The Grinch

We had a nice moment this morning. Janey found our copy of The Grinch That Stole Christmas, and sat and listened to the whole thing while I read it. It had a lot of rhymes, which helped. I love the story and she seemed to love it too, and the pictures. She looked it over for a long time after we read, and was especially interested in the ladder the Grinch took to get up on housetops. Times like that are so wonderful. I feel like I am doing what I am supposed to be doing for a minute. Of course, every time I do something like that, a million other things go undone. My 10 year old wants to talk about books. The dishes are a fright. There is laundry in the cellar sitting around unfolded. I am not dressed yet. I need to pack things I have sold on ebay. Now while I write, Janey is finding things to draw on. I am not researching ABA. I am not working on a list of questions for my doctor. I am not thinking about what to do next, or preparing for Janey's IEP meeting next week. I am just enjoying her. It should be fine to do, but in this world of autism, I don't think it is.


Note from many years later, in 2016, Janey being 12 now!  The Grinch That Stole Christmas is still almost the only book Janey will listen to in full.  It's funny how things like this often don't change.  I remember how thrilled I was that she listened to it and looked and the pictures, and how I thought that was the start of a reading life for the two of us.  Instead, it was just that that particular book is the one book she really likes.