Okay, here are some other things he does:
He really loves baths. He always has, really. He likes warm water but not cold water, though, which isn't really surprising, as I don't know of anyone who really likes cold water.
He loves limes. He'd eat a whole one if we let him. One time, his dad gave him a tiny section of lime and he just ate the whole thing like it was an orange.
He can feed himself with a spoon. The first time I gave him a spoon with some baby food on it, he took it out of my hand and just fed himself. This meant to me that he has very good fine motor skills. He can also pick things up with his thumb and forefinger pretty well.
He also has very good gross motor skills. He taught himself how to roll over at two weeks old, from his tummy to his back. The next week, he rolled from his back to his tummy. He did this multiple times, too, not just once.
And one that happened recently: he fell asleep at a rock concert. We took him with us to see Rush (it was a very nice concert and no one was jumping around or anything, most of the people there were old enough to be my parents, as it is an older band) and he was asleep for half of it. He was fine for the other half, but he did get scared of some parts of it.
He's never really liked blankets. He'll tolerate this one blanket I have, though, but he kicks all of the rest of them off.
He hasn't had any trouble with eating at all, but he doesn't take a bottle and can't seem to figure out sippy cups. He also doesn't really see the point of pacifiers.
He hates being restrained and he is constantly trying to figure out things, and mostly uses things to stand up with.
He doesn't really play with toys, he just chews on them and uses them to complete milestones, and once he does what he's trying to do, he doesn't play with the toy again, really.
Once he sets his mind to doing something (which he just seems to get the idea to do one day), he keeps at it until he does it. It took him about three days to learn how to stand up in his playpen, and he would just keep at it for hours and days until he finally did it.
The reason I don't really suspect that he's autistic is he's very social and uses a lot of facial expressions. He knows about communicating with people and tries to be in our conversations and he responds when people talk to him. He's very charming and he knows that people like him and think he's cute. I just don't know what to make of him, really. I don't know if he has Asperger's, if he's gifted, or what. I mostly don't think about it, because I know it's too early to start putting labels on him, but I want to know what his needs are and attend to them. If he has sensory needs, I want to be able to make things easier for him. I had sensory needs as a child and my parents didn't really seek to make anything easier or try to teach me coping skills and I want to do that for him. I'm not interested in changing or curing him, just finding out his needs and teaching him ways to cope and make his life easier.
18 Jul 2008, 5:27 pm
