Miss O

Not much has been said about Miss O lately, since our life has changed gears and has been more focused on helping Little Bean. Sometimes I feel like Miss O got the short end of the stick when it comes to dealing with Little Bean's daily struggles because of his Autism. She is one of those people who is so giving and generous and who loves to make people happy, and of course, having a brother who finds it impossible to understand how someone else may feel about something makes it a very one-sided friendship.

They love to play together, but the truth is, Miss O is the giver in the relationship, and Little Bean is the taker. Since now we know that that is more developmental than just selfishness on his part, we can better address the situation and hopefully help the situation some. But I do feel bad for Miss O, and wish I could make things better for her too.

Recently she has gotten tired of some of the things he does, and he has started getting on her nerves. She got a book for Christmas called My Friend With Autism. It's a coloring book/story book and it explains Little Bean basically to a T. It's also framed very positively and includes steps that she can take to both be a better friend AND have her needs met as well. She has already finished coloring it (she loves to color), and we've read it together a few times. Both she and Little Bean recognized that the boy in the book is a lot like Little Bean. I am hoping I can think of other ways to frame their relationship in a more positive light, and to include her and make her feel special when it seems that he is getting a lot of the attention at this time.