Oh. Oh!

Wow. Sometimes the kids really get to me. In a good way. Kate has been growing in her awareness of "What It's Like To Be Evan". A couple of weeks ago she was sad for him when she saw him eating lunch alone at a middle school event. She sat by him for a while before going off to find the friends who deserted her while she sat with her brother. Another day as they were leaving the school building, Evan (who is outgoing and friendly in the extreme, but not too clear on social cues) said "Hi!" to a group of boys who then began to make fun of Evan who just kept walking. Katie fumed, and Evan blew it off.
She has wrestled with her brother's behaviors and idiosyncracies over the years, but she has never before seen quite what it is like to be Evan because they have always been at different schools so he could attend "special" programs while she went to the neighborhood campus. She is not impressed with the way she sees people treating her brother. She can treat him poorly on occasion, but she is outraged if anyone else does. She seems to be making a more concerted effort along with our younger daughter to simply befriend Evan.
This afternoon the pair played Cranium in between loads of laundry while waiting for dinner. Then Katie showed how well she does know her brother. A book in a series Evan loves came out, but there was a wait in the library for it. Evan bemoaned how he would be waiting for weeks to check out one of two copies in circulation. This evening his sister pulled one of the two copies out of her backpack and handed it to him. (Can you just hear the "Oh. Oh... OH!" from their Mama?) She was able to check out the book, and she thought of something that would be entirely thrilling to her brother.