Gabe likes to line things up. He started doing this at around 14 months - shortly before the above picture. He will line anything up. They don't have to be in order of size or color or anything. No sorting, just lining. He stopped doing it for awhile, but recently began again in full force. He does it with cars. He does it with shoes. He does it with sheets of paper. Sometimes in the toy section at Walmart, he will get every toy of one kind down and just put them in a straight line.
It's one of those things that I laugh at, and it is fun to see him doing something totally seperate from anything Big Brother ever did. Mostly, I think it is cute. At the same time, I am a mom who likes to be prepared for the worst, so even though my mother-in-law told me that her oldest son did the exact same thing (and he is intelligent and successful), I still found myself googling "lining things up + 2 years old + autism." Turns out that a lot of kids with autism like to lines things up, but it isn't a sign of autism. And Gabe doesn't exhibit any of the true signs of autism - which I pretty much already knew, but had to be sure of - and it turns out that a lot of two years in the general population like to lines things up as well.
Last winter I remember googling "stuttering + preschoolers," because Colin was getting stuck on words quite often. He could take twenty seconds to say one sentence, and I was doing my best not to draw his attention to it or make a big deal out of it. It got really bad when he was excited about something, so the the word "Christmas" seriously became "Chri chri chri chri chri chri chri chri chri chri chri Christmas." Chad and I talked about how sad it would be if our confident and social little boy had to deal with a challenge like stuttering. I had heard that kids his age, especially boys, go through this stage, but it still freaked me out enough to investigate. I found out that it was so common in boys his age that it wasn't even called stuttering, it was called "pseudostuttering." If it lasted more than a few months, got worse, or if he started to be self conscience about, I needed to worry. I remember leaving to go to Aaron's wedding the day after Christmas, and when I returned a week later, after not seeing Colin for a week, all of the sudden the stuttering had almost completely disappeared.
Sure, I have done the usual fun things with Google, like typing in my name or Chad's name. Last time I looked, you could still find an article I wrote about Survivor. What a dork. Chad's name is a little more common and there is even a ChadColeman.com that belongs to a photographer.
It's one of those things that I laugh at, and it is fun to see him doing something totally seperate from anything Big Brother ever did. Mostly, I think it is cute. At the same time, I am a mom who likes to be prepared for the worst, so even though my mother-in-law told me that her oldest son did the exact same thing (and he is intelligent and successful), I still found myself googling "lining things up + 2 years old + autism." Turns out that a lot of kids with autism like to lines things up, but it isn't a sign of autism. And Gabe doesn't exhibit any of the true signs of autism - which I pretty much already knew, but had to be sure of - and it turns out that a lot of two years in the general population like to lines things up as well.
Last winter I remember googling "stuttering + preschoolers," because Colin was getting stuck on words quite often. He could take twenty seconds to say one sentence, and I was doing my best not to draw his attention to it or make a big deal out of it. It got really bad when he was excited about something, so the the word "Christmas" seriously became "Chri chri chri chri chri chri chri chri chri chri chri Christmas." Chad and I talked about how sad it would be if our confident and social little boy had to deal with a challenge like stuttering. I had heard that kids his age, especially boys, go through this stage, but it still freaked me out enough to investigate. I found out that it was so common in boys his age that it wasn't even called stuttering, it was called "pseudostuttering." If it lasted more than a few months, got worse, or if he started to be self conscience about, I needed to worry. I remember leaving to go to Aaron's wedding the day after Christmas, and when I returned a week later, after not seeing Colin for a week, all of the sudden the stuttering had almost completely disappeared.
Sure, I have done the usual fun things with Google, like typing in my name or Chad's name. Last time I looked, you could still find an article I wrote about Survivor. What a dork. Chad's name is a little more common and there is even a ChadColeman.com that belongs to a photographer.
Most of my googling though, besides the everyday surfing, is similar to the two previous examples - the googling of a slight worry wort. It probably all started with "jaundice " when Colin was a tiny yellow baby, and I imagine it will continue long past the next 16 years. So far my search results have always brought a sense of relief and assurance, so I consider myself one fortunate mama.
