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My son, my first born has a birthday today.
I call him Aiden most often, but over the years, I’ve given him many nicknames ā The Murph Baby, PAC-MAN, Man Dude, and this emoji š to name a few. His latest nickname is Mentat.
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I’m reading the 5th book written by Frank Herbert for his Dune series, titled Chapterhouse Dune. If we were living in the world of Dune, I would’ve had my son enrolled in a Mentat School at age 3.
Aiden Wright today
Instead of listing my son’s nicknames, I’m going to tell you who he is today at age 8.
Today, Aiden is excited about Minecraft and Sonic the Hedgehog games. Although my daughter usually answers the phone when I call, Aiden doesn’t miss an opportunity to tell me about what he and his sister have built on Minecraft for Nintendo Switch.
He tells me that netherite <sp?> makes weapons that are stronger than weapons made of diamonds and how much of each material he has ā if that statement is incorrect, he will correct me. Aiden tells me he and his sister have two houses they each built and connected together. They also have a swimming pool.
Aiden’s mouth can’t move as fast as his thoughts ā not even close. If you were a stranger he began talking to about a video game, you’d never guess he was a graduate of Speech Therapy and that his speaking skills were stalling at age 2. I’m helping him replace his vocal pauses with silence, but I think I’ll have him try deep breathes instead.
Aiden about himself
Aiden is not interested in how his hair looks. He loves his heavy bike ā the blue one with the broken front brake ā now that he can ride it. I taught him how to emergency brake using his right foot heel on the rear tire. I think he likes how it feels, but for some reason, he continues to do it with placing the top of his foot on the tire. I’ve corrected him so many times that I’ve officially written it off as a self-correcting matter.
My son is a good kid who wants to be followed. I mean that to say he is almost completely free of malice. He has a strong impulse to make the rules of the games he plays. He brags about himself a lot, and I’m concerned about his self-esteem. Initially, I tried curbing the bragging by suggesting he “let other people brag about you” and just pointing it out to him.
I stopped correcting his bragging when I realized it doesn’t come from narcissism or vanity. It’s that he wants to project self-confidence or confidence, I think. So, I just listen and give him his props.
Parenting Aiden
I’m not interested in him winning at everything. I’m only interested in him feeling like a winner. I’m devoted to him and his sister feeling good about themselves and feeling confident without help from other people. It’s not an easy job because I won’t be teaching from experience.
Aiden is a kid who’s a lot like me as a kid: his emotions are intense. He’s super excited about something or super bummed out. He regularly looks away avoiding eye contact during conversations. I recently read about that behavior being connected to an autism spectrum disorder ā making it less likely an act of disrespect.
However much of the ASD he has is likely from me. I’m not apologizing. The likelihood of passing it to him is as random as his eyes coming out light-brown and red-flaked like his mothers’, and having ASD ā or being on the spectrum or whatever the diagnosed say ā is not a plague or crutch. It just means that certain periods of his life will be more hard than others.
Age 8 is really happening
My son is 8. This post helped me accept that this is really happening. I remember him being the squirming* human in this photo.
Aiden Fun Fact:
The soft spot at the crown of his head was crooked. In most of the photos of infant Aiden laying on his back, his head is tilted at a funny angle. See the photo.
The pediatrician assured his mom and I ā being first time parents ā that his head would even itself out over time. Complete honesty, I didn’t suspect the doctor would lie, but I didn’t believe him/her about it fixing itself. Eventually, sure enough my son’s head totally fixed itself.
*one nickname I gave him was Squirms McGurt because he was the opposite of CHILL during diaper changes. Imagine an infant’s body crawling up a ladder. Then, imagine the ladder is invisible. Now, picture the infant rotated to appear on his back while climbing the invisible ladder. That’s what it was like changing my son’s diapers.
If you’d like to send him a gift, I created a birthday registry and added reasonably priced things that do not take a long time to pickup from a floor. (What I mean by reasonably priced is that I would pay these amounts for these particular things.) A link to Aiden’s registry is on his website here: aidenmwright.com .