Santa Claus apparently decided John was good enough for a visit

First of all, Merry Christmas! Santa was good to John this year, bringing him a bike and lots of Thomas the Tank Engine train stuff. Santa also brought some Bob the Builder toys that conveniently run on the Thomas train tracks, along with a Polar Express train and coach that also runs on the tracks. Santa brought Mom and Dad matching sinus infections. Needless to say, those holiday cards you're used to getting late? They'll be even later this year! No picture, either, as we completely forgot to have it taken in time. Yep, we've gone "low rent."

Christmas day was cold but clear, and so once our presents were opened we hit the road with the bike. We went down to Dodson's house, because Dodson also has a bike and we wanted to show Dodson that we had one too. We stayed fairly close to home, and John learned that he liked pedaling downhill much more than uphill, and he insisted on getting off and pushing the bike uphill. Also, when going fast, turning seems to be a little trouble for him. We'll get there, though.

John got lots of toys, but not as many as in previous years. A big THANK YOU to everyone who showed some restraint! This year wasn't nearly as overwhelming for him.

There's more to tell, like our potty training escapades, but that will have to wait a couple of days. On top of not feeling well, both Eric and Joyce have work deadlines for this week.

Sitting with Santa Claus

This year, we decided to take a gamble and take John to see Santa. In years' past, we thought this would be a terrible idea - large crowds of people, a large, strangely-dressed man, and the ultimate test of actually sitting on his lap and talking to him.

We did our prep work early, as you can imagine. For about a month, we've been reading stories at night about Santa and that Santa brings presents at Christmas. We explained to John that his part in this was that he had to go and see Santa, and tell him what he wanted. Last week, we did a test run, where we went to the mall (to the same place we'd ultimately be taking him) and showed him Santa and the line. When he saw Santa, he started to say that he wanted a new bus (go figure!). We told him that we needed to wait our turn.

Judgement Day was Wednesday. The line was long, but Joyce took John to the play area and I kept our spot in line. Once we got close, John came back, and we started reviewing the order of battle: introduce ourselves to Santa, sit on lap, say what we want, get picture taken.

When the moment of truth came, he froze, but just a bit. He came in and we helpfully said "John, say Hi to Santa." Santa was great, and said "Come here John." John then said "Thomas and Percy." Thomas and Percy, as some of you know, are two of the trains in the Thomas the Tank Engine series. Mind you, he already has those two, but hey, we had a conversation going and we weren't going to mess it up. Besides, prior to that, he kept saying he wanted a long bus with kids inside like Mr. Jerry drives. Mr. Jerry is his actual school bus driver, the one he rides to school, and we interpreted John's request as meaning that he wanted an actual school bus. Um...... no......

So anyway, back to Santa. We and Santa convinced John to sit on his lap, and Santa asked his question. John again responded "Thomas and Percy." We then worked on the picture, which as some of you know, getting John to sit for a picture is usually a disaster that involves somehow converting a scared, screaming child into a happy, smiling child. This usually does not work, unless I sit out of sight and tickle him.

On the fourth try, we got the following:

John and Santa Claus

Success!

John then hopped down, and Santa gave him a little book. John looked at the book, and we reminded him of his manners and asked him "What do you say to Santa?" He turned to Santa, and said...

"Thomas and Percy."

We have a zoo

I don't mean that our house is chaotic. It is, but that's not where I'm going here.

Who says autistic kids don't role-play? Over the past two weeks, we've accumulated an ever-growing zoo of wildlife in our house. It began when John started being a cat, which basically entailed him crawling around on all fours and meowing. But he didn't stop there. He tried to eat the cats' food and lick water out of the cats' bowl. He crawls over and wants you to pet him on the head.

Now he's expanding his repertoire. By "expanding" here I mean he basically changes the sounds he makes. He crawls up to you, and barks, says "baa," or perhaps "ribbit." He is, to his credit, changing up the routine a bit. Yesterday, he hopped over (on all fours - this is funny to watch) and said "ribbit." Dogs also hop, apparently, though I don't know why. For an elephant, he comes over and trumpets while holding his hand straight out, pretending it's a trunk.

The elephant gets a lot of action. He'll do the elephant anywhere, especially places like restaurants where they're not terribly interested in having a 3-year-old kid make an extremely loud trumpeting noise while holding his arm out in what looks, to the unknowing, like a Nazi salute.

The elephant also likes to use his trunk to spray water on people, after which Burrito will come over and wipe off your face. At least he's cleaning up after himself...

Oh, you washed my shirt, thank you so much!

He's on a politeness streak, apparently. Last weekend, he was helping with the laundry as he often does. This help involves my dropping the wet clothes from the washer onto the dryer door, and Burrito pushing them into the dryer. Well, he spotted one of his favorite shirts (no points for guessing that it has trains on it), and said, "Oh, that's my shirt. Thank you, thank you so much." This wasn't a fluke, either. When he saw a pair of his pants, he said, "Oh, thank you for cleaning my pants."

It's not just laundry, either. The other night, Joyce brought one of his train cars upstairs for him to play with in bed, and he thanked her too. He also thanked me yesterday for getting him some juice.

This is too good to be true.

On another note, John doesn't know anything. The past week or two have been filled with comments like "I don't know where we're going" or "I don't know what that is" or "I don't know where we are."

I don't know who put this line in his head! Hey, at least he's making conversation.