The Easter Bunny Hunt---A Story In Pictures

The quest begins.

 Those of you who have read this blog much mostly know we don't give Janey chocolate, because when we do, especially after noon, she doesn't sleep.  At all.  Whether it makes sense or not, it happens, and it's why I don't discount anyone's food issues or theories.  It doesn't seem like just a little chocolate could have that big an effect, but still, it does.  However, we make one exception.  There is nothing on earth Janey likes more than a chocolate bunny.  She often asks for them at random times, like the middle of the night in the middle of the summer.  So, for Easter, she gets a bunny.  We usually get it on Easter day, not to have it around the house ahead of times for her to find and eat at the wrong time.

Empty Rite-Aid bunny rack!

We set out this morning to get her the bunny.  The first place we went was the Rite-Aid.  It's where we get prescriptions, so we are there a lot.  The pharmacist said a big hi to Janey, and she smiled at him.  But...no bunnies!  The Easter area was completely empty of any chocolate rabbits.

Picking out salami

So we moved on, to the grocery store.  Janey and Tony often shop there together.  We picked up a few other things we need before we looked for bunnies.  High on the list, as always, was salami, Janey's hands-down favorite food.  Janey picked out some with Tony in the main salami area, and then ran off to a nearby auxiliary salami area to get another kind she wanted.  After we'd loaded up on salami, we got a few other things, and saw a worker who is always so sweet to Janey, and told her Happy Easter.  She has a grandson with autism, and it's always fun to have her talk to us.

Auxiliary Salami Area

Finally, we went to look for bunnies at the grocery store, but again, no bunnies at all!  It was like there was some huge run on bunnies!   Janey saw some Easter cakes that looked interesting near the cashier, but we resisted them.

No bunnies at the grocery store either!

Some interesting cakes

Salami choosing

 We went to the quickest line, and missed going to the line of a cashier who is yet another Janey fan, but we waved to her, and Janey gave her a smile.  Out by the car, Janey picked which salami to first try. 

We continued our quest at the Walgreens, and there, finally, we hit pay dirt.  We found bunnies!  Janey picked out the one she wanted---not the biggest one, but a smaller sweet little guy.  The cashier there didn't know Janey, but was so sweet to her, talking while realizing she probably wasn't getting a response.  She asked Janey to give her a high five, and Janey did.

The whole quest made me happy.  In our little part of Boston, where Tony has lived all his life, where Janey has lived since birth, we feel included.  Janey is part of the community.  She is valued and treated with kindness and respect.  What more could we ask?  Happy Easter to all of you who celebrate it, Happy Passover to those who celebrate it, and Happy Day to everyone!

Finally, bunnies!

Bunny time!

Delight and the Chocolate Bunny/Happy Meal trip

Janey came home from school with one thought in her head "I need a chocolate bunny".  It's the season for bunnies, and Janey is a huge fan.  So, since the weather is finally better and it's not impossible to drive, I decided to surprise her with a "yes", and we jumped in the car for the short ride to the "bunny store" (the Rite-Aid)  On getting back from that little trip, I thought about all the ways Janey had delighted me in that brief time, all the things she had done that make me love her so much.  Let me count the ways...

1.  The love of chocolate bunnies (and Kipper and jumping and bacon and Auntie Carrie and the Beatles and chocolate milk and so many things).  Janey loves the things she loves with a passion.

2.  Her amazing memory.  On the way to the bunny store, Janey sang a song I'd sung her a few months ago, one I'd made up on the fly "Janey wants a chocolate bunny, but MAMA SAID NO!"  I resang it to her with "yes" instead of "no", but she sang back the classic version again.

3.  Her willingness to change plans.  About half way to the store, suddenly her need for a bunny was overtaken by her need for a Happy Meal.  The two are in the same direction, and I guess she realized she actually had a taste for nuggets and fries.  I said that meant we weren't going to get a bunny, and she was fine with that.

4.  Her ability to surprise me all the time.  After getting the meal, Janey again broke into song, this time with "Paperback Writer", from her current Beatlemania.  I never know what she's going to sing next, and I love that.

5.  Her enthusiasm for life.  As we walked in with the meal, she was literally dancing around with excitement.  I love it that something as small as a fast food meal can make her that happy.

6.  The times she shows her typical preteen nature.  This morning, as every day this week, we had to wake her up for school in the morning, due to the time change.  She was not pleased, and gave us that look that says "I wish you were both out of my life" and pulled the covers back over her with defiance.  These times aren't autism meltdowns, they are just Janey showing she is pretty much like any kid who hates being woken up.

Life with Janey isn't easy, much of the time.  But it's always surprising.  It's always full of life.  It's always interesting.  She's a pretty cool person.  We've learned, now that we are on our third child, that children are who they are.  This is independent of autism, or of IQ, or of parenting.  They are born to be who they are.  Janey has traits that we are starting to see more and more which are just Janey.  Some of them are frustrating traits.  She's stubborn, she has a quick temper, she is easily bored.  But all of her traits, the ones that we delight in and the ones that can drive us crazy, are part of her.  Not part of autism---autism doesn't change her personality.  It changes how she can express it, it changes how she interacts with the world, it changes her past and present and future plans and possibilities, but it doesn't change who she is.  And who she is is pretty cool.

Gearing up for Easter candy

For some reason, Easter seems to be Janey's favorite holiday. It's funny because I do very little for it---the Easter Bunny doesn't visit, we no longer go to church, I don't make much of a deal of it at all. The real draw for her is the chocolate bunnies. They are showing up in stores around now, and she craves one at all times (including the parts of the year where they are no-where to be found!) Today she also was asking for candy eggs. I think Easter seems like a holiday she can understand (from a secular point of view of course), involving lots of bunnies, chicks, candy and treats. It's a part of parenting I really enjoy---seeing how my kids pick their own interests and obsessions. It keeps life interesting.