Feet forever!

   Tim likes feet. Even when he was really young, he liked to hide under the blankets and look at my feet. He used to play with my toes, and couldn't sleep unless he had one foot touching some part of me. He also used to beg his Grandma Suzi to take off her shoes when she visited, so he could check out her feet too. Now he talks about women's feet, watches YouTube videos of people walking barefoot in the snow, keeps asking girls at school to take off their shoes. He's been begging for years to be allowed to walk barefoot in the snow. He even draws footprints in the snow instead of making snow angels.  
   We recently bought him a pair of Fila Skeletoes shoes, so he could leave barefoot prints in the show without actually having cold feet. So far, he seems to like them, but they have really thin soles, so his feet do get cold, and you can't wear traditional socks with them. So he still wants to wear his sandals. With socks.

Camouflage doesn't work well in snow.

   More and more, I find myself harking back to when Tim was much younger and comparing his actions then to now. A lot of things seem to have carried over, or at least evolved from behaviors of his babyhood. He was always very good with spelling, and letter recognition. In fact, he spelled words before he said them. His first spoken word was "guitar". These days, he can read complex Japanese characters, as well as simplified Chinese, Korean, and is currently teaching himself Hebrew. He's taught himself all of these using books, comics, and the Internet.

Tim claims this is my name in Korean

   I've heard that autistic children can sometimes be hyper-sensitive to touch, texture, and physical contact. These days Tim seems to crave hugs and attention from me, but avoids his younger siblings. High fives are always acceptable, but hugs from "the littles" are forbidden. He prefers sleeping on the floor. We had a nice bed for him, but he would rather be on a futon. I think he feels steadier, more grounded when closer to the, well, ground. However I've seen him climb and enjoy jungle gyms and ramps, and have fun swimming, which is definitely not touching ground. So much of him is still a mystery.

Not a mystery; Tim is a ham for the camera. :)