The Po Show

Let's See If I Can Be Coherent

Here's a fun game: let's see if I can write a few paragraphs and make any sense whatsoever! It'll be fun, and challenging, too, since my head is spinning rather violently, making it difficult for the words to find their way out. I don't know what's wrong with me; I thought on Monday that I had the flu again, but now it's just a lot of chest congestion and extreme dizziness.

Anyway, been gone awhile (I just spelled that "hone awhile" three times in a row; hmm, this might be harder than I thought). We had a lovely February break together, and I actually mean that. I still have not gotten used to the concept of February break, though this was our fifth one, but in a way it's nice to come back from the holidays, have 6 weeks of school, then have a break, then 6 more weeks of school before Spring break.

Yesterday I went to Matthew's school and met with his therapist for our weekly session. Matthew used to see her on Wednesdays, but she has changed that to Mondays, which I like much better since she sees him before she sees me on Tuesdays, so I can get debriefed on anything interesting that transpires during their sessions.

Naturally she had wanted to hear about how his break went, and he did tell her about a few things we did during the vacation. But then he launched into a very detailed recounting of the story line of the newest DS game he's been playing, Dragon Quest V (a remake for the DS of an older game that had been produced years ago for a different platform). She was utterly amazed at how in-depth his description was, how well he remembered all the characters and scenes and how he thoroughly he analyzed the levels of strategy required for different sections of the game. And how involved he was in the characters, and particularly in the decisions the main character had to make in choosing a wife. See, the game is called Dragon Quest V, Hand of the Heavenly Bride, and Matthew really was emotionally invested in how the hero would choose a wife from three choices (or "options" as he put it, which was kind of funny).

This led to Pat and I talking about Matthew's obvious developmental progress. He's grown like three inches since summer, and he's just big, broad-shouldered and long-legged and his feet are huge. He's spending a lot of time in his room with the door closed, playing his DS or reading, and when he comes out it's pretty clear what else he's been doing. I can say "I'm so not ready for this" all I want, but it appears that my level of readiness doesn't really matter here. Pat said that he's talked a bit about Lydia, one of the two girls in his class, and that he seemed wistful in telling Pat that it was "obvious" that Lydia liked Liam, another boy in class, since they spent a lot of time together. Lydia's as tall as Matthew, and has actual breasts, not just buds, and is funky and fun-looking (Pat told me she dyed her hair crimson over the break, and she's naturally a blonde). It's so interesting to me to hear (second-hand anyway) Matthew talking about who likes whom and so forth, like other kids. I love that he cares, that his world has opened up more and he recognizes these things. It's so....normal.

I've already ordered him a book from Amazon, the AMA's book for boys "becoming a teen." It's so complex for everyone, navigating puberty, but I can't imagine how bewildering the whole process will be for my Aspie boy. He's such a mass of contradictory impulses, so mature at times and so like a five year old at others.

I guess incoherence doesn't just happen when you catch a virus, but is a part of the human condition.