Autism or not!

So recently my oldest daughter Avery informed me that she would like another sister. (And by that a mean an additional sister, or third child in our family. I made sure to clarify that she didn't mean she'd just like to trade in the one she has - which wouldn't have surprised me.) Avery asking me to have another baby was a shock for many reasons. For one, she can't tolerate the sound of babies crying - it has become one of her quirks. For another we have told her we have no room for a cat in our house until we get the basement redone, let alone another human being - she already has to share a room with her little sister Taytem. But mostly I was surprised because she is not usually her little sister's biggest fan. We went rounds this summer about how she feels that we treat Taytem differently than we treat her. Well, we probably do. As I attempted to try and explain why, Avery got very angry about the fact that her sister has autism and said she wished she'd never asked for a little sister. (I think in Avery's Aspie world, she thinks that we had a second child because she asked for one) She told me she hated autism. Okay, so do I sometimes. So, I reminded Avery of that conversation and asked her how she would feel if her new sister also had autism. "I just want another sister," she said, "autism or not!" That made my heart sing. Not because I'm planning to have another baby... that ship has sailed. Although it was always in the plan to have 3 children, my husband and I decided it would not be responsible of us to bring another child into the world. If we won the lottery, we'd love to adopt, but that ain't gonna happen.

Then today, after Avery had had a particularly good day at school and her sister had not, she was full of optimism and words of advice. "Well, maybe it's hard to be a first grader with autism, Mom," she told me. You can't tell me this kid lacks empathy...  :o)