In This Corner, We Have...

Mali, our neurotypical child. In the other, we have Leelo, our neuro-outlier. The neurologic differences between 5.5-year-old Leelo and almost 1.5-year-old Mali were amply illustrated last evening by the following episode.

I arrived home with all three kids in my car to find Seymour's car already in the driveway.

Mali saw the car and said, "Daddy!"
Leelo saw the car and said nothing.
(Iz was reading Will0w &Tara in the back seat and so also said nothing.)

I said, "Leelo, look! Daddy is home! What color is Daddy's car?"

...nothing...

"Leelo, Daddy's car is...?"

...nothing...

"Leelo, Daddy's car is blue. Daddy's car is...?"

Mali: "Blue!"
Leelo: silence

I repeated it twice more with the same results. Though I must write that Leelo normally would have answered the question as well, if not nearly so quickly as his baby sister. He is not in a great mood right now, for reasons I hope to detail later today.

As much as the three-way exchange highlighted just how delayed Leelo is, it also underscored how little we need to worry about Mali. Even if she regresses later, she is already well beyond Leelo's plateauing sort of autism. Regression is always a suppressed concern, but as even the MYND Institute people don't seem worried about it, I will keep that little fret bomb submerged as much as I can.