Significance

In the lives of children, you never know what will end up being significant. If you think long and hard, that kind of pressure is worse than any high-tension job. Most days as a parent, I don't give the day-to-day stuff that kind of thought. Some history, and then a story about Max.

For some reason unknown to me still, Valentine's Day was my father's holiday. Though I n'er recall the words, "I love you," leaving his lips in my direction, I think he used Valentine's Day as his big day to show it. He would always come home with something. A bear full of cinnamon red hots, a mug filled with conversation hearts, and the like. I am not sure he knew of the significance of this act, but it impacted me greatly. I appreciate having that type of memory, especially in the middle of February. I haven't had a Valentine from him in a few decades, but I don't need one. The memories from my younger days are etched in my mind.

Needless to say, I like to surround myself with the candies of the day. Necco Conversation Hearts are my FAVORITE. Who new reading could be so tasty? Oh, OK, so I don't always read them, but usually I do.

On his way out of day care one evening, Max spied some of these tasty little delicacies on the counter. The one he picked said, "Cutie Pie," which is SOOOOOOoooo fitting for my little guy. Well, Mr. Autism repeated the words "cutie pie" all night that night as he proudly carried around his conversation heart. Now, when referring to them, he calls them, "cutie pies."

So, being the overzealous freak that I can be sometimes, I bought a huge bag of them at Target. The bags aren't the most sturdy, and hundreds of conversation hearts threatened to tumble all over our basement floor as we watched the DVR of American Idol together. I kept saying to Max, "be careful, we don't want them to spill." Suddenly, he left the room. I thought I bored him. :) A few second later her returns with a gallon-size Zip Loc bag to which he transfers all of the hearts. I was so proud of him. My little guy, whose expressive language skills are echolalic and delayed, ROCKS with his receptive language and his problem solving skills. It was a little gift from God. Actually, that moment was a big gift from God. When we started intervention a little over a year ago, he would not respond to his name. This was a milestone. It's also something that I may have considered insignificant if I had a "typical" child. I know i didn't celebrate things like that when Ignatius was younger. I had no idea all I had taken for granted.