Getting Organized—Pamela Style!

The other day Pamela and I were packing for a trip. Here she is in the car, wearing her brothers baseball cap. She announced, "I'm pretending to be David." Then, she held an imaginary bat and swung. She was thinking back to a season in which her brother played baseball.

Pamela has been doing some amazing things lately. For about a month, she has held short conversations with Steve on Skype. The other day—without realizing what she was doing—she fooled her dad, who believed that I was chatting with him! Here is how it went down.

Tammy Glaser: Hi!

Stephen Glaser: Hi... Trying to wrap up things to get out of here at a reasonable hour, and ahead of the snow

Tammy Glaser: Four months ago! She died in 12/14/12.

Stephen Glaser: who died 12/14/12????

Tammy Glaser: Loa.

Stephen Glaser: oh yes... sorry, I was not thinking in the proper context.... sweet memories of the dog...

Tammy Glaser: What about hotel on saturday night?

Stephen Glaser: we'll stay somewhere enroute.... maybe knox or a little further perhaps

Stephen Glaser: wait.. you are Pamela!!!!

Tammy Glaser: I am going to watercolor class and see Julia.

Stephen Glaser: ok Pamela.... have fun at watercolor

Tammy Glaser: 9 years ago. Great grandma died a long time ago.

Stephen Glaser: yes she did, but we remember her fondly.... we love great Grandma

Back to our packing—Pamela packed a suitcase for her baby and filled it with clothes. She also packed a diaper bag for them!



As I reported last December, Pamela is becoming adept at organizing. This is something she has taught herself to do. She has even taken on the job of clipping Boxtops for a friend's school.



She enjoys going through our stuff, bagging related items, and putting things to their proper place. While I was busy cleaning for a visit from Steve, Pamela was doing her part! When he came home, she asked him to do a chore for her. She wanted him to take these plastic bins out of the shed for her to store old games. Pamela has gone through old storage boxes and carefully bagged game pieces together!



Many moons ago, I gathered all the old markers into one big jar. I suspect most of them have run out of ink. Pamela has sorted them by kind: sharpies, highlighters, dry erase, and other markers. She put all pens into one school supply bag (the durable kind) and all pencils, erasers, and lead into another. I wonder if she will figure out she needs to test them and toss out the dry markers, broken pens, and pens that are dry.



I posted pictures of her first two drawers. She still keeps them ship-shape!



A couple of thoughts come to mind.

• Pamela never lined up toys when she was little. Children in the autism spectrum typically do this. She did not!
• She chooses to do this. Unlike many children with autism, she is throwing away trash voluntarily. Some people in the spectrum are traumatized when people throw out what appears to be trash.
• Watching Pamela come into her own as a person is an amazing thing to behold.
• When asked by a friend if she would do this at their house, Pamela responded, "You're joking!" But, I do wonder if this could turn into a niche career. Most people hate organizing their stuff!