Some more to kindness report

Spent another afternoon out at Park Lake. Everyone's been complaining how green and slimy it is this year, we don't mind, just means more room for the Bretzke's on the  "beach".

We tend to take up some room.

After yesterday's rock throwing fest o' fun thought Aaron may have had enough.
Nope.
He's never has actually stopped throwing rocks on his own fruition before, he's always been stopped. Ben figures he could set a world record, and he's probably right.

The "beach" (those of you who have been to Park Lake understand how loosely I'm using the term) can be interesting for us.

I'm getting real good at damage control. Stepped on sand castles, flip flops tossed in the water.
I'm getting much better at not feeling a compulsion to explain his behaviours to everyone.
Realizing that often a sincere sorry and a smile is sufficient.

Every once and a while I feel like I should drop the "A" word though. Like today

Today, Aaron got fixated on this one families sand castle... ummm, understatement.
They had dug moats and walls, it was nothing less than a fortress! And the the crowning glory of it all? A pile of carefully gathered rocks at it's apex. The biggest and best Park lake has to offer.

Aaron spotted it instantly.

I kept redirecting him. And back he'd go. I'd say more for the families benefit, "No Aaron those are their special rocks." I could tell it was a little tortuous for him, but he continued throwing other, less spectacular rocks instead.

After a while the dad of this fortress building family came up, just to let me know they were packing up so if my son wanted to go throw those rocks he'd been eyeing all afternoon.

So nice.

He'd gone off with the kids, and his wife was drying off one remaining child.
I decided to approach her and just let her know how kind i thought it was of her husband to come over and how patient their kids had been with the looming threat of destruction.

"My son actually has au..."
Her knowing face and nod caught me off guard.
They know a few families with boys on the spectrum. After watching Aaron a bit they'd had their suspicions.

Turns out we're very good friends with one of the little boys they know.

Sometimes I feel like I give a lot of lip service to "awareness". Today was one of those days I felt like it really is making a difference,

At least one family's awareness today, made a big difference to me.