My mom and I took Nate to the mall Saturday to buy him new pants for work. He has grown so much this past year, that nothing fits.
Out first stop was Qdoba for lunch. As we were going through the line, I was prompting Nate to order on his own. I asked him if wanted a chicken or cheese quesadilla for lunch. Nate kept telling me chicken, so I let him tell the man his order. Nate told him chicken several times, so I figured he really wanted the chicken quesadilla. We took out food to the table to eat and Nate started inspecting his food. He wouldn't eat his quesadilla and opened it up to start picking out every piece of chicken and giving it to my mom. I knew this was not going to work. He would not rest until every piece of chicken was gone. I went back up to the counter to order Nate a cheese quesadilla. The same man was working and I told him that Nate wouldn't eat the chicken and I needed a new cheese quesadilla. I stepped down to pay and he shooed me back to my table and told me not to worry about paying. I would have gladly paid for the other quesadilla, but it was nice that the man recognized Nate's difficulty in ordering.
The second act of kindness surprised me more than the first. We were at Macy's buying Nate some pants. I was paying for them and Nate was pacing behind me. There was a young man (in his early 20's with green hair) standing behind me. I kept waiting for Nate to comment about the green hair, but, surprisingly, he didn't. Nate could not stand still and just kept pacing behind me. He also kept repeating the words, "apples and bananas." Over and over, "apples and bananas." One time he only said, "apples." The young man behind me looked at Nate, smiled, and said, "and bananas." Nate looked at the young man, smiled, and then started all over again, "apples and bananas." The young man behind me didn't judge Nate. He didn't look at us with pity. He just took a minute and tried to make a connection with Nate. It really made my day.
