{"id":1000,"date":"2015-05-19T16:07:09","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T16:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/profbanks.com\/?p=1000"},"modified":"2015-05-19T16:07:09","modified_gmt":"2015-05-19T16:07:09","slug":"looking-for-a-moment-of-zen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profbanks.com\/?p=1000","title":{"rendered":"Looking for a Moment of Zen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"10384483_10203674437877484_4535604134319040972_n\"<\/a>

Connor around the time we bought our first TiVo box.<\/p><\/div>\n

We bought our first TiVo machine when Connor was about 7 months old. This turned out to be the single best purchase we made as new parents. It allowed us keep up with our favorite shows so we still felt connected to popular culture through the following months of sleep deprivation and unpredictable schedules.<\/p>\n

We developed the habit of watching The Daily Show over Cam\u2019s lunch hour, when he came home from his library job just five minutes up the road. Connor would sit in the cradle of Cam\u2019s crossed legs and watch the show with us. Soon, Connor was laughing along with us, even though he didn\u2019t understand the jokes\u2014he caught on to the rhythm of the comedy, and the funny faces helped too. We didn\u2019t know about his autism yet, but his ability to perceive patterns was already strong.<\/p>\n

By the time he was two, Connor had started folding Jon Stewart into the epic adventures he played out with his action figures, as important to the story as his other superheroes. He would even hook a clip-on tie to the collar of his t-shirt, then stand tiptoe on the bathroom stool so he could see his reflection. He babbled in his \u201cmoon language,\u201d but with a very peculiar rhythm that ended in maniacal laughter. When I asked him what he was doing in there, he replied with some exasperation, \u201cI Jon Stewart!\u201d<\/p>\n

Only a week or two after his second birthday party, he announced very clearly, \u201cFor my next birthday, I want Jon Stewart party.\u201d Cam and I found this hilarious, and we assured him that we would make it happen. For our amusement, we checked in with him every few months: \u201cSo, what kind of birthday party do you think you might want for your third birthday?\u201d And he steadfastly replied, \u201cI want Jon Stewart Party!\u201d<\/p>\n

At last, summer rolled around again, and we worked hard to make his wish a reality. With a birthday so close to July 4th, it was easy for us to get flag party supplies. We handed out invitations with a picture of Jon Stewart on them and the message \u201cWE WANT YOU to celebrate Connor\u2019s third birthday!\u201d to the other kids at his preschool. (We got a few disapproving looks from other parents who thought we let Connor stay up \u2019til 11pm to watch the show as it aired; a quick explanation of the magic of TiVo resolved things.) The technology where you could get a photo scanned onto a cake\u2019s frosting had just come to town; we got some strange looks at the bakery when we brought in a cast picture, I can tell you.<\/p>\n

\"2015_05_19_10_21_51\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The day was everything we could\u2019ve hoped for. His preschool teacher made him a t-shirt with Jon Stewart\u2019s face on it. We played episodes on TV while the other 2- and 3-year-olds ran around whacking each other with American flag thundersticks.\"2015_05_19_10_21_52\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And when it was cake time, he announced with a certain cannibalistic glee , \u201cI eat Jon Stewart face!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"2015_05_19_10_21_54\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to believe that that party was almost 10 years ago. Connor will turn 13 this summer, a milestone I sometimes wondered if we\u2019d ever reach<\/a>. His love of comedy is still integral to who he is<\/a>, and his senses of the absurd and satire come as much from Jon Stewart as they do from us his parents. Whenever we wonder whether he can understand a concept with complicated emotional nuances that can be difficult for autistic kids, we know he\u2019s gotten it when he makes up a joke about it.<\/p>\n

\"To<\/a>

To be fair, Connor (bottom left) comes by his weird sense of humor naturally.<\/p><\/div>\n

It would close a 10-year circle beautifully if we could figure out how to get tickets to one of the remaining tapings of The Daily Show. We had heard that, through friends of friends, one of the birthday party invitations had made its way to Jon Stewart himself. I doubt he still has it, but maybe he remembers it. And if this story makes its way to him in a similar fashion, maybe he could see his way clear to make a kid\u2019s lifelong dream come true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We bought our first TiVo machine when Connor was about 7 months old. This turned out to be the single best purchase we made as new parents. It allowed us keep up with our favorite shows so we still felt connected to popular culture through the following months of sleep deprivation and unpredictable schedules. We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,82],"tags":[193,235,17,197,287,551,552],"class_list":["post-1000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-history","category-av-club","tag-autism","tag-birthday","tag-children","tag-comedy","tag-heroes","tag-jon-stewart","tag-the-daily-show"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1000"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/profbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1008,"href":"https:\/\/profbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000\/revisions\/1008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}