My Son, the Ornithologist

If you're the parent/friend of parent/family member of an autistic child, and you have a sense of humor, you recognize that our children are frequently quite funny.  If you are the parent/friend of parent/family member of an autistic child and you don't have a sense of humor then, well...this blog post is probably not for you.

On our aforementioned vacation, we did go other places besides Sesame Place.  One of them was the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.  Really neat place for science and nature loving kids, kind of like they took the American Museum of Natural History and shrunk it, except without the crowds and lots of really helpful people to tell you about the exhibits.  

I also may have mentioned once or twice Brandon's love of animals.  Particularly penguins.

By one of the exhibits was a lovely young woman, equipped with a set of bird feathers and bird bones, all ready to talk birds with the kids.  Brandon sat down, and they examined the feathers together, discussing the shape and feel.  Then they got to the bones.  The conversation went something like this:

Woman:  "Pick up the bones.  Feel how light they are?"
Brandon: "Yes."
Woman:  "That's because they're hollow.  All birds have hallow bones.  That's so they can fly."
Brandon: "All birds don't have hollow bones."
Woman: "Yes they do.  What bird doesn't have hollow bones?"
Brandon: "Penguins don't have hollow bones."
Woman: (Looks at Brandon.  Doesn't have a clue how to respond.)

Helpful parent that I am, I walked away so I could get hysterical laughing somewhere not directly in front of her.  

In case you're wondering, or you haven't already gone to Google to fact check (and if you have, congratulations - it's more than our politicians are doing!), he's correct.  He also informed us on the car ride home that kiwis, emus, ostriches, and road runners don't fly, and also don't have hollow bones.  We never did establish whether or not road runners actually say "Beep!  Beep!" though.

I love this boy.  I particularly love that he's capable of giving us the type of moments that all kids do, where they are unintentionally hilarious just by being themselves.

And if you're one of those parents/friends/family members of a child with autism that think nothing about autism is funny?  Loosen up a little bit.  Look for these moments.  Both of you will be a whole lot happier for it.