One of a kind...

As I walked to into the pediatrician's office holding the hand of my almost 11 year old son a thought struck me, "How many 11 year old kids do you see holding their Mom's hand?" Probably not many would be my guess, but not many kids are Drake. Drake has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of high-functioning Autism. Kids with Asperger's are unable to read social cues, have poor coordination, tend to focus heavily on one subject of interest and have a hard time making friends. I find myself cringing when people refer to kids with Asperger's as handicapped or having a disease, it isn't true. Asperger's kids are everyday kids, they just don't fit into stereotypes in anyway.
Drake has almost illegible handwriting. He knows what it says and when his teacher has questions, he has him read it to him. Drake is obsessed with Legos, Pokemon, and video games. Drake carries a book with him most places (at the moment it is the Ultimate Guide to Pokemon) and reads them till they are dog-eared. Drake insists upon wearing few colors, they would be black, brown, gray, orange, green, or blue. He has plaid pants (see picture) that he wears so much that he has literally worn holes into the backs of them! Drake lacks coordination, falls down a lot, walks with a funny gait (on the balls of his feet with a bounce), and runs with his arms flailing behind him like a cape. Drake loves baseball, he thinks its really fun, but we haven't been able to teach him to hit the ball or catch it because he refuses to participate, unless it was his idea of course!
We took all the kids, their bikes, and the baseball gear with us to the park a couple of weekends ago. This particular park has a lot of open grassy space and a long winding bike path. The kids were riding around the path and I was helping Seth with his bike when Lee brought the ball and gloves and bats out of the car. Adree ran over and wanted to catch the fly balls Lee was hitting. They did that for a while and I went over to join them. A few minutes later Adree was hitting the ball and I hear Drake come over and tell Lee, "I want to hit the ball!" Lee patiently set Drake up with the bat taught him to stand and square up with his shoulders and preceded to coach him into hitting the ball as it went past. Drake hit it! Several times in fact! Drake was beaming, he hit the ball and ran around the plates and was so excited to get to play baseball which is his favorite.=0)
Drake was very upset earlier this weekend, his bed had broken a slat and I took his mattress and put it on the floor to sleep on until we got it fixed. It was okay that night, but they didn't have school this Friday and the kids stayed home with me. I picked up Drake's mattress off the floor and had them clean their room because it looked like a tornado had gone through it. Drake likes to have his own little space, somewhere he can sit and be quiet and play in his own little world. This little place happens to be his bed. He reads on his bed, he plays Legos on his bed, I fish Legos out of it every night before bed. He was very upset that he couldn't spend his time there. Kids with Asperger's like consistency and have a really hard time not doing the same things everyday. Lee and I went to Home Depot later that day and rounded up some plywood to remedy his bed once and for all, so we didn't have this happen again. He was happy to have his own little space back.
I spend more time explaining to other people about Drake, than actually dealing with him myself. Drake having Asperger's only explains his behavior to everyone else, it doesn't change a thing to me. Drake, my one-of-a-kind great kid who marches to the beat of a different drummer...=0)