B-I-N-G-O!

Tonight was Bingo at the kids' school and another startling reminder of how different my kid is from just one year ago.

I'm on the PTC, so I have to "work" a lot of the events that the school puts on, which means that Bailey and Gerry often hang out with their friends while there.  Bailey, my little social butterfly, LOVES that she can come and go (within the school grounds, obviously) as she pleases without me breathing down her neck.  As long as she checks in with me here and there, we're good.  Gerry, on the other hand, is pretty opposite.  If I let him sit with me the entire time, he'd happily do it.  I often have to convince him to go find his friends or try an activity these days, and Bingo was no exception.

While all the kids were running around and meeting up with their friends in the beginning, Gerry sat himself at the very first table (closest to me).  He didn't want anything to eat or drink and was perfectly content to sit and let a friend come to him.  Several times I looked over at him to find him twitching away, head turning this way and that while his eye scrunched up.  Every once in awhile he shrieked out his goat noise.  His cheeks stayed bright red most of the night, whether from embarrassment or just overstimulation I don't know.  The more crowded the cafeteria got, the more he ticked.  He calmed down a bit when I sat by him to play the game, but was still noticeably twitchy all night.

When Bingo was over and the cafeteria had cleared out to just a few parents and kids cleaning up, he let loose a bit.  He ran around the cafeteria, shrieking like a goat (God, I hope this goat tic doesn't last long).  Our close friends know about his diagnosis but people who don't know him or us gave us a few looks.  I don't think Gerry notices the looks he gets a lot of the time, and I'm thankful for that.  I don't miss a single one, and I often find myself torn between ignoring the looks from people who don't know better and attempting to educate them and let them know that he's got a disorder and is not just a "bad" kid.  I don't know which would be less embarrassing for him.

A bright spot from the night: Bailey won Bingo pretty early on in the night.  Gerry came close so many times, but never won, and he didn't handle it very well.  Bailey was super sweet and offered up her prize to him.