Wonderful Things, Like Friends with Quirks

When you have kids who randomly say or do quirky things, there is never time to explain the whole situation to strangers.  You just have to suck it up and move on.  About a week ago, the boys and I were walking into the hockey rink to watch Anna.  As we passed by a man with the perfect big round belly, Christian put up his fists and started making punching motions at the man's stomach, complete with boxing sound effects.  I think I grabbed Christian before he actually touched the guy, and the guy laughed.  On the outside I was laughing with him, but on the inside, I was mortified.  Oh.my.word.  Filters, I tell you.  Filters.  Can we get some filters here?

So on Sunday, when we spent a great day together with some distant cousins, one of whom is a ten year old with Aspergers, it was such a relief.  I didn't need to come armed with explanations. Cousin T is very cool kid, and I had a silent mom chuckle over his astute observation at dinner:  "I think Ehren and I are really going to get along. He likes Pokemon, chocolate milk, and he's kind of hyper, just like me!" There was a lot of Pokemon talk thrown about at the dinner table, and I think the girls were a little lost {frankly, so was I}. 

Later when we were saying our good-byes, cousin T asked his parents if he could spend the whole summer in Minnesota so he could get a season pass to Valleyfair.  From what I've heard, cousin T is a math genius (like his dad) and I think he may have been doing some mental calculations on what a great deal a season pass is, especially if you went everyday!  Meanwhile, no-filters Christian hugged cousin T good-bye, and in his enthusiam, added a kiss on the cheek. Thankfully, it didn't seem to phase him. Later that night when I had my hundredth chat with Christian about how we only kiss our moms and dads, not anyone else, he said, "Mom, I didn't kiss him. I just hugged him!"  But he did. I was there.