Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Hesitation

My son has trouble communicating, and so he has trouble telling us when he is mad, sleepy, sad, hungry, and many other things.

When he gets mad he will try to hurt you in any way possible. Some time he will hit, sometimes he will pinch, the worst one is when he bites.

He has bitten me on the shoulder before, I can't even remember why, but he drew blood, broke the skin and I still have a small mark in the shape of a tooth. He doesn't just try to bite me, on occasion he will go after the little guy, or rarely mom, but when he decides to go after you anything is free game.

This brings me to my point.

About a week and a half ago we all went to the store for stuff for dinner, salad stuff or something, I can't remember what now. Everything was good, as usual when I take the big guy to the store, until we were about to leave, that's when he gets mad. He wants to go to the toys, but we don't have the time or money for that, and on comes the meltdown.

So being the best dad I can be I offer to take him out to mom's car so he can have his meltdown in private, away from the unintelligent stares of the heard of wild and uneducated Wal-Mart hicks, who's first response would be "Tan his backside, it'll do'em som gud!!".

While I was walking out, holding him close to my chest in like a bear hug type thing, he was screaming, hitting me, trying to pinch me, and then his mouth found my cheek. Yup my son bit me in the face, and I was happy about it.

I know that sounds horrible, but keep reading, it's actually awesome.

My son had a good section of my cheek in between his teeth, and one good chomp would have created a hole in my cheek and probably would have let everyone see my teeth. That didn't happen though. He was mad, kicking and screaming, with my cheek in his mouth...... but I FELT him hesitate. He did bite me, but it was as if he understood that idea that if he were to chomp down with all his might he would have hurt me very very bad.

I was ecstatic, this is an abstract thought, or I think it is, where he put together an idea (biting me) with a possible outcome (a giant hole in my face) and decided against it. Usually his idea, as far as I see them, are only cause and effect, turn on a switch and the light comes on, open the fridge and food is inside. If the power is out he doesn't understand that turning on a switch will not make the light come on.

Now I don't have any other reason to believe he strung together the abstract thoughts like that other than the hesitation I felt in him when he bit my cheek, but I want to believe it is true because that open so many possibilities. He may start getting the idea that a kite won’t fly without wind, or that momma can't come home right now because she's still working, and this may very well help him to not get as angry about things. I don't know, but I can always hope.....

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