I find this hard to believe even as my fingers are typing it: I have less and less to blog about. Indeed, Martin has had remarkably good behavior for the past month or so. His communication has improved dramatically. His school routines make him a generally happy guy. It's not that we don't have our moments. Martin still fights us sometimes. He still experiences moments of communication difficulty. He still lines things up and repeats movie lines. But things have really settled down. Honestly, life as Martin's parent is not the gut-wrenching thing it was six months ago when we were in the midst of school trouble, tutor meltdown, and all-around Martin unhappiness.
Yesterday, Martin was saying lines from the first season of the Muppet Show. If you're ever interested in catching up on the stars of late 70s pop culture, rent this disk. You'll see episodes with Joel Grey, Rita Moreno, and Florence Henderson. You won't believe how hard you will laugh when a six-year-old calls out, "Let's welcome our special guest star, Mister Jim Neighbors!"
Martin is especially intrigued by a recurring sketch on the Muppet Show. The Muppets are ballroom dancing to cheesy orchestral music. A couple glides to the front of the stage to tell a funny joke. The laugh track sounds and then another couple moves forward. Martin replays these scenes with his animal figurines. He hums the cheesy music, moves an animal couple forward, tells a joke, simulates the laugh track, and then starts all over again. After awhile, he breaks off the scene and does the Muppet Show introductory song, complete with Gonzo attacking the O in "Show" with some sort of gong. It's awesome to behold.
I used to wonder if Martin had any chance at a "normal" life. I also wondered if we would ever have a "normal" parenting experience. I didn't want these things because I think normal is so awesome and something to aspire to. Rather, I just wanted life to be easier for all of us. Life seems to be getting easier. And it's nowhere near normal. I like that.
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Comments (4)
Once you get to a point where you can kinda relax and just be, life does get easier... Normal is overrated. People try way too hard to be like everybody else.
Time happens and you are now comfortable with your Normal
What's normal anyway? My normal is not your normal. I'm not even sure that what most people call normal is so desirable. Life doesn't have to be easy as long as it's not boring.
The Muppets were and remain the coolest show ever to air on TV!
It's too bad there's no current equivalent of the Muppets. My sons - now teens - used to watch the full DVD sets - and, every now and then, will catch a YouTube clip and turn around and watch the show again [they own the full series, between both houses].
Normal is overrated: I grew up in a "normal" environment for its day, and it Just Didn't Work.
I was the mom who showed up at parent-teacher conferences in blaze red hair with my electronics tools in cargo pockets [you never know when you will need them] and my research materials on alternative teaching methods in my arms.
Ours is the house that celebrates Breakfast Sundays with home-cooked breakfast and no electronics on for the first hour [except for either pop or rock or classical music in the background - depending on 'group mood'] - every Sunday.
When the teens were little and still potty-learning, I was the mom who made tiny, biodegradeable paper boats for the boys to sink. When company came over, I occasionally got funny looks.
Mine was the house that had ABC's and 123's on the living room wall, and labels like, "door", "window", "refrigerator", "sink" on the appropriate items in the house.
My then-nonverbal, four-year-old son was the boy who, during preschool aptitude test, wrote, "BOy sMArt" on a piece of paper with the chunky "easy-grip" crayon, using both hands to guide the crayon [it turns out he is left handed, but couldn't figure out the mechanics of writing - just knew what the letters looked and sounded like] and [angrily] handed it to the interviewer after said interviewer warned me that, "..he might not ever talk".
Mine are the kids who are maintaining a 3.0 average in mainstreamed high school.
Don't sweat "normal" - normal is highly overrated.