As I said in one of my earlier task completions (Work is So Strange) I am fortunate enough to be a respite caregiver for a now 6-year-old boy with Down's Syndrome. He is sometimes a handful, sometimes a brat, sometimes an angel, sometimes easy to be with, sometimes downright amazing. He's generally very easy to take care of. He loves to watch things move, and will spend literally hours sitting spinning a ball or pouring sand from one bucket to another. He's also deaf, so he doesn't talk, and rarely signs. He's learned he can generally get what he wants by pointing or grabbing your hand and walking you to what he wants.
Today was a pretty regular day with him, except that it was so long. 9 1/2 hours. Yeah. We didn't spend all of it in the house, thank goodness, but we were there a good portion of the day.
He plays so simply, it's such a joy. We were sitting on his parents' bed, because that was the warmest spot in the house. He grabbed a blanket and threw it over my head, then searched around to find me and pulled it off. We spent quite a while playing peek-a-boo, with usually me under the blanket, but sometimes him, and both of us getting really fluffy static hair. Then he got tired of that, and toddled off to find something else. He came back with a ball made out of that weird gel stuff that stretches a lot and feels almost like it's wet. Apparently it's part of his "sensory therapy" stuff. It had all these little tendrils on it, and he grabbed a handful of these, let the ball hang, and proceeded to spin it. Usually this sort of thing will content him forever. So, I let him be and went to do something else. A little while later, I feel this little warm hand on my arm, pulling me to the ball, which stopped spinning. I gave it a little twist, and he giggled as off it went again. I let him be again, and in just a few seconds there was that little hand on my arm, pulling me because he wanted me to spin it. Usually he's not very touchy-feely except when he's scared or wants to bring you to something. So, those little warm pulls on my arm were amazing to me. He wanted something so simple, and wanted it from me.
Later, he was a little overwhelmed by all the people around (we were at the Down's Syndrome society Christmas party) and he just sat me down in the party jumper thing, pulled himself into my lap, and wrapped his little octopus arms and legs around me. I think that's the second time ever he's given me a hug, and it just brought me such happiness to know he really does like me even though I put his shoes on and wipe his nose sometimes.