First off, you’ll notice to the right of these words a blue “badge,” which, if you click on it, will show you a line up of all the blogs nominated for the “Top Autism Blogs for 2012.” To vote for Emma’s Hope Book, click on the “like” button. At the time of this writing Emma’s Hope Book was in the #4 position! Very exciting.
Below is the “story” Emma wrote yesterday morning in preparation for our much anticipated day.
I had to help Em with some of the words such as shower, Elite Gymnastics and she wanted to write – After lunch will go zoo – so I had to help her with that too, but otherwise Emma did most of this on her own. To recap, a year ago Emma had just finished learning how to form all the letters of the alphabet and we were in the initial phase of beginning to work on reading, writing and typing actual short words. She’s come a long way, baby!
As her writing stated, after lunch Emma and I went to the zoo. ”Just Mommy and me, together,” Emma reiterated several times that morning. “Yes, just you and me,” I confirmed each time. ”Going to take the yellow R train,” Emma said matter-of-factly. Emma loves the R train. She refers to it as the “yellow R train,” because the letter R is in the middle of a yellow circle. All the subway trains here in New York City are designated with a number or letter within a colored circle. Whenever possible, Emma requests the R train, which is fine, except that this is not the train closest to our home and a few months ago the R train wasn’t running on the weekend, much to Emma’s consternation. As we made our way to the station, I cautioned Emma that we had to take whichever train came first. ”Yellow R train!” she insisted. The very prospect of riding the R train, almost more than she could cope with, caused her to bounce up and down. She beamed at me. ”Okay, but Em, if a Q or N train comes, then we’ll take either of those too.” ”Take the yellow R train,” she responded. ”Em…” I started, but before I could say more she cut me off and said, “Okay, okay, okay. Maybe take the yellow R train, maybe not.” Then quietly she muttered, “Take the yellow R train!”
Another train flew by on the express tracks, so fast I couldn’t tell which train it was. But Emma knew with barely a glance. “Look, there’s the yellow Q train,” Emma said, pointing as the train whizzed by. ”Yeah, that’s the yellow Q train with blue seats,” she said.
“What?”
“The yellow Q train has blue seats.”
This was news to me, not the sort of details I notice, but exactly the kind of details Emma notices. As I was pondering this, Emma said, “Look!” Then she grinned. ”It’s the yellow R train,” she said with a kind of reverence, as though greeting an adored and much admired friend. As the train slowed to a stand still, Emma found us both a seat and giggling said, “We’re sitting in orange and yellow seats!”
“Is that why you like the R train?” I asked.
“The yellow R train makes me happy,” Emma said, before peering out into the dark tunnel and grinning at her own reflection.
And so it does.
Coming tomorrow – The Central Park Zoo and The Puffin.
To read my most recent Huffington Post, click ‘here.’
To read my guest post on Special Needs.com, click ‘here‘
