Hearing Protection

Holidays used to be a reminder that we are different.

Days and hours of preparation go into the gifts, food, travel, and goodies for most, but for us, it's also days and hours of preparation for success.  It's reminding that great grandmas love extra hugs as much as Lego building.  It's insistent conversation about expected behavior.  It's making checklists of a change in routine.  It's providing coping for late nights and early mornings.  It's remembering to bring chewies, his heavy blanket, and paper to make comics. It's telling people no, he can't have that chocolate or he will be dancing on your table or screaming on the floor - believe me, you don't want him to have that chocolate.  It's intervening to help facilitate a conversation so we aren't stuck on Star Wars. It's calendar tracking and repeating the plan, verifying the plan, repeating the plan, double checking the plan, and repeating the plan again, again, and again.   It's remembering to bring hearing protection so the loud noises don't bother you. It's being grateful that auntie knows you well and remembered to pull the hearing protection since your mama can't remember everything. It's seeing you light up a room with your humor and joy.  

This year, until reflecting on these past few weeks of holiday madness (and stumbling upon the picture below), I forgot that we were different.  Our different, our quirks, our needs are just a part of it all - we roll with it  and so do the ones who love us most.

We've adjusted to our own normal and none of us would change one bit of the quirky life we've built together.

Pictured:  NYE poppers and hearing protection.