I walk past N as he puts parmesan on his pasta in the kitchen, his head bent over. I can't resist. I kiss the back of his neck."Owie," he says.
"Owie?" I reply. "That didn't hurt."
"But it tickled," he says. "And so I said 'owie.' You can't argue with that."
"Um, yes, I can."
"No, you can't," he says with finality. "Owie's a strong and powerful word."
I'm not sure I know what that conversation meant, but I'm pretty sure it was profound.
4 comments:
Funny how true it is about sensory kids and light touch!
Anonymous, whoever you are...Oy. Can you believe I didn't even think of that? I mean, the sensory component...that a light kiss on the neck might feel like an owie to N?
Thank god for my readers, who are so much smarter than me!
Don't blame yourself for it not occurring to you immediately; it's a big change in perception. You don't know how many times I've said to Matthew, "Oh, come on, that was just a little bump!" when he fell or whatever, till I started to realize that stuff HURT him way out of proportion to the offending collision. So what seemed like drama or over-reacting was actually a genuine response. I still forget, esp. now that he's so big :(
P.S., love the picture :)
I'm a long-time reader of your blog (came to you through Hidden Laughter). My kid (also named N) has many of the issues your N does. Matter of fact, we recently arrived at a dx of developmental dyspraxia for our N. Have you ever looked at that for your N? I'll try to post more often if I can be of help to y'all (yep, I'm from the South).
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