Test Drive at the Library

James has been fixating on plotting the driving route from Northern to Southern California. He constantly asks which city is next, how we get to So Cal, and what the weather is like at various points. Common fixations are the Altamont Pass. He is also fascinated with the steep So Cal access road, in particular why we call it The Grapevine but it's official title is the Tejon Pass.

James also loves going to the library: computer time!

Put these things together, and you get:

Oh my!

Things in Places: the Good and Not So Good

While James has not exhibited typical behaviour of lining up objects as a way of playing with them, he has always liked Things in Their Places. This means that he can recite who lives or works at a city or off an exit as we drive down the freeway. He knows which of his doctors/therapists (and there are a lot of them) live/work in which city. It sometimes frustrates him that he does not know where his teacher and aide live. He has a much better idea of North, South, and how to find a place in our town than, say, his older sister. He dislikes it even more than I when Trader Joe's changes up the layout of their stores.

He LOVES Hide-and-Go-Seek. Likewise Blue's Clues. I think the reason he did not embrace Joe is because he displaced Steve from the house. His favourite bedtime stories have been a combination of hide-and-go-seek and his favourite people/tv characters. We have a lot of fun with that one. He has 3 favourite settings: Caillou's house, his grandparents' near us, and the beach house. Most of the characters have to hide in a certain spot and he won't let the story go until EVERYONE has been found.

We've tried to interest James in non-iPad play things, such as stuffed animals, toy cars, books, and building objects. Hand puppets, costumes, and drawing materials have had a pretty strong success with truly active play. The most he's done with stacking or lining up activities are sporadically holding onto recorded media. Over the past few months, however, he has started to obsess in particular over the Baby Einstein videos and DVDs that we've amassed over the years and never given away, because he still like sthem. Now they are "his" and we are immediately corrected if we call a VHS a DVD. We are expected to know which are marked "FHS" and the difference between the originals and the re-released. We have discussed at length Julie Clark: he hair (and it's length), and whether or not we can call the Baby Einstein logo Julie Clark because she drew it.

Frankly, I am up to here with Julie Clark and the Baby Einstein collection. They are better than The Teletubbies or the Wiggles, I give you that. And yes, they have turned him on to classical music, which he prefers even as his sister heads into Maroon 5, Taylor Swift, and Tween rap, for which my ears and my sanity are thankful. But I have to talk him out of taking them EVERYWHERE with him, including school and trips to the specialist in SF. The horror of losing one, or the DVD, or having one break is not to be imagined.

I'll end on a positive note: His penchant for Things in Their Places sure comes in handy when it's time to clean up his room or around the house. I can hardly wait to try him at coding.

Things. in. Their. Places.

James has not really lined up toys in order, the way some kids on the spectrum do, but he has a very definite idea of what things go where and can obsess over things out of place.

Like tonight, when I made him change his seat on the way home, because there were bags in the back, where he's been sitting for the last few months (ever since he and his sister got too big to share a row in the car).

Oh. My. Goodness.

Twenty minutes of "I don't like _insert everything under the sun_" and "let me out Right Now!"

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way home.

And then he was fine. I am working on that myself.

Still Talking About It

Easter was last weekend, but James is still excited about getting together with his cousins at his grandparents' house.

 He enjoyed the egg-citement of the hunt through the light rain and misty garden for the colourful plastic eggs. He still doesn't eat the candy, though.  The Easter Bunny knows to fill the eggs for James' basket with cat cookies and little Ritz/peanut butter sandwiches.

What James has focused on (to the point of obsession) is the hide-and-go-seek games that came at the end of the afternoon, inside the house. He constantly wants to "tell the story of hide and seek." Breakfast, as soon as I pick him up from school. The afternoon hours until bedtime are punctuated with requests for hide-and-seek stories. It's his new bedtime routine.

So glad he's enjoying these social interactions. The focus and repetition, however, are a little wearing. I think I'm going to start trying to hide people on the ceiling and in the fridge next time I tell the story, to see what "happens."