Enlightenment …

The 7th Feb 09 marked one of Bryan’s milestones…. I took him to Sunset Mass. He sat next to me throughout Mass, holding on to his few dinosaurs and a shark. I even brought with us his dinosaur encyclopedia. He looked right at my face when it was time to sing and throughout the hymns.

I took every opportunity to look back at him cos with him, any sort of eye contact is, pardon the pun, heaven sent! He found a piece of blu-tac and that kept him pretty busy (he misses his Play-doh!). He behaved very well throughout. I must say, I was and am still very proud of him. Friends of mine who know about Bryan’s condition, gave him heaps of praises after Mass.

We were seated 4 rows from the front and Bryan took the atmosphere in.. the candles on the Altar, the high ceiling in the hall… which he whispered out loudly at one point…”Look at that giant spider web!”, which drew sniggers from those around us. He knew he had to be quiet, so he whispered. At times, he got fidgety, he started breaking into echolalia ala Charlie and Lola. But as long as I flashed him the “stop!” COMPIC and showed him the social story again, he would settle down. I could feel his springs winding up in that hour. I promised him the minute we reach home, I’d reward him with his “crash, boom, bang” car and a go at the trampoline.

There were candles on the altar, and Bryan thought he could blow them out…. 15 feet from them! It was funny, watching him huff and puff, trying to blow them out.. until I told him “Bryan, you’re too far away”. He didn’t let me kneel down to pray initially. But at the 2nd time I needed to kneel, and he told me to “sit down mummy”, I told him “ in a minute” and went 100miles per hour with my prayers before I got up.

On the whole, the experience was very pleasant. I hope he does the same this Saturday. For him, twice is enough to burn it into memory. Ah.. the beauty of routine and rote learning….