Documenting Simon.

I would love to be running through those sprinklers in the sun! Thanks Ali.

I see where Roberta is coming from. My niece is on the spectrum and just a few months younger than Simon....she will only wear dresses to or past her knees! I have some great pics of her and my sister "dress shopping"!

I love all the photos you shared in this post! Have a wonderful July 4th weekend!

My 9 year old is autistic and he often likes to have his head covered--hoodies especially. When he's playing his video games he likes to be covered up with a throw with only his face visible. He has always had sensory issues and I think this must be something he does to self sooth himself. Now, if I can only figure out a solution to his compulsive chewing of his shirts!

I think it is super that you can get input - good and bad - from so many different people. My son is a long sleeve shirt and long pant kind of kid as well. Here in Panama it is warm all year long, but he does it to protect himself from the sun. I am okay with it most days because it means I don't have to deal with sunscreen. When he gets too hot he comes inside and changes clothes. Works for us. Happy Fourth of July!

Wow...thanks Ali for mentioning me in your post...it brought tears to my eyes (from laughter) at the "winter/ski coat" issue...gotta love our boys! I hope my son doesn't mind me talking about his "taz" days on line...but my family pretty much know that I "blog" about everything...they've been known to say...are you gonna "blog" this? If you feel like, go check out how wonderful the "taz" his with his beautiful new bride on this blog post...they were wed June 20th...everytime I look at this I cry! Simply Beautiful...http://con-tain-it.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/06/simply-beautifulsimply-seletafabulous-friday.html
Hope you all have a great July 4th, Fondly, Roberta

great pictures and post

What great insight. You are such a good mom. I have fallen in love with your Simon. I am always excited to hear more about him and see new pictures of him.

Gosh, I remember when my kids were in grade school and they disliked the change in seasons as much as they loved them. Meaning they didn't like putting away the long sleeves in springtime and the shorts in the winter. (of course now they are teens I can't get them to wear coats/sweaters for anything in the winter. Too much to add to their day during schooltime. Plus in the desert it is only cold for a few hours at a time in the winter.

I just had to laugh about you having to draw the line about ski coats in 90+ degree weather. We have to do the same thing with our son, who is now 16 and knows _why_ we do it but still needs us to.

Life is so enjoyable! Thanks for sharing!

We go thru the same thing every year with Brody - the security of the long sleeve shirts and they are definitely more sensitive - we are currently looking for some long sleeve swim shirts - because even with swimming - he want's a shirt!! (so far we can only find short sleeves - but he is managing just fine with those)

Ali, thanks so much for posting this. I'm having similar issue with my five year old ASD son. He managed to get his hands on a long sleeve Lightning McQueen shir to wear to the zoo yesterday, and I could not pry it off his hot little body no matter how hard I tried. I guess it's not such a big deal. I may try to at replace his sweaters he insists on wearing with lighter versions, as I really can't seem to convince him he doesn't need a sweater when it's hot! Gotta love perspective.

My young son has dyspraxia & also loves long sleeves. As he's my 3rd child I've come to realise that it's not worth sweating the small stuff - as long as he's happy & not in his anorak in the middle of summer - I'm happy ;-D I think it's a great thing learning to "let go" within reason, and let our kids choose what they are comfortable in. It's hard but it gets easier...