Seeing differences

I think one of the oddest things for parents of children on the spectrum who have typical children also, is seeing the difference.  Here is one difference I noted about 5 minutes ago.  My son after about 10 or 11 months had no real interest in toys or any attachment to them. 



My daughter is attached to her "baby" and needs to sleep with "purple puppy".  She cuddle her toys and plays with them appropriately.  My son on the other hand would have rather stacked cans and line up trains.  He once loved his "puppy"  loved it so much I paid $20 on eBay to get an identical one just in case.  Then one day, along with other skills, he lost his love for "puppy".  Puppy and his twin were packed away as he enjoyed lining his trains up much more then playing with anything else. 

Well, puppy has found a new home in a new crib.  On a happy note, the boy plays much more appropriately now.  though puppy has been passed along, he now sleeps with a much more grow up stuffed animal...."Dino" LoL

The Great "Animal Center"

As you may know my darling boy turned 3 on Wednesday.  Everyone always asks me what to get LP for holidays and birthdays, and people try to find things that I describe, but it doesn't always work.  Ah, but this year, Grandpa Joe had me on the phone while he was in Toys R us!

LP has been starting to use his imagination.....or at least I think he is, so toys such as a zoo are perfect!  He has never gotten super excited about a present before, he always kind of just ignored wrapped gift boxes.  So to my surprise, he screamed "oooo its a present!!!!!" when he saw the huge playmobil box wrapped in Elmo paper.  And then my heart proceeded to melt as he screamed "ITS AN ANIMAL CENTER!!!!!" (thanks Diego it's really a zoo).  See, my son has never gotten excited about a toy before, not like that.  He use to like getting trains, but it was only really a smile and then he would proceed to stare at the wheels.

This was the best birthday gift, and best birthday as a whole for LP in his 3 years of life.  I spent about an hour and change putting that zoo together, and when he woke up he played and played for 3 hours!  My only complaint is that after 3 hours he got tired of "animal center" and when he is tired of something and cant express his feelings, he throws it on the floor.  So with a loud crash, my heart sank at the idea of having to put that whole thing back together.  He got a 5 minute time out, i needed to cool off.  I've been cooled off for about 5 hours now, and the "animal center" is back together and we are playing nice so far.  I keep telling him Zebras don't live with Lions but, he insists they do.  SO cute!