Mutterings Of A Mindless Mommy

On a car ride home from an after-school activity tonight Alexander tells me, very nonchalantly, “I’m weird.”  Seeing this as a chance to learn more about what he’s thinking I very carefully approach the ‘conversation.’  He doesn’t have many true reciprocal conversations with me but if I can play my cards right, I can get some good information out of him.  So I casually asked “Who says that?”and he says “people”.  I said “what people” and he said “my friends, sometimes Brooke” (Brooke is the little girl that he punched in the eye the other day). 

 So I waited for a minute then asked “what do you do that is weird?”  He responded that she said he acts weird.  Okay, typical first grader “stuff.”  One more question “Is anyone else weird?”  He names off three other boys, one of which I am almost certain is on the spectrum as well based on what Alexander has told me about him.  I try to get more information but that is the end of the conversation for the time being.

As we get home and get in the house I ask him “do XXX and YYY also leave the classroom for part of the day?”  He said “yeah, we don’t see them after lunch, they go to the special dark room with ZZZ.”  Ah hah!  hehe  Alexander is not on an IEP, he is attending a school a few districts away and if he ends up on an IEP we lose our ability to attend the school.  If he *needs* an IEP we’ll do it but right now his teacher is fantastic and makes accommodations without needing anything in writing.  Whew. 

Alexander only knows of this room because ZZZ gets to pick classmates from his inclusion room to take to his special sensory room to play games, etc (I’m guessing this is a social skills activity).  Alexander told me all about it one day - he loved it because there weren’t bright lights that make buzzing noises hehe.

I love my “weird” Alexander but told him a better word would be unique and reminded him of a book we have - I Am Utterly Unique.