One of the more frustrating aspects of raising a child on the autism spectrum is putting up with their obsessions. Many spectrum children fixate on something and can't seem to get away from talking about anything else. In the past, we have had to deal with Jayson's obsessions with clock times, Max and Ruby (Lord help me that was a brutal one), Transformers, and Spongebob. The cartoon obsessions are especially annoying because they tend to also produce what is referred to as "scripted speech", where Jayson really only talks to us using lines from the TV shows or movies he is watching. This can get frustrating for his peers, who can't understand why he says the same things over and over again, but it is especially frustrating for me since I usually have no frame of reference for, or any remote interest in, whatever he is obsessing over.
Until now. You see, Jayson has a new obsession that has been gaining power for the last few months. Ironically, it's also an obsession that consumed his own mother way back when she was 12 years old. My son has fallen head over heels in love with the Chicago Cubs and all things baseball. Now I don't have autism spectrum disorder, but I did catch Cubs fever back in 1984. I was a scrawny and geeky girl who got swept away in all the excitement of the 1984 team. I never missed a game and soon had memorized batting averages for all my favorite players like Jody Davis, Ryne Sandberg, and Bobby Dernier. All my spare change would go into my pocket and I would ride my bike all over town to different stores to buy baseball cards. At any given time I could tell you the MLB standings for both the American and National League teams, and knew the difference between a curve ball, slider, fastball, and breaking ball. And you know what? I drove everyone around me absolutely batty (no pun intended).
The obsession stuck around for quite awhile, at various levels of severity. My heart was broken by that 1984 team (I still hate you, Steve Garvey and the rest of you stupid San Diego Padres), and later by that 1989 team (still love you, though, Mark Grace). But I was growing older and my life was full of other activities such as college and my career and so I kept my love of the Cubs, but dialed back the obsession. In 2003 I let a little bit creep back since I was CONVINCED that was "our year". Well everyone knows the end of that story (I'm talking to you, Bartman) and the devastating, yet classic, collapse of our World Series hopes and dreams. After that, I decided for the sake of my sanity, to mentally detach from the Chicago Cubs. I barely followed them for the next 9 years. Until this year. With Jayson's latest obsession has come a reawakening of my own. And for one of the first times, I feel a REAL connection to my son. We can talk endlessly about baseball terms, players, team standings, etc. and I don't have to feign enthusiasm. The first thing we do every morning is check the Cubs home page for video highlights and we watch them together with equal delight.
And this past weekend brought the most exciting event we've had in some time - Jayson's first trip to Wrigley Field. As we approached the ballpark on Clark Street I said to Jayson "There it is!" and I watched as his eyes got as big as saucers. I have VERY vivid memories of my first game at Wrigley Field (left field bleachers, Steve Trout was pitching), and now I have a wonderful shared memory of Jayson's first game (left field terrace, Ryan Dempster pitching). I will never forget his face as he not only saw the field for the first time, but even got to walk down onto it and see the ballplayers. I will never forget the joyful reaction he had when Ryan Dempster emerged to warm up in the bullpen. I will cherish how excited he became as each player came out - "Mom!! There he is!! Starlin Castro!! Mom!!!!! It's Anthony Rizzo!! Look!!! There's Darwin Barney!!!! It's Geovany Soto!!!!" and on and on and on. He almost leaped out of his seat when Dempster and Johnson successfully bunted (his favorite baseball play) and got absolutely giddy as the seventh inning approached and we all stood up to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (we had been practicing for weeks...) He watched every pitch and every play intently, and so did I. And when the Cubs won on a double play in the ninth inning, I watched him get overcome with emotion as he sang "Go Cubs Go" with 38,000 other fans, and realized that they really did raise a "W" flag every time the Cubs were victorious. I think it might have been one of the greatest days of his life - I know it ranks highly as one of mine.
So I will cherish this latest obsession of Jayson's and hope it sticks around for awhile. I am enjoying this wonderful connection we have together and I'm thankful that my 12 year old self was smart enough to become nutty over something that would make me a better mother to a very special boy 28 years later. Autism is a great example of life throwing you a curveball. But sometimes, you hit those curveballs right out of the park. Home Run, indeed.
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