Adam's first conference

So a few days ago, I'm in line at Walmart, buying Christmas wrapping paper, Adam is in the cart and I hear, "Hey, Adam" from a little girl.

Adam hides his head and won't look at her. She is super chatty- telling me all about the following: she goes to the same daycare as Adam, is in his class, she tells me what she's buying and about all her visitors coming to her house, names them and I am overwhelmed by her articulation and how she is speaking to me.

Her father is with her and asks about Adam and I tell him that he is 3 1/2 and her father seemed kind and just remarked how shy Adam was.

On the drive home, I was sad. I don't know what it was about the encounter. Was it that it was a reminder of how "behind" he is, I don't know. It was unsettling. It was like my head started spinning and I was thinking that she's so advanced and all those normal kids are and then they're going to learn more and always be ahead of him and the matthew effect and all this crazy kooky stuff... you know when your thoughts just go all out of control and you're worrying about things that aren't real. Well, that was my car ride home.

Later that evening, we went to Adam's conference (not at daycare) at his preschool disabled class. His teacher had all wonderful things to say. Yes, he is really difficult to understand, but she told me that his receptive is age appropriate and many times she thinks that he is advanced compared to other kids with what he can do and what he knows. When you ask him questions, he knows all kinds of things, like all his numbers to 30, letters, his name, other word recognition, shapes, colors.  He can't tell you all these things, but he points and he can follow directions. She reminded me that he has only been able to speak for a year, his growth in this area is huge. He laughs and plays well with the other kids and is happy. Genuinely happy.

 He is learning all the time and I guess his first conference was  a snap out of my crazy kooky worry thoughts that weren't real. Because what is real is that he is perfect. Perfectly happy and so am I.