Days 5 and 6

Yesterday I went to “family time” from 10:00am – 11:00am at Camp Harbor Haven. Hayes and his fellow campers (8 or so boys his age) went from calisthenics to baseball to

drama, with about 12 eager family members in tow. I take that back. There was one Dad that stood off to the side and back a little, who mainly smirked and twirled his whistle key chain while the rest of us clapped and cheered. Normally I would hate a smirking, sneering Dad, but I think there was pain behind the twirling and smirking.

The main cheerleader was Hayes. Hayes didn’t care a whit about calisthenics, baseball, or drama. He was only interested in garnering a positive reaction from the crowd. (i.e. raising his bat to hit the ball off the tee, he looked at us and screamed, “SAY CONGRATULATIONS”. Like a bunch of parrots, we immediately did… and he was hooked. I really don’t blame him; I made a career out of that for 20 years.) He then refused to participate unless we all clapped or congratulated him or agreed when he screamed, “THAT’s AMAZING!!!!” whenever he or one of his cohorts, ran, batted, touched toes, or said lines from The Three Little Pigs.

I am eager to go back next Friday and see if he is more interested in the actual activities.

Maybe this is why campers are supposed to go for a minimum of three weeks. Miss Robin mentioned that he has had a week of “adjusting”, and that he is “impulsive” and needs constant physical reinforcement, as he has trouble responding to verbal instructions. That made me sad, as I secretly expected to hear that he almost didn’t need this darned camp, because he’s so very on the verge of not having this stupid ailment at all. If I had had a whistle key chain at that moment, I probably would have joined the twirling Dad in the “I really don’t want to be here or deal with this or accept that this is as good as camp might get for my kid” section. What I saw was that at this camp for kids with “high functioning autism”, Hayes fit in well. Hayes has “high-functioning autism”. Hayes: “SAY CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!”

He loved Didi coming to get him from camp and screamed , “Are you going to give me a BIG PUSH???”(on the monkey swing) when he got in the car. He also pulled out his “Snake with As and Cs”, and said, “The Little Einsteins are going to love it!!” (They are a cartoon). He then took note of Didi’s braces for the first time, and immediately stuck his finger on her front teeth to examine them more closely.

“You’ve got BRACELETS on your TEETH!!!!!” He’s been examining them all day today, Saturday, as well, and I heard him sigh with concern tonight after the last examination and say, “Didi, you really need to see a dentist”. He also engaged in a bit of polling with his big cousin: “Didi, who do you want to take in Aunt Sibley’s Volvo?”

He has added Parker to his “God Bless” list. Parker is a cool dude that his cousin Jack hangs out with, and Parker has a cast from a lacrosse injury. Hayes has given this cast a thorough examination as well, sticking his finger up inside the cast, demanding it be taken off so he could see the boo boo, and screaming, “OUCH, THAT HURTS!!!!” whenever he sees Parker.

I am happy to report that Hayes is finally eating, and I’m sorry to report that I’ve given in to French fries and pizza in order to get him to do so. He is a typically sneaky kid, refusing his favorite brand of breakfast cereal the first four days…and then putting away two giant bowls of it when I finally placed some on the coffee table where he was watching t.v.

He also cracks me up when he tries to manipulate me. “I’m hungry. You go cook” means he wants me OUT of the living room so he can lick the remote control or poke the t.v. screen or something, and “I need to poop alone upstairs” as he runs upstairs means he wants to turn my bedroom t.v. back on for covert viewing.

Hayes has had visits from Baby Elizabeth (Jack and Didi’s 1 yr. old half-sister) and her mom, Andie, and Julie. And before I played tennis, I took him to Super Cuts for a haircut. He was a little nervous, but agreed to a “tiny cut, no buzzing”. The stylists let him come over for a thorough examination of their stations (a la Parker’s cast), and he pointed to the bald gentleman in his 60s in the chair and said, “That big boy already got his buzz!”

Other than 20 minutes in the park this afternoon, Hayes just stayed inside and watched (too much) t.v. It was at least 100 degrees, and I had to play in a tennis match for 2 ½ hrs. I came home all hot and sweaty and red, and I went on and on to Hayes about how close we were to winning, how hot it was, how tired I was. He sat back and said, “Well, Jeje. What do you think about that?”

Because of said sweating and tennis playing, I fell asleep putting him to bed. When I woke up the first time, he was looking at himself in a little purple mirror saying, “Yes, sweetie. I had a very busy day. How about you?” And the second time (at least one of us was cooperating) he was over looking at himself in my make-up mirror, saying “Wonder Pets, Wonder Pets, we have a mission. And we can all do it together!”

Yes, Hayzie, we can!