My son, my son!

That was actually the title of a book I read when I was about 12- or 13-years old, by Howard Spring, and it is a book that I read several times, so the chapters stay with me.

Tomorrow we have the IEP meeting at Aspie Boy's school. I'm not going in to rip anyone a new you-know-what. I just want to guide the teachers and the school to doing the right thing for a very bright kid who has some difficulties.

By the way, I met with the lady who offered to meet me at the karate class that is designed for kids with disabilities. One of the kids was blind. Several of the kids had ADHD and/or Asperger's. I like the guy who conducted the class. He seemed really in tune to the kids and there needs.

For instance, at one point during the karate class, one of the AS kids appeared to be having a melt-down because he had done something wrong and the teacher called him on it, as was necessary. But instead of yelling at the kid in front of the other kids, the teacher took the kid into a private room (I couldn't hear anything) and then brought him out and they kept going. None of the other kids acted like anything had happened, because it wasn't made to be a big deal in front of them.

I'm most likely not going to enroll him in that class, even though I think it would be good for him. For one thing, it costs $120 for 2 classes, and it's a two-class per week minimum. Um, that's $480 per month. I love you, Aspie Boy, but we gotta think of something else for now. Well, Aspie Boy didn't show a huge interest anyways. And for another thing, the instructor said that that class was closed because it was full, although they had a class in Irvine that was open for enrollment.

I stopped by Aspie Boy's classroom yesterday to see if the teacher had anything to tell me about my child that needs working on, but it appears that everything is okay right now. Interesting thing is that since the teacher has quit pinging on my son, the other kids don't seem to be treating him as badly as they were.

Something else I found out about Aspie Boy, by the way: Yesterday his dad picked him up from my place and me and Aspie Boy were joking with each other. He was making jokes about my big butt (I, personally, don't think it's that big, but Aspie Boy says it's a moon in its own right), and to get even, I was making fun of Aspie Boy's big head.

Let me interject here with results of some research I did recently. It turns out that kids with AS have larger heads, on average, than other kids. (I'm too lazy to go find a link.) Aspie Boy's head is definitely not a pumpkin-head, but it has always been a force to be reckoned with, even when he was a baby. HE HAS A BIG HEAD!

But it's not like you look at him and think, "Holy shit, look at the head on that kid!" It's just a little bigger than it should be, given the size of his body. I figure that as he gets bigger, his head will be more proportionately pleasing.

Anyway, his dad said that I shouldn't make fun of his head because he's self-conscious of it. His dad said that is why Aspie Boy wears his hair the way he does is to try to hide his head.

My feeling on this is that if I make fun of Aspie Boy's head, and he knows I love him to death, then when other kids make fun of him, he will be immunized.

Well, anyway, Aspie Boy got me good with jokes about my big butt, so I'm not feeling too badly about jibing him back about his big head. Hehe.