Gavin has lost his first tooth. It has been a harrowing experience for him. When he first showed me that his tooth was loose, he was very worried about it. So concerned, in fact, that his eyes filled up with tears at the thought of not having that particular tooth in his mouth anymore. I reassured him that he would get another, bigger better tooth in its place that would last for the rest of his life, as long as he brushes it before bed every night. He still sat there, wiggling his tooth with his finger, quietly fretting and ruminating on what I had told him. Finally he said, his voice cracking with despair, "But if I never get a new tooth, I will be a silly adult!"
To lose a piece of yourself, I guess, is a little scary. I guess that's why someone came up with the idea of the tooth fairy? She's a great diversion from the trauma of the extraction, but for Gavin that idea only added to his anxiety. When we put him to bed that night, he couldn't shut his eyes. He said he was worried about the Tooth Fairy, how she would get in, what she would look like, etc. I stayed in the room on the bottom bunk that night with Garrett, listening to Gavin toss and turn anxiously above us, constantly checking under his pillow to make sure the tooth was still there, until he finally fell asleep.
At some point in the night the tooth fairy did slink into the room and do her duty. She was so quiet even I missed her appearance. In the morning, I was already up and sitting at my computer when Gavin came out with an unsettled look on his face. He paced back and forth in the office in front of me, as he normally does when he has a deep thought. Finally I asked him "Did the Tooth Fairy come last night?" He looked in the direction of his bedroom and nodded, his tongue feeling the blank space on the front of his grill. "Did she take your tooth?" "Yes," he stated with tear filled brown eyes. I hugged him and asked "Well, did she leave anything else under your pillow?" "Two things," he whispered. "I didn't touch them." I went into his room and retrieved the objects: A shiny 50 cent piece and a little pink thank you note. I handed them to Gavin and he held them cautiously. Eventually he sat on the couch and read the note, which praised him on the excellent condition of the outgoing tooth, and reminded him that soon he would have a new one to care for. After studying the note and the coin for a while, he simply commented that he "Never saw a penny this big before" and plunked it in his piggy bank, and that was that. Losing a tooth is not as bad as it seems, I guess.
I can't believe our first little Snugfits model is about to turn four! He still seems like a baby to me, maybe because I see him on our website everyday modeling some funny onesie or another on his chubby little baby body. He still has that thick marshmallow look to him, but now he's a taller marshmallow.
He's been riding Gavin's bike lately, much to Gavin's dismay, instead of the bigwheel. They fight over it constantly. Now I know where the phrase "Knock down, drag out" came from: Somebody somewhere had a 6 and a 4 year old brawling over a bike. The helmets and kneepads are employed more as combat armor than bike crashes.
The new thing is to hook up the baby trailer behind the little bike and pull Bodie around the circle, like a little rickshaw. It's a riot! Bodie loves it, but needless to say, Gavin and Garrett don't do well at taking turns on the bike. Sara and I decided it's time for Garrett to have his own two wheeler.
Gavin and I made a special trip to pick out a bike for Garrett. First to Target (they always get first dibs on my dollars, before the cash gets inevitably sucked into the supermassive black hole across the street with initials WM). Gavin was extremely overstimulated with the excitement of the bike hunt. He was stimming around my red cart, hopping and skipping, staring at the lights on the ceiling then at the floor, bumping into Target patrons on occasion. I'm used to apologizing for him, since usually he's completely unaware of others when he's in that state. We finally made it to the bike rack at the back of the store. A quick scan of the bikes concluded that I indeed would have to feed more money to the juggernaut across the street. Target has squat for kids bikes. Oh, but Gavin had several picked out within the first 45 seconds. Unfortunately, Garrett would need stilts under his feet to reach the pedals.
Out the door we went to the world's largest employer, where we were greeted with a smile and an odd look as Gavin's excited stimmy dancing and humming around me was reaching an uncontrollable crescendo. We found the perfect bike right off the bat. It's a bright green bmx style Hotwheels edition - complete with training wheels already installed and a sweet hand throttle that makes a revving up noise when you twist the handle! Garrett's going to go berserk when he sees this tricked out ride!
We're going to make him search the house and yard for the bike on his birthday. It's so much fun - I make little clues for him and he has to figure out each clue to get to the next one, the excitement building with every step. The clues say things like "Your next clue is on the trunk of our biggest tree…" It'll be a riot. Now I just have to figure out where to hide this bright green bike...
During the process of getting all the photography done with Bodie modeling the new Snugfits colors, Gavin has become intrigued by cameras. He's just thrilled by the idea of capturing an image and keeping it, going back to it and looking at it again and again. He and Garrett got their own little kid digital cameras back at Christmastime, but right now the interest is really booming. I think he's seeing the practical use of the camera, as he "sits in" on Bodie's photo sessions. To be honest, Gavin can't just sit in on anything. He has to be smack dab in the middle of the action, so he gets his little Mickey Mouse camera and starts snapping away! He actually helps the process because Bodie is distracted by him, and Gavin can always make the baby laugh.
The camera is great. It's the red Disney one sold at Target for $56, not the "Discovery Kids" camera sold at Kohls. We bought that one first because it was on sale for $26, from $80. We thought surely it must function a lot better than the less expensive Disney camera, but it was terrible! The screen was so blurry you literally couldn't tell where the camera was aimed other than color and shape. It didn't have an automatic shut-off, so it went through batteries like Garrett goes through a box of Dunkin Donuts. That camera was a real piece! The kids were pretty bummed.
These Disney cameras, however, are incredible. Most importantly to me, they don't drain batteries on a daily basis. The pictures are mostly well focused, and the kids can even add graphics to them! They really get a kick out of taking my picture then adding honeybees buzzing all around my head. They're pretty durable too. Bodie has proven that, as he treats most objects he gets his hands on as either a hammer or a projectile. At least he hasn't tested the camera's buoyancy yet. (Knock on wood)
Scrolling back through the shots on Gavin's camera is hilarious. He's got about 30 pictures of various street signs and traffic lights, lots of different colored Jeeps, tons of his brothers, another couple dozen shots of his favorite t.v. show, Peppa Pig, and then a few of Sara and me working around the house. I notice that I look angry a lot. I need to be more camera wary, and less "scowly". There's one random shot in there of a huge "number two" floating in the toilet. He must've been pretty proud of that one, nice tapered ends and all. Its a shocking and repulsive image, but to him its something to take pride in, I suppose! Being potty trained is still a big achievement in this house, and something to be commemorated!
Yesterday there was a bulldozer clearing a lot near our home, very loud and violent work. It was a huge machine, mowing down 30 foot trees and pushing them into a gigantic pile by the street. Gavin (of course) wanted to get a snapshot of it, so we walked up the street to see it. As we neared, Gavin became more and more nervous, covering his ears and grinding his teeth. "DADDYDADDYDADDY" he kept repeating, and I knew he was really thinking about turning his tail and bolting back to our house. But he didn't. We found a good vantage point at the edge of the street, Gavin uncovered his ears, raised the camera, and took one quick shot. Then he turned his tail and ran back home. I was pretty proud of him for that act of bravery! Overcoming autism is all about pushing the limits as much as possible.
This blog post has sort of turned into an unsolicited review/endorsement for the Disney cameras. They really do work well, and because of that Gavin's new passion for photography is starting to flourish. It's like a unique little window into his brain. He's a kid with autism, and he's pretty quirky, and sometimes a real challenge to keep up with. This camera has been an exciting, creative outlet for him to show us the world through his eyes.
