Cassie's Day of Self-Discovery

Cassie Pitman, Photo-Journalist!

Today, Cassie and I were blessed to attend ASquared Photography's sponsored "World Through My Eyes 2012".  What is this?  Well, they describe it here: Syracuse.com "World Through My Eyes 2012.  I see it as they gave my kid a camera that she's wanted forever, and the opportunity to walk through a beautiful park, taking pictures of anything that interested her, and a promise that she'd be published and hopes of a gallery showing.  They gave us more than a camera, a few hours of something new, and an opportunity for Cassie to learn who she is.  They gave me some major & important knowledge on my child!!!!

The past few days here at the Pitman Richards house were anything but fun.  She'd go from smiley Cassie to a puddle of screaming goo in 2.3 seconds.  "We've been invited to Gary's for a BBQ and Bonfire, I think we should go."  Simple enough sentence, don't you think?  "ARRGGGHHHHhhhh!!!!!!   NNNNOOOOOOooooo!!!!!  I CANT DO THAT!!!!  They'll be swimming and I can't and I'll be bored and I'll be miserable and I don't like to eat bbq and I'll be hungry and there will be noone to play with and I don't want to take my computer because then I wont know what to do on it and.........."  followed by sob, sob, sob.  Ok.  We won't go, its ok.  Nope.  THAT wasn't fun enough for ROB!!  "Hey, Cassie!!  Mom's gonna go and you and I will stay here. hahahha"

"AARRRGGGggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!  NNNNOOOOOooooooo!!!!!!  I need her because she is my wooby and she keeps me calm and you dont and you'll play a game with me but I'll lose and then I'll get sad and what if I have a melt down and you cant help me with that because you dont know what to do and you have too much autism to do it and mommy fixes things and you poked me and it hurt and when we were at grandmas......"  sob, sob sob.

I was there, and didn't realize how
interesting this view is until
I saw her picture!  The bottom of
the bridge is also forming waves!

This morning, though, she was calmer, but still nothing was right.  Her hair wasn't right, her breakfast wasn't right, I wasn't moving fast enough... and so on and so on.  When we got to the park, she was hanging on me and giggling like a maniac.  Yes, my friends, she was scared to death.  We got her checked in, she got her camera, and we started.  She was still up my rear-end, Cassie-Style, but about 1/2 hour into it something amazing happened.  She started walking 3 steps away from me, and looking at things.  Then she'd stop and bring the camera up, take a picture, grin, (not giggle) and move on.  At one point she was heading toward the pier and actually got about 20 steps away!!!  She was on a mission!!!

An Unknown Underwater
Lake Flower

After an hour, she stopped, turned to me, after about 10 whole minutes of silence (A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!!) and said "OK.  I'm done.  Lets go."  And we did.  They copied her SD card, gave me a gift certificate for a free portrait, and off we went.... still completely calm!!  AND SHE REMAINED CALM UNTIL 5PM!!!!  I feel an experiment coming on.  The next time she is completely off the wall, I will take her into a park with her camera and see if it has the same effect.  If it does, I will then take her to a different venue, with her camera, and see if its just nature, or just photography in general that has this effect!!!  Wish us luck, and thank you, ASquared!!  You are AWESOME!!!!