This is one thing that I have found helpful as I retrace JP's development. You see, I have pictures of just about every skill or even every breath he has taken. I know he had specific skills at 12 months...at 15 months...at 2 years. I know that T stood on his own for the first time on August 22. I know this because I have about 20 pictures chronicling the event.
Somewhere in the second year of JP's life my pictures just didn't seem to ever turn out as well. I told myself that it was the few seconds delay on the camera. I could never catch him in the moment. He was too quick! The smile was there but by the time the shutter captured the moment, the moment was gone. He is a happy guy with a beautiful smile but still today we rarely get pictures of that smile.
His pictures have him staring off to the side or making some odd facial guesture as he tries his hardest to look at the camera. It is as though he has to contort his face to make it happen. I have tried to sneak up on him for the pictures. And I must state for the record that he loves having his picture taken. He will pose for me anytime anywhere. But he can't look into the camera.
I marveled at this phenomena as I sorted through the pictures this past month. Here is a collection of eyes. See if you can pick out the eyes of the little boy with Autism. It is said that the eyes are the window to the soul and both of my little men have beautiful souls. I only regret that the oldest has such a hard time letting us peek in his window.
*T's eyes are in the rectangles with a black outline. JP's rectangles have fuzzy edges.
3 comments:
It's such a cliche, but I really think that to us, it means so much more than that.
Best wishes
Wow - that is powerful... and interesting. All I can think of to say, is that it is so hard to capture anyone's "soul" (ie, the essence of who they are) in a photograph... but I imagine that is poor consolation.
We have a similar thing happening at our house: my oldest will stare right into the camera (no autism), one twin absolutely will not look at it, and the other twin will look at it, although he dislikes the flash.
Looking back at the twins' pictures, I realize that B. never really looked at the camera, and G. usually did. I didn't notice it at the time, but from my perspective now, it's pretty clear.
I think it is wonderful that JP likes to have his picture taken. That says so much about him!
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