FISH

Calder was with me when I went to the supermarket yesterday. He started hitting the apples and oranges as he named them, so I instructed, "Calder, no touching!" Unfortunately the next thing I saw was him holding up a raw fish by its tail!

TOOTHPICK

The other day, Calder came to me in a great state of excitement. "Mommy, what did we take?" I was clueless. Then he asked a few more times, "What did we take? Mommy!" Later I realised I had forgotten to give him his usual toothpick for blueberries. Today he ate blueberries again, but he asked for "chopsticks". So I gave him a pair of chopsticks. He realised he had made a mistake and tried to recall the right word. Good thing he remembered the list of new words. (I had pasted a blank paper on the wall beside the dining table and wrote on it new words he learned). A quick glance at the list and he triumphantly declared, "Toothpick!"

SCALDED

Once, Calder scalded himself during a meltdown. I was at work and my mom was taking care of him. There was a pot of boiled chrysanthemum soup on the stove and he shoved it down in anger. The hot soup splashed onto the floor and rebound onto him. Fortunately, the scalds didn't turn into blisters. I thought the experience would have made him fearful of hot surfaces. Unfortunately, it has the opposite effect: now he touches everything he thinks is hot.

SNIPPETS

Thinking about this for a while. Going to keep this blog updated with snippets of life with Calder. I hope it'll be useful read for fellow parents and others curious about autism.