Like A Song

Our birth announcement proudly proclaimed...Like a Song! Lyric Kay Nolin was born on May 21, 2002.

Little did I know how often I would actually have to explain her name with the words "you know....like a song lyric...L-Y-R-I-C". Nor did I have any idea just how much Lyric Kay would sing her way through life. In the delivery room she let out her first wail and my doctor proclaimed, "look at that - she's already singing!" The fact is, she has been singing ever since.

When Lyric was still just an infant (maybe 7 months old) my mom and I heard her humming the tune to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. You might think I was excited - "wow - I have a protege for a daughter!" But I was actually struck by a knot in my gut that told me this just wasn't _right_. And so it would go for the next couple of years. Her terrifying fear of vacuums and birthday candles. Her freakish avoidance of grass. The circles she walked around and around and around in the yard. Her inability to make eye contact.

She was diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) at the University of Iows Children's Hospital when she was just 3-years-old. And so for 5 years now, my beautiful little Lyric carries the quiet label of Autism like the rest of us carry brunette, heavy, skinny, fat, quiet, outgoing. And all the while, she sings. She dances. She lives with Princesses and rainbows and fairy tales. Cause in Lyric's world, the whole world is a castle and we are all her subjects. In Lyric's world, there is a stage and she is on that stage and she is singing - All the Single Ladies, It's Raining Sunshine and Spongebob's Its the Best Day Ever. And in Lyric's world, you don't need to know the words. You just sing. And you dance. And the whole world listens.

And that's what I hoped this blog will do - allow you the opportunity to listen and hear how one little girl navigates the world with autism.....and a song.