A teen like any other teen

"Talk to the hand!" Max doesn't actually say the words, but he holds up one hand and I know exactly what he means: Leave me alone, Mom! In that way, he is very much a teen like any other teen.

Oh, the list goes on.

He likes to hang out alone in our basement. Actually, that is where he prefers to sleep. We call it The Max Cave. 

He likes to take walks alone around our neighborhood, too.

He likes to eat and eat and eat. Did I mention he likes to eat? He can down his own meals and then most of Dave's, too.  

He likes to boss me and Dave around.

He likes to boss his little brother around.

He likes to boss his sister around. 

He likes to go on adventures. They are somewhat limited these days, but he is always raring to jump in the car and go anywhere new. This is markedly different from his childhood, when he would barely agree to walk into our local diner and when we did he had to sit at the same table by the bathroom every time. 

He gets gleeful about taking sips of beer.  

He is obsesses with iDevices.

He enjoys hanging out with people who are like him. This weekend, we bumped into a guy with autism  we'd met a few months ago when we were getting ice-cream in a neighboring town. The two of them texted and on Sunday night, they had ice-cream together then took a walk around. 

He wants to do what he wants to do, like not attend a therapy session if he'd rather go to the park. 

He likes to ogle Porsches and other fancy cars on the road.

He legit cares about showering. And hair gel. And his precious "Los Angeles Fire Department," which he only takes off when he sleeps.

He can be really obnoxious.

I say all this not because I am surprised—hardly. It's just that I am not sure people realize just how typical teens with disabilities can be, same as I used to say about Max as a kid. I sure had no clue before I had Max, but now I know:

TEENS AND CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES CAN BE AS COOL AND INTERESTING AND AWESOME AND IMPOSSIBLE AND ANNOYING AS ANY TEEN OR CHILD.

There's this perception that children and teens with disabilities are angelic, but that's unfair to them because it glosses over the fact they are multi-dimensional humans with unique strengths and personalities, like every other kid and teen on the planet. And they are capable of independence, too, in whatever ways work for them. 

Something new happened over the weekend. Max and I were having a disagreement. He turned on his heel, walked out of the kitchen and yelled,

"I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU!!!"  

#Teens.