group home 3.24.2009

first night

Behind the Wheel

Interesting thing (must get lefty to weigh in on this).

Normally, Jimmy chants all the time.

He's chanting right now, in fact. Did you pour? Did you pour? You're not playing with the hose. You're not playing with the hose. Want that. Want that. You started cry. You started cry. You're not playing with the hose. You're not playing with the hose. Later. Later.

You're not playing with the hose is an Andrew thing. Andrew likes to play with the hose, which he calls water rope on his Neo; when it's 20 degrees outside Ed likes Andrew not to play with the hose. Hence: you're not playing with the hose.

Point is: the chanting is constant.

Driving home from White Plains this afternoon, though, listening to Behind the Wheel's native speakers banging on about I would like to get a job with more vacations but I can't now and I am sitting down on the floor in front of my television set, I realized Jimmy had fallen silent. When I looked over at him I saw that he'd closed his eyes & seemed to be listening, a small smile on his face.

Now I'm thinking of getting a Pimsleur CD (a secret of the FBI and the CIA for years!) to send along to the new home, maybe.

And I'm trying to think whether he chants when he's watching TV.

Jimmy

group home, part 2

Jimmy is moving to a group home on Monday, and I am so sad.

Christian and C. keep saying, "It's like going to college."

Sort of, I say.

It's like going to college except he's 21 and it's a group home.

Not that shipping C. off to college is going to be any better. Last summer my brother's eldest was leaving for college and his parents were awfully stressed. They're both solid Midwestern types, so they weren't saying they were stressed; it was just there, hanging over us. I felt majorly stressed on their behalf, for pete's sake.

At one point I said to my brother, "Well, at least you have two more kids at home," and he said, "Oh, great. I can just keep going through wave after wave of this."

If you knew my brother, you'd understand just how horrifying an image that is: this big, solid, kind Midwestern guy -- a rock -- talking about waves upon waves.

Maybe I'll keep Andrew with me for all time.


group home

group home

We just left Jimmy at the group home he may be moving to.

When I left, he gave me his sweetest smile.

I wish I had a picture.


education & mortality (& being the parent of an autistic child)