The things we know...... and the things we don't

My friend Peg and I have often discussed just how fantastic it would be if we could just get inside our kid’s head for five minutes! That is all we wanted, 5 minutes…. 5 minutes just to see what is really going on in there.

We never really know, we may think we do, but we really, really don’t.

As much as I think I know my son like the back of my hand, there are still times when I realize I do not know anything at all.

For example, during his 3rd year of swimming with Special Olympics, his coach yelled over to me one day at practice “He just figured out he can open his eyes with the goggles on!” – At that point in time, he’d been wearing the goggles for practice twice a week and during competitions for as I said, 3 years. It never occurred to me or anyone else for that matter that he didn't know he could open his eyes while wearing them. I suppose, that knowing him as I think I do, it should have, but – no, it did not.

I am relatively sure he does not understand “death”. Other than Bambi’s mother and Old Yeller (who was quickly replaced at the end), none of his favorite Disney characters ever die, really. If they do – it doesn't last. Someone kisses them, or a spell is cast and there they are, good as new. I try to talk to him about death, due to my " dropping dead" obsession and because everyone dies eventually. I never want him to think I just left him, but I really can not say that he understands it at all.

DC seems to live in the present. Things change and he just changes with them. I had a conversation with my friend, Toni a while back. Her daughter can watch something like Full House and relate it to her own life – high school, college, get a job, buy a car, get married, and have children. DC watches but does not relate any of this to his own life. He went to high school because I sent him. He moved on to "college" because I sent him and so on. I tell him what to do and he does it. I have tried to have conversations with him about what he thinks should come next in his life, but these conversations just tend to go to “dinner” or whatever meal or activity may be coming up. His future is not a concept he can grasp. He lives in the present and doesn't seem to think about anything changing in his life, things just change and he just goes with it.

– (Speaking of Full House – Just for the record…. having that many people all living under the same roof, would just send me right over the edge for good – just saying ) –

So the other night DC was on a ‘picture drawing’ roll – Flowers for Mom, Hearts for Mom, Birthday Cake for Mom and then this…..

Needless to say I was a little bit thrown. DC’s Dad and I divorced when DC was 3. At the time, I didn't try to explain it to him, I was too busy trying to get him diagnosed. It didn't seem to faze him, he still saw his Dad every week and I was sure he would not understand any attempt I could make at explaining it to him. He never seemed to think anything of it. As marriage is something I never had or have any desire to do again, it is not something we ever talked about. Other than adding “Baby for Mom” to his Christmas list a few years ago, I never really had any indication that he might realize that things may be different here than at his friends’ homes. I am still not sure that he does. It has always been this way – it is what he is used to.

Most of his friends do have parents that are together and they also have brothers and sisters. But I still do not think he relates that to his own life. But again, every time I think I have him figured out he does something like presenting me with a drawing of a three layer wedding cake specifically for “Mom” and he has me guessing all over again.

That five minutes in his head, would come in very handy right now, but since I can’t have that, I am going to assume that he just really loves Wedding Cake and he just wants to share with his Mom………….