Yesterday I was able to go on a field trip with Aaron's class. My neighbor kept my other two boys for me so I could go. Aaron was so excited to have me there. We went to the Meridian Ag Expo. There were lots of animals for the kids to pet. But, after each animal, there were high school students to give the kids a shot of hand sanitizer before moving on to the next animal. Aaron pet the first set of animals (pigs), but I noticed that he wasn't petting the next ones. I whispered in his ear, "Don't you want to pet the animals?" He shook his head and replied, "If I pet them, they will make me have hand sanitizer. I don't like how slimy and cold the hand sanitizer feels." I hung back from the group for a minute and told his teacher why he wasn't petting the animals. She smiled and laughed a little and said, "That's so Aaron." Then she offered, "I grew up on a farm with animals and never used hand sanitizer, and I survived. I don't care if he skips the hand sanitizer if you are ok with it." I thanked her, and she went up and whispered in Aaron's ear permission to not use hand sanitizer. Aaron was so relieved, and he enjoyed petting the rest of the animals.
That was something so simple, but by being aware that it was a textural thing that was throwing Aaron off, we were able to fix it really easily. As he grows, I'm more aware of his little "quirks". And I'm getting pretty good at finding solutions to help him. I think back to a year ago, and the frustration that I felt when I would try to reason with him over stuff like this. Knowledge truly is power. I used to think that it was just stubbornness on Aaron's part. But now after everything we've learned this year, we just work around it, and I feel like it's working for him and for me.
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