time, push through his disability and combine letter sounds into words is truly remarkable. Since the words just don’t come out easily like they do for most, he sounds out each letter. For example, with the word “map,” he sounds out each letter independently and then tries to put them together to form the word.
At one of his recent sessions, he did this for 19 words. It’s incredibly touching to watch him work so hard. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for him, especially after a day at school.
Nary a speech session is completed without his speech therapist tearing up over his effort and cooperation. His mom is a puddle of emotions – the good kind — every session.
As for me, I find his speech sessions to be therapeutic. I’ve never walked into a session without work stuff weighing on my mind. Watching him work and try so hard inspires me in a way I’ve never been moved before. If he can work this hard, the least I can do is miss a few hours of work for him.
