Muggy and hot on Sunday so—-after a morning of typing and working and Charlie getting up, piling his laptop and a blanket and a couple of old toys and his Leapster on the couch, with a layer of breakfast crumbs underneath, and dozing off so soundly that my vacuuming some of the crumbs didn’t wake him—we packed up the car and went to the beach. In the past, there’s no lifeguards after Labor Day but we’d learned there would be some at certain beaches, so to one of those we went.
Also in the past, we have been hesitant to go …read more

And so, on the final night of summer vacation 2008, what did Charlie say but…..
“No school.”
Yes, having made it clear since school ended back in August that he’d rather be in school, the night before the big First Day, Charlie got opening day jitters.
I waved his lunchbox, packed with paper-wrapped chicken (courtesy of PoPo), rice, watermelon, a bagel, and a Capri Sun. “No lunchbox.” “The schoolbus is coming tomorrow,” Jim said cheerily. “No schoolbus.”
“Ok, no schoolbus,” we said. “No schoolbus,” said Charlie and “no school” (just to remind us). “Yeah, no school,” I said with a shrug. “No school,” Charlie …read more

Labor Day today and everyone seems to be talking “back to school.” I’ve been back to teaching at my college for a week and Jim starts this week. Charlie, however, doesn’t go back to school till next Monday, September the 8th. He perked up on saying “school tomorrow!” yesterday night—I hated to tell him, “one more week.” So if I’m still in sort of vacation mode here for another week, believe me, we’re all just waiting to see the yellow schoolbus pull up next Monday morning.
The reason (or the reason we’re being told) that school is starting late for …read more

Since coming home from the beach on Saturday, Charlie’s seemed more in need of deep pressure, especially on his hands and feet. He’s been twisting his hands into his shirt all summer, and he’s now also burrowing his feet deep within the couch cushions (it’s a soft, blue, quite beat u couch). At night, as ever, he sort of self-swaddles himself all the way down to his feet in his fleece blanket.
He wasn’t doing as much of the hand and feet wrapping while were on vacation and last night it occurred to me that, when we’re at the beach, so …read more

Sitting here in my office with one student after another coming in and out the door to try to change their schedules for fall classes and remembering that just last week was Charlie’s surfing lesson, I was pretty pleased to note this film about Clay Marzo, a 19-year-old surfer who has Asperger’s Syndrome. Today’s Star Bulletin has a few more details and the trailer for Just Add Water is here.

I mean, what do you expect? We spend two whole weeks in a house with a lovely big open room one block from the ocean (and are able to piggyback on someone’s internet server so Charlie is able to discover the pleasures and perils of YouTube) and (after a very anxious start) fall into a fine routine of late morning and late afternoon ocean swims, punctuated by plenty of beach food (i.e., seafood and fries, though Charlie was not too interested in the latter—a first—but wanted sushi again and again; good thing it’s become a fixture at the Jersey shore …read more

Two weeks ago, we went back to the beach house. At first Charlie was not happy to be there. But the third day was the charm and we had some interesting meetings. Charlie discovered YouTube and its cache of Barney videos (especially the really old ones, which he seems to prefer). He got very upset after a fun visit with friends. He swam worthy of an Olympian. He worked on the concept of “swimming flag to flag” and ate his share of ketchup. He had a super surfing lesson.
And on the last day, we (i.e., Jim and Charlie) went kayaking …read more

Last year Charlie had his first surfing lesson. He swam out into the ocean with a 9-foot-surfboard attached to his ankle and was able, after coaxing, to get into a kneeling position, hands grasping the sides of the board. What I remember most from that first lesson was not the long, lazy rides he had after the surfing teacher gave him a good push and Charlie rode the board in like a boat. It was the way Charlie and the surfing teacher, automatically ducked under each wave almost at the same moment, and how Charlie was completely nonchalant about …read more

Besides watching Charlie pick up his red boogie board and walk out into the waves, lie down on it and turn around to catch a wave—last year he hadn’t quite gotten the knack of this—-and the general benefits of being at the beach (and I say this as a person who, until knowing Jim, had zero desire to swim in the ocean), a “side benefit” of vacationing herer is that it makes it possible for us to be social and, in particular, to do something that we rarely/never do at home: Entertain guests.
Tuesday friends came with their son who’s Charlie’s …read more

We tried a new Mexican restaurant Saturday night. Charlie was initially game to try the rice and beans and licked up some guacamole, then put his hands over his ears (classic rock soundtrack playing) and moaned. I finished up my burrito and took him back to the black car, which is so much a comforting space. He was hunched over, but calmed.
Charlie loves to be in motion (hence, his love of the ocean’s waves) and so we’re often at home in the road, in the car. Maybe we’re not exactly living out of a motor home, but sometimes the …read more