2. The Players

In my last post I wrote a short dictionary of acronyms and words we use daily in our house.  None of that means anything if there aren't any characters to apply them to.  Of course, by "characters" I mean my family.  So let's set up the scene and the players.

Stormtrooper

First I will start with Stormtrooper.  That's my husband under there.  He is the moneymaker for our family.  A geek. A good guy.  If he's not looking up or building Star Wars costumes or other cosplay, he is looking up or building something to do with cars.  He is honest ... maybe to a fault, but he makes me laugh.  We dated once and he broke up with me, and then realized his terrible mistake several years later, and now we're married.  No really, though, that's the truth.

J

J is the ASD boy.  He was diagnosed when he was seven, in April 2012.  Now he's nine and in third grade.  He loves to build Legos, but only if he looks at the instructions.  He has no trouble with 3D puzzles and is an amazing artist (so long as he has a picture to look at for reference).  He is beginning to deal with his differences, but isn't ready to admit he's different at all.  He cannot tie his shoes, he cannot sit still, and he is so literal he often doesn't understand jokes.  I once videoed time talking about the times he wakes up in the morning ... he didn't change topic for 3 minutes 54 seconds.  

Little Iron Man

Iron Man is the Middle Child, except he's not.  He's also nine, though technically younger than J, but so far he is neurotypical - meaning he is not on the Autism Spectrum.  Does that mean he's normal?  Ha!  No way.  He loves trains, Legos, and Iron Man - especially Iron Man.  And he loves to sing and dance.  He doesn't understand anything about ASD, and we try our best to treat him and J as equally as possible.  Which is actually impossible somedays.  Ah, but we try.  

Tiny Baby

Tiny is tiny.  He's now a year old, and he wears 9 month clothes (some of which are a little big).  He is loud and such a troublemaker.  He doesn't sleep through the night and sometimes skips his nap, yet he is still the happiest baby around.  He is very proud of himself for walking on his own.  He really likes ceiling fans and anything with wheels.  Also, he is obsessed with Cheerios and jumping in his bed.  This is my husband's favorite picture of him. 

Slytherin Mama

Now me.  If my husband is in love with Star Wars, then I am in love with Harry Potter.  I'd like to say I would be a Ravenclaw because I'm clever or Gryffindor because I'm brave.  I'm certainly not nice enough for Hufflepuff, so I think I'd end up being in Slytherin.  I do have a sense of self-preservation, and I like to succeed.  I work two days a week at a coffee shop and I make cards/invitations/party favors on the side.  Sometimes logos or PDFs.  I never wanted to be anything other than some sort of artist.  I never thought I wanted to be a SAHM.  But I am and I do love it.  Babies are pretty cool, even if sometimes they smell.

So now we enter the scene, where we live our day-to-day lives.  Most if it takes place in a medium-sized town on the outskirts of a larger metropolitan area.  We don't have a shopping mall, but we have every store we could possibly need.  There is a lot of Southern charm down here, where the people send thank-you cards for gifts, and give baked goods in return for favors.  We do say "y'all" and "fixin'" and "bless you" even if you don't sneeze.  And while the charm and the manners and family traditions are nice, it sometimes isn't as forward-thinking and accepting of ASD as I would like.  But I'm beginning to realize that is the world at large, and not just a struggle down here.