I love your brain

Cole is the most difficult child to buy gifts for. He wants for nothing. Not because we give him everything he wants, but because he truly doesn’t enjoy a lot of things. In some ways he’s a very simple fellow. He loves his television, occasional movies and books, and music.

He does the occasional art or science project and will every so often partake in a game. He doesn’t care much for action characters or cartoon figures or toys. He’s happy to cook with my husband and I when the mood strikes him, but there’s not much he needs in terms of cookware or accessories.

He likes to dress simply, which means during the week to school dress code – mostly navy sweat pants or shorts and a white long or short sleeved athletic shirt, and non-navy sweats or shorts and t-shirts on the weekend.

He’s got all kinds of gadgets and gizmos meant to make his life more accessible or fun. They don’t all work but we try. Same goes for seating. We love the Chill Out Chair and so does he, but various beanbag chairs haven’t fared as well like the yogibo, a giant beanbag like thing that now resides upstanding in his room, hovering over everything and taking up space that doesn’t exist.

Sadly, there are way more misses than hits in our repertoire of gift selections for Cole. All given with well intentions and all given with hope and lots of consideration that they’ll be hits. Alas, we’re gearing up for another holiday and he’s always the last one to be checked off the “gifts” list.

Besides coming up with some great ideas for ourselves, we also have the additional pressure to make suggestions for everyone else. Gift cards to movie theatres and places like Amazon, Target and Barnes & Noble are always on the list. He enjoys taking his friends to a movie and it’s useful to have the gift cards in the event we stumble upon something that seems wonderful for him.

I’m looking towards high school with some of the ideas this year. He and his para-professional are going need to be on top things come high schools so I’m focusing on ideas that will help, like a portable scanner so they can scan his homework, classwork, and school notices into an app that we can all access with the hope that less things get lost or don’t make it home. It’s not a glamorous gift for a fourteen year old boy but it’s practical and needed.

For Cole, people are more important to him. He likes going to lunch with his grandma each week and he looks forward to seeing friends and family and enjoys being able to share some frozen yogurt or a movie with them. Genuinely…that’s the stuff that makes him happiest. I love that about him but I still wish I could find the one great thing that makes his eyes gleam and smile widen!