Trains vs Elevators?

One of the fascinating things about having two children on the spectrum is how different they are. It was obvious that Nic had something going on almost from the moment the nurse placed him in my arms after he was born. Gabriel, on the other hand, looked 'normal,' but it was only because of constant vigilance on my part that he was diagnosed on the spectrum 10 days before his third birthday--and the clinical psych who handed me the diagnosis agreed that you really had to 'look for it' to understand what you were seeing.

They act like fairly typical brothers. They like each other, for the most part; they fight; they tease each other, and despite the nearly four years that separate them, they play pretty well together.

But they certainly have their own interests. Nic likes elevators. Um, correction. Nic is obsessed with elevators. I suspect he is a little afraid of them and has mild clautrophobia, and this is his way of dealing with that anxiety. Gabriel likes elevators well enough and will tolerate the countless rides Nic insists on, but doggone it, his thing is trains. He loves him his trains.

We have the prerequisite train table and accoutrements. Nic got a lot of mileage out of them and will still like to set up a track now and then. Gabriel, however, 'settles' for it. He's gunning for the 'real' model railroads, and he LOVES riding the train into the city. And Nic likes that well enough, because the train will lead him to elevators to ride.

Sometimes I feel like I am living in my own coral reef watching the symbiosis between my clownfish and my anemone. And if you've ever had the pleasure of witnessing it first hand, it's a wonderful sight, indeed.