How Long Does It Take to Eat a Waffle? ....The World May Never Know!

It's Saturday morning, the day I always make pancakes and bacon for the family.  Sometimes I make my home-made waffles, but that always takes some extra steps.  Chris wanted waffles this morning, so I was happy to do so.  My home-made waffles are really the best, they are such a treat.  The first waffles come out and Chris and Mikayla nab the first block of 4.  Michael comes running to the table eager to get his waffles, but that batch isn't ready yet.  The next batch of waffles come out, UH OH!  Two of the four waffle have the edges not fully formed.  The batter did not spread all the way to the edge.  I can't serve these two defected waffles to Michael, but luckily the other two will pass muster.

This is definitely NOT Michael's waffle, it only has 2 squares left!

I put the waffles on the plate in front of Michael with his favorite Log Cabin syrup without high fructose corn syrup.  (High Fructose Corn Syrup totally puts Michael into major autism-land).  I go back to fixing more waffles and turning over the bacon.  I get another batch of waffles and bacon ready to bring to the dining room table and as I come in, here is Michael with the syrup. He is putting exactly ONE drop of syrup in each of the little square holes.  He is meticulously dropping one little golden drop of sweetness into each tiny square.  He is completely focused and I just smile and think to myself, "There he goes, my sweet autistic boy!"

I go back to the kitchen to get yet another batch of waffles and come back to find he has finished putting the droplets of syrup into each individual hole.  Did you know that there are 36 squares in a typical home-made waffle?  Did you know that it is a square number?  How perfect is that right?  Now did you know that my son started doing some division here??!!  Yes a waffle during breakfast is a total MATH lesson.  Now Michael is slowly and carefully cutting up his waffles.  He is taking so long that Mikayla and Chris have long left the table while he is cutting the waffle into a perfect 4 square section block in order to eat his waffles.  I said, "Michael, let me help you cut this buddy!"  He almost panicked as I pulled over the knife.  "MOMMY!  You must cut them into fours!"

I had to slow down and think, "Huh?  What are you saying buddy?"  He then pointed to all of the other pieces that he had cut.  Sure enough he was cutting the 36 little squares into sections that had 4 perfect squares inside of them.

"Mommy!  I need them in fours and I will have 9 pieces to eat."  Michael exclaims. Yes, 36 divided by 4 equals 9.   So I oblige and start cutting up his waffles to his specifications.  He looks up and me and says, "Isn't that cool mommy?"

I agree that is is "cool" and then I also say.  "Yes Michael that is cool, and that is very autistic of you!"  When he does something that is more spectrummy than the norm, we have started to point this out to him.  We don't admonish him in any way, we just point it out so he can realize that he is doing something that a "norm" might not do.  I do think it is cool, his math mind is working all of the time.  He has an amazing mind and is super smart.  I think it is good to make him aware of the times he is being more autistic.  I think this will help when others might get frustrated with him, I am hoping that he will say to himself, "Oh, I'm doing this, this is an autistic thing....people that do not have autism wouldn't do it this way.  Maybe that is why they are frustrated with me."  I am hoping that he can get to this self-actualization.

In the meantime, "How Long Does It Take to Eat a Waffle?"  Perhaps it takes twice as long when you live Somewhere Over the Spectrum!