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Archive for the ‘singing’ Category

making a liar out of me

Posted in autism, behavior, singing, singing, Uncategorized, tagged , on June 5, 2011| 4 Comments »

My cousin D, her manpiece R, and I all took Jonah for a while late this afternoon – and Jonah was 90% fine.  I mean to tell you he was play-on-the-playground, leave-the-other-children-alone, sing-and-smile, cute-chattery fine.

Jonah’s made a liar out of me, especially since R’s seen Jonah only three or four times now and Jonah’s been pretty calm every time, directly contradicting almost everything I write here.  I’m more than happy to be this kind of liar.

I love happy Jonah.  I adore when he is gleeful and silly and playful, even though it’s rare and impossible to predict.  I’m grateful for today’s glimpse of the boy I know is in there – our sweet, beautiful boy.

Thanks, D & R.  You brought out the best in my day – and Jonah’s too.

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the deep songs

Posted in autism, singing, singing, tagged , on May 4, 2011| 5 Comments »

I don’t think you get to good writing unless you expose yourself and your feelings. Deep songs don’t come from the surface; they come from the deep down. The poetry and the songs that you are supposed to write, I believe are in your heart.   ~ Judy Collins

Music has always meant so much to me.  When I was pregnant with Jonah, I put headphones on my belly and played Mozart and Paul Simon and the The Beatles (I hadn’t discovered Guster yet) and all kinds of music, playing to him, speaking to him.  As soon as he was born I played music to him every day, and to put him to sleep at night.  He still cannot speak in anything but short phrases but he can sing entire songs.

Here he is, age 7, singing a Guster song called “Keep it Together.”

Now he demands Guster’s new album (Watch video #6!!!) when we’re in the car, requesting it by asking for Cranberry Guster, as I’ve said before.  I wonder why it’s Cranberry Guster to him.  My boy is such a wonder.

I have lots more to say, but only a moment more to type.  Guster is coming to town tonight and of course I am going – I’m so excited I wrote them an e-mail and also tweeted to them, inviting them to lunch. 

Boy, am I a geek or what?!  (rhetorical question)

Guster’s songs have ‘kept me together,’ and for that I am more thankful than they will ever know. 

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never be the kind with an ordinary life

Posted in autism, behavior, singing, tagged , , , , , , , on December 8, 2010| 1 Comment »

Happy boy is still with us – only a few attacks here and there, none of which I’ve witnessed, at least not in quite a few days now.  Maybe even a week.  We took Jonah to a new pediatrician on Monday – one who specializes in developmental disabilities and behavioral problems.  I loved him; he’s level-headed, kind, and intelligent.  If we want Jonah to have his second chicken pox shot or the flu shot we’ll have to go back, but we might opt out of both of them this year.

We’re putting the wheels in motion to go to Boston to see a pediatric rheumatologist (there aren’t any around here and the ones for adults won’t even see children, for some reason) because of Jonah’s uveitis and iritis, and the synovitis they found some time ago in his hip and jaw.  He may have pediatric arthritis, they’re thinking, so that’s our next big medical project to tackle.

Also on the Jonah horizon is a big meeting tomorrow with the school district officials – teachers from Wildwood will be there, and his caseworker from Catholic Charities, and of course Andy and me, and we’ll try to decide what’s the best course of action educationally and placement-wise for Jonah.  I know we have to at least investigate our options but now that he’s so much better I want to keep him home and at Wildwood School.  They say he’s participating more and yesterday he had no aggressions at school at all – granted it was a half day, but still…he came home with math sheets all completed (it still baffles me that the kid can solve math problems) and a hastily scribbled art project (he’s not the biggest fan of coloring, though he does love to carry markers and colored pencils around, & roll them on the table and floor).  He still falls asleep early but he sleeps well, and peacefully, and I am grateful for every day he is himself again.

I love to see him skip around…hear him happy, even loud, again – lately he has been singing and shouting out the “hear-ar-ar-ar-ah-art” part to Guster’s “This is How it Feels to Have a Broken Heart” (which, despite its title, is actually kind of a lively song).

“We’ve colored in the lines and followed all the signs
Fought a war till the war was over;
Said you’d never be the kind with an ordinary life…”

~ Guster

(You can say that again, guys)

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