When Jonny was young…


July 22, 2023| Jason Michael Reynolds|2 Minutes
July 22, 2023|By Jason Michael Reynolds|2 Minutes

When Jonny was young…


When Jonny was younger, he would say the funniest things.

If he didn’t quite have the vocabulary to describe what he wanted, he would invent words to fit his narratives.

He would make words and phrases up like “last morning” (which is of course, the opposite of “last night”)

But one time, when it was time to leave the playground inside the mall, he came up with a phrase to plead his case for “staying” at said playground.

“YOU’RE NOT MY FAMILY!!” (As I’m carrying him through the mall to the car over my shoulder.) 🙄

(I’ll post a link to that story below).

I can’t tell you how long I have dreamed of having one of those moments with Jonah, who has been nonverbal most of his life.

Well… that moment arrived last week.

We were at a restaurant eating lunch to celebrate Jonny’s birthday. The boys were keeping occupied by playing with Jonny’s phone.

They were taking turns and sharing (being perfect angels, mind you).

And then Jonny turned the phone off. He said “I need to turn my phone off because it’s going to die.”

Jonah did not react well. (Though he reacted BETTER than he has in the past).

Instead of hitting Jonny or throwing the phone in anger, he “properly protested” using his words to express his frustration.

He told me in his own words that he didn’t want Jonny’s phone to die, and those words just happened to come out in a scream:

“I don’t want to die.”

Jonah was very adamant.

“I DON’T WANT TO DIE!!!”

And while I understood what he meant, the onlookers MAY not have interpreted it quite the same way.

So if you were there at Red Robin a week or so ago and you happened to see and/or hear a little boy screaming that he “didn’t want to die,” please don’t worry.

He is fine. We are fine. ALL IS FINE.

Thanks for understanding. 👍

🤦‍♂️

#ausome



Original Facebook Post.