The Changeling

Cesare has been surprising us lately.  That seems like a terrible thing to say and wreaks of low expectations.  Hmmm.  Yesterday, Cesare and I headed to NYU for an MRI: the first step in considering the possibility of an RNS implant.  Getting to the city and navigating around traffic, both in the car and on foot, is an ordeal for a young man who tends to be distracted by falling leaves.  We made it, and he lay motionless in the DEAFENING claustrophobia machine for more than thirty minutes.  That's not the surprise.  Holding the door of the office open for me, apologizing when he bumped into me and saying thank you when we hit the deli afterwards were the surprises.  And so that I don't sound too awfully dumbfounded by my son's forays into civility, he actually said, "Did you hear that?".  I listened..... "What?"  "I said thank you, and I said excuse me earlier".  To which I anxiously replied, "What have you done with my son?"

But the biggest surprise, bar none, was Cesare's experience on the senior class trip.  His brother did not want to go, and so Ces was to head to the New Jersey waterpark with 100 other seniors accompanied by his best buddy/one to one nurse Michele.  They would have had a lot of fun together.  At the last minute Michele had a family emergency and it looked as if Cesare would not be able to go as the school district has no substitute nurses.  Enter dad, who willingly took the day off to keep his eye on Ces.  Tom stayed in the background, brave/foolish....could have gone either way.  (Note: I specially ordered neon green bathing trunks that could be spotted, by...well... a helicopter, and though he wore them, Cesare reported that every life guard in the park was wearing the same color. Score?  Cautious Mom: Zero)

Tom sent me short videos throughout the day that, had I been there, would have had the back of my head in every shot.  But all the pics I saw were from a distance.  And at that distance, Cesare sought out other boys on the trip.  He somehow ended up with some of the most popular, and nicest, guys in the senior class.  And though they have been in school together since kindergarten, none of them have spoken to him since he became the "kid with seizures" at age 7.  To see them together was surprising.  To see that they hung out together the whole day was heartwarming.

Ces is fun to be with.  And while I know that, I'm glad that others got to know that, too.

His new/old friends camped for this shot of them "naked", Ces played the straight man.

Cesare will continue to exceed my expectations of him, I have no question.  Though I could raise the bar in my mind, expect more...I prefer to be surprised.