Soccer: Passion or Obsession?

As you start to go through the genetics of how your child inherited Aspergers, you start to see the clues in your ancestry.  Dad diagnosed himself from a medical journal a few years back.  Ah hah!  And here we thought he was only odd because he was German.

"You Americans.  Always having to be polite and make small talk and stand around chatting.  I don't know how to do that."

Yes, Sheldon, we know.

At s Bronco's Rugby League Game in June with the Connor side of the gene pool.

Funny how you think it skips a generation until the truth smacks you straight between the eyes.

Turns out I don't get you people either.  I'm just better at faking it than Dad is.

But if your daughter has it.  And you have four - count em, four - boys coming up the line.  Well you start seeing the dominoes drop.

As unlikely as it is,  I don't think any of my boys have Aspergers.  The twins show signs, but they are six.  That is normal social development.  Ian is the most social of all my kids.  If anyone is fine, he is.

Andrew bears watching.  He spent an entire day at the beach with our homeschooling group sitting at a table by himself playing with two Spiderman action figures he had brought along. 

"THAT'S your neurotypical child?"  one mother asked.

Uh yeah. 

And he's happy, so let's not go there.

With cousin Luka

Let's not get into how he never played with his trains and legos like the twins do.  How he was always happy - and still is - with just those few Spiderman action figures.  How he lines up the magnets on the fridge.

Andrew has his passion too.  He reads.  And he plays sports.  Soccer is his love. 

"Team sports would be an unusual obsession for someone with Asperger's" said another mother recently.  

And I agree.

Most of the ASD kids I know are quite happy on their own and none of them like team or contact sports.

In any case, he is happy.  He plays soccer on four teams right now, with a fifth tryout coming up.  And runs cross-country.  He is excelling academically, doing work at or beyond Ryan's level, and he is thriving socially.  There is always a gaggle of girls calling out his name behind him and we hear whispers from younger students as we pass that that's Andrew Connor's family.

Good to go, mates!

Andrew Connor's family.

We might be a crazy, mixed up bunch.

But as long as we're happy, I don't care WHAT they call us!!!