{"id":4882,"date":"2015-06-01T13:06:45","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T17:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=4882"},"modified":"2015-06-01T13:06:45","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T17:06:45","slug":"birthday-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2015\/06\/birthday-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Birthday Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Spring<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a pretty tableau. My son sits among strewn tissue and wrapping paper, claiming his prize, his birthday presents. I watch as my husband places his gifts into outstretched arms, see my son eagerly tear apart the carefully taped paper I so lovingly adhered for him. He frees the toy from its constraints, and I sit back in my chair to take a picture and capture the moment for all eternity. I look through the lens and prepare to click.<\/p>\n

Then I see him smile.<\/p>\n

It sounds silly to devote a post to a child smiling at his birthday presents. But for more than a decade my son has approached his birthday, and almost everything typical people deem \u201cfun,\u201d as a solemn ritual, a task to be organized.<\/p>\n

Generally it is difficult to even get him to finish unwrapping his take- I\u2019m usually going up against his OCD, his need to organize rather than unwrap.<\/p>\n

But tonight is different. Tonight, he shows joy.<\/p>\n

And as I watch him exuberantly rip off paper and dive into bags I allow myself a moment to revel in his glee, and put the camera to the side. I think about how grateful I am that he\u2019s demonstrating his joy, because so often in situations I think will make him happy I\u2019m left guessing, wondering if he\u2019s truly enjoying himself.<\/p>\n

Tonight I don\u2019t have to guess.<\/p>\n

He treats each gift with a mixture of awe and amazement, then wraps up his endeavor with his lyrical laugh, and bestows a huge hug and kiss on his mama.<\/p>\n

He loved tonight. For once, I got to know that he adored a timeless ritual that most people take for granted their children will love.<\/p>\n

And I join him in being happy.<\/p>\n

For more on my family visit my blog at autismmommytherapist.wordpress.com\/
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

Follow me on Facebook at Autism Mommy-Therapist\u2003<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a pretty tableau. My son sits among strewn tissue and wrapping paper, claiming his prize, his birthday presents. I watch as my husband places his gifts into outstretched arms, see my son eagerly tear apart the carefully taped paper I so lovingly adhered for him. He frees the toy from its constraints, and I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[293,295,294,1362],"class_list":["post-4882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-in-brick","category-ocean-county","tag-autism","tag-autism-acceptance","tag-autism-awareness","tag-birthday"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-1gK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}