Ok, so I went to this birthday party with my son... (Orignally posted on Sunday, July 15, 2007)

Ok, so I went to this birthday party with my son, yesterday, and let me first say that I didn't expect that little kids loved him sooooo much. My son goes to a Montessori School that is PreK3 - 8th grade. Next year he'll be in 1st grade in the K & 1st grade class, where he'll be the "mentor" to the K's in his class. ANYWAY, we got to the firestation(it's older and has been converted to a teaching center for little kids) and I begin to realize the my son is the oldest child there, but the 3, 4 and the few 5 year olds were all excited that he came. "(He)'s here! (he)'s here!" The birthday boy ran over and told my son,"I'm sooooo glad you came to my party."

The noise was a bit much for my son, at first, he covered his ears and did some minor "stimming" by shaking and wringing his hands (but nothing major and all a part of his Asperger's), but after 1 or 2 minutes this all stopped and he adjusted nicely (He's adjusting much quicker these days to unfamiliar situations). He was bored as first (all of the activities were geared toward 3 and 4 year olds), but when the fire truck got there he was ecstatic! He got to see a fireman in his full gear ("Mom he sounds like Darth Vadar with that mask on!"). Got to climb on the truck, see all the hoses, axes, airtanks, etc., AND because he was there and NOT scared of the fireman the younger kids would go up and meet the fireman in his gear.

It went something like this:

Mom/Dad, " Johnny/Susie you can go shake hands with the fireman"

Johnny/Susie, "No, he's scary looking"

Mom/Dad, "He's just in his work clothes...there's nothing to be scared of."

Johnny/Susie, "No!"

Meanwhile my son's already walked up, said hi, shaken hands, and given high 5's. He then says (and I'm not kidding), "Guys...they're cool! It's ok."

Massive flood of little kids onto the poor fireman, "(He)said they're ok Mom/Dad."

And the same thing happened with "Sparky the Fire Dog" (Think "McGruff the Crime Dog" and make him a dalmation)

The birthday boy's mom told me before we left that she worried that my son would be bored, because it was geared more towards the little kids, but the birthday boy had insisted saying that my son doesn't treat them like babies, and he HAD to be there. She also said that she was glad he came, because he got the others to not be soooo scared of the Fireman and "Sparky".

Anyway, I was proud of my little man and thought I'd share.

Ok, so I went to this birthday party with my son... (Orignally posted on Sunday, July 15, 2007)

http://andthisismypart.blogspot.com/2007/12/ok-so-i-went-to-this-birthday-party.html