Sometimes Forest-Gump-Like

We started our beloved swim team on Wednesday.  Michael was so excited he couldn't sleep.  He woke up at midnight, 2:00 AM, 4:30 AM and finally we just got up because we had to be at practice by 6:15 AM.  He didn't want to miss it.  He did NOT want to be late.

Michael (second from the left) on his first day back with the Marlins.  Good eye contact and smile!

We get to practice, and instead of swimming in the "baby lane" (lane 6).  Michael is sure that he can go to a different lane.  He ends up picking lane 1 which is filled with older kids (10 and over) and mostly newer kids to the team.  Michael automatically ends up swimming faster than everyone in that lane, and so this little skinny 7 year old autistic child ends up being the "lane leader".

Wednesday he got a "little mad".  One girl kept telling him not to "cut in line".  Coach Margie said that it was ok that he was mad, she would have been mad too.  She talked him out of his mad, and basically told the girl that Michael can cut, because he is faster.

Today they were practicing flip turns.  Michael was doing somersault after somersault in preparation for the flip turns.  He is the only one in his lane who can actually do a flip turn.  He easily swims to the wall, over he goes and pushes off.  He looks at the other 12, 13, and 14 year olds standing there watching and asks them to go try.  None of them even want to attempt this, so Michael spends the next 10 minutes doing flip turn after flip turn.

I was the excited mom just beaming from the balcony.  I told the lifeguard, Marcus, to go over and see if he could get the other kids to do some flip turns.  I told him to encourage Michael to do some more because he had stopped and kept trying to wait for the other kids to actually do their turn.  So Marcus walks over and says to Michael, "Michael do a flip turn for me!"  Michael automatically does a somersault where he was standing.  Marcus says again, "Michael, do a FLIP turn for me!"  Michael again does a somersault from where he was standing in the pool. Finally Marcus points to the wall and says, "Michael swim TO the wall, make your flip turn there, then come back here."  He signs this as he says it.  Michael then says, "OHHHH!"  Then he proceeds to do another really good flip turn.

Run Forest Run!  Swim Michael Swim!

So I am thinking this swim practice is going very well, almost spectacular!  No melt downs, no mad faces.  All of a sudden, Michael gets out of the pool and sits on the side.  He is staring at his hands. "Uh oh" a little voice says inside of me, "He is staring at his hands."  This is a sure sign he is getting lost in his own thoughts or becoming very "spectrummy".  I watch carefully.  I tell Marcus to go back over there and check with him.  Too late, coach Margie is already there, but he isn't getting lost in his hands, he isn't checking out, he actually is having a conversation with her.  A few minutes later he gets in the pool and all is well.  What was it I wondered?

I find out later that Michael was concerned about his hands.  "They were all wrinkly mom!  I'm going to have to stay out of the pool!"  I said, "NO BUDDY!  That is a good thing.  It means you are a really good swimmer!."  Molly (16 year old friend who lives with us and is on swim team with the twins) says, "Yeah Michael that is called PRUNE hands.  Your feet will get that way too.  Your skin is soaking up the water.  Don't worry buddy, it is a good thing!"  So we finally convince him that wrinkly hands is not a life or death situation and that he can continue to swim.  In fact the more wrinkly your hands are, the better swimmer you will be.  :)

Sometimes Michael comes up with the funniest things.   Sometimes he just says things like Forest Gump would, or you can see when something "dawns" on him.  I guess it is a part of his personality, and shows that he is definitely somewhere "Over the Spectrum".