You've been chopped!

Summer is a very interesting time of year for us. And by "interesting" I mean, "is it wine-thirty yet?" I might need to pull out my Pyramid of Crazy...

I have been working with the boys on a new reward schedule for our token economy system. They can earn treasure coins to pay for rewards by following a list of expected behaviors.

That's fancy talk for, "follow the rules and earn prizes!"

One of the things they can earn is time to watch a show of their choosing. If they don't want to pay coins for a show, then they are stuck watching whatever I pick. Or, they can go play elsewhere if they don't like the show I selected.

We don't watch all that much TV in our home because we can't afford cable. We rely on things like Hulu and Netflix and we have our PC hooked up to the big TV in our family room so that we can stream shows over the internet for free. Well, it's free except for the exorbitant cost of high-speed internet!

One of the shows I have recently rediscovered courtesy of the internet is Chopped, from the Food Network. I love this show! I figured it was somewhat educational for me in learning about ingredients and food preparation, and it didn't seem to have anything offensive that would be bad for the boys.

As it turns out, the boys love this show! They are glued to the TV when I turn it on. So much so, that they do something miraculous: They sit still. The entire time. I know. Miracle!  

If you've never seen the show, a group of 4 chefs come on the show to compete for $10,000. They have to go through 3 rounds - appetizer, entree, and dessert. With each round, their dishes are judged by an esteemed panel of chefs/culinary giants, and then one chef is "chopped" and does not move forward to the next round. Depending on the course, they have 20-30 minutes to create an amazing dish that must feature all of the ingredients revealed in a black mystery basket. The chefs open up the basket and the clock starts ticking away the few minutes they have to execute their brilliance.

Some of the ingredients the show comes up with, and the combinations of those ingredients, are truly insane. I mean it. I've seen things like candied fennel seeds (that look that sprinkles on steroids) for use in an entree. They come up with the most unlikely pairings of ingredients that have no relation to each other in any way.

One dish can include things like: chicken kidneys, sea beans, popcorn, and star fruit. I don't know. I'm trying to think of ingredients I have seen them use... Crazy stuff!

"Chefs, open your basket! Your time starts now!"

Really? And, what the heck are sea beans anyway? How exactly do you prepare chicken kidneys? Ewww...

So, my boys, the little script memorizers that they are, absorb everything about the show while it's on. Prince Charming can actually do a Ted Allen impression. It's the funniest thing ever to hear him interject things he's heard from the show when I'm cooking.

In fact, we were out having dinner at a restaurant and Prince Charming was reading the menu. Titan and I were ordering an appetizer and Prince Charming piped up and asked, "Is that an 'on ray'?" Puzzled, Titan and I looked at each other trying to figure out what he was talking about.

Then it hit me. Not "on ray." Enree. He's trying to say "entree!" He is figuring out that at a restaurant you can order an appetizer, entree and dessert. Just like Chopped!

Smart boy.

The next day, we were hanging out at home doing nothing in particular. The boys were playing in the same room. When this happens, it can spell trouble very quickly. Monkey did something that Prince Charming didn't like and he was getting agitated and escalating his behavior. All of a sudden, he angrily glares at Monkey and I hear him yell:

"You've been chopped! Grrrrr!"

Well, I guess Prince Charming figured out how to turn a Food Network show into a way he can fight with his brother. It was so priceless, I could barely stifle my laughter.

Now, that is scripting in all of its glory. And it was pretty awesome.       
 

Flashback Friday: Think Pink!

We made it to Friday! Happy happy, joy joy!

One of the things my boys love to do on the weekend is watch Pink Panther after breakfast. They like to have cuddle time with daddy in the big recliner under a fuzzy blanket while they watch their show. With 2 very warm boys in his lap and a jazzy, dialog-free cartoon playing in the background, Titan usually catches a quick nap. It's a nice, mellow routine for a weekend morning.  

Click here to read about how we rediscovered Pink Panther and why it's one of our favorite cartoons.  

Hope you have a great Friday and a great weekend!

I love to singa

Do you remember the old Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes cartoons? There was an episode from 1936 featuring the character of Owl Jolson. This little owl only wanted to sing jazz, and his parents disapproved and insisted he learn classical music. Sound familiar?

Well, over the weekend we lived in “I love to singa” land. All. weekend. long. Prince Charming sang the song nonstop around the house as he played, sat, ate... You get the idea.

It went a little something like this:

I love to sing-a
About the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a,
I love to sing-a,
About a sky of blue-a, or a tea for two-a,
Anything-a with a swing-a to an "I love you-a,"
I love to, I love to siiiiiiiiiiiiiing!

You remember the song, don’t you? Fair warning…since you just read the lyrics and found yourself singing along in your head, there is a 99% probability that the song will now, in fact, be stuck-a in your head-a. At least I’m not the only one-a!

He even included the nasal rendition of the piece that Owl Jolson’s parents wanted him to sing instead of jazz.

Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with miiiiine.

Prince Charming nailed it every single time. Perfectly. In hindsight, I guess it was a nice distraction from Monkey’s constant talking about cars.

As I sat down to write this post, I reviewed the cartoon again to refresh my memory (as if I needed to be reminded).

Guess what? I made a discovery!

Both of my boys have been saying, “stop, Stop, STOP!” in increasing volume and intensity as they play together. Let’s just agree that it’s NOT an enjoyable experience to be in a room with them yelling, “STOP!” repeatedly to each other. Anyway, I discovered that the boys got that little gem from Owl Jolson’s father who yelled those words with the exact same inflection whenever he wanted his boy to quit singing jazz.

Well, I guess that cleared up the question of where the latest and greatest phrase came from. I could choke Owl Jolson’s dad for that one. Perseveration is fun, isn’t it? Mommy needs coffee. Or maybe vodka.

    

Changing Names?

Over the summer my little guy earned some new nicknames. Right now I refer to him almost exclusively as Prince Charming. He truly is a charmer and he’s so dang cute that your cheeks ache from smiling at him. Now, there is his other personality… I call him Grumpy Badger for a reason. He has earned that name, for sure! He can be hell on wheels when he wants to be. It’s hard to believe that such opposite personalities can exist in one small body.

I noticed sometime during the summer that a new habit was developing. At first I thought it was a comfort thing or just a way for him to have fun, but I think ultimately it was a sensory thing for him. He began to sit with his legs pulled up tight against his abdomen, and then he would pull out his shirt over his knees. Once he pulled his arms inside his shirt, his body was encapsulated into one little mass. I’m sure there was some nice compression on his body, which probably felt good to his overactive sensory system.

It took me a while to figure out what prompted this new behavior, but then it hit me one day as he was tucking his head inside his shirt while dialoging some semi-familiar sounds. His speech was slowing down as he was forming himself into a small bundle and burying his head in his shirt. I realized that he was acting out a scene from the movie Wall-E when Wall-E was losing power and had converted back into a cube as he shut down.

Prince Charming had been making little noises here and there for a few weeks at that point, including the famous electronic, “E-va-ah” from Wall-E as he was trying to wake up Eve from when she was protecting the plant. He nailed the inflection and tone perfectly every time. His constant rendition of Wall-E reminded me of last winter’s obsession with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam.

As the summer continued, I would occasionally refer to him as Wall-E when I saw him tucking himself into a little ball. He always quickly objected and then Monkey would pipe up with some comment reminding me that his name was actually Badger and not Wall-E. We would laugh over the nicknames and then continue on with our day until it happened again.

Then, one day I saw him in a little heap on the chair. His legs and arms were all tucked inside his shirt and he was in the process of also trying to get his head inside the shirt to form a perfect Wall-E cube. The difference was that he was wearing a green shirt that day. I was watching him wiggle around to get inside his shirt, and all of a sudden it popped into my head. “You’re my little Turtle, aren’t you?”

His head jerked up and he exclaimed, “Turtle? I’m not a Turtle!” I told him that he looked like a Turtle because he appeared to be hiding inside his shell, which was green. He laughed and told me I was silly. But, the funny thing is that he immediately came out of the Wall-E fantasy and began acting like himself again.

I tested the theory the next time I saw him withdraw into his shirt. “There’s my little Turtle!” His arms and legs flew out of his shirt and he immediately sat up straight. He was Prince Charming again, but with a funny look on his face like he didn’t know what to make of me calling him by a new nickname. I have since called him Turtle several more times and each time it snaps him back to reality. Hmmm. We may be onto something here…

Turtle, Wall-E, Grumpy Badger, and Prince Charming. Each of these names definitely fits my little boy. I wonder what the next one will be?      

Have you entered the giveaway contest yet? It ends on Friday the 16th! Check it out here!

Pink Panther and the Fly Hunter

I wanted to extend a thank you to Pink Panther. You may remember me telling you about how my boys love to watch the show and I love that they don’t dialog the words (since there really aren’t any to memorize and endlessly script). Well, I just discovered that Pink Panther also helped Prince Charming to stop being afraid of flies.

He used to have a humongous fear of them. If a gnat flew into the room, the blood-curling screaming that ensued made you envision an axe-murder dismembering him bit by bit. I would come running into the room and find him petrified by a fruit fly. God forbid it was an actual house fly. Those creatures made the screaming intensify by at least ten-fold, if that was even humanly possible. I swear I have permanent hearing loss from this kid.

I used to encourage him to pick up a toy and use it as a swatter and take a swing at the flies in order to scare them away. I would tell him repeatedly that the flies were teeny tiny and that he was a big boy and that if anyone was scared, it was the flies who were scared of him. He always felt better when he had a toy in his hand (like a plastic bat) that he could swing around and scare the fly or try to “smash” it with. Invariably, the feeling of superiority to the fly would diminish and he would once again be scared and I would ultimately have to become the fly huntress and kill it.    

Recently I noticed that his fear had been lessening to some degree and I could not attribute it to anything other than maybe he was just getting older and it wasn’t quite so scary for him anymore. I was happy for the change and didn’t really think all that much about it.

It got pretty comical recently when we were out at Starbucks getting me a caffeinated afternoon delight (with my treat receipt, of course!). I watched him start jumping around while we were waiting in line to order my drink. I had no idea why he was doing that. I saw him do some moves that looked oddly similar to karate and I asked him what was going on. He told me he was trying to smash the fly. Since I didn’t see a fly, I assumed it was a little fruit fly. He started moving around in a jerky, fighting-with-the-air fashion, advancing more into the dining area where patrons were sitting and enjoying their coffee. I had him come back and stand with me, but the look on his face was that of a diligent hunter tracking its prey. It was pretty funny and I gave him a loving squeeze to tell him that I was proud that he wasn’t scared of the fly.

The fly hunter thing happened again a few days later (in a Starbucks…no comments about my coffee problem!). And, it happened again the next day (yes, it was in a Starbucks again…what is it with flies inside Starbucks anyway?). Each time it happened it was funny to me yet oddly distracting and I’m sure it garnered a few strange looks here and there. Oh well. My boy is not screaming in the Starbucks because he saw a fly. It’s all good, right?   

Cue Pink Panther. We were watching another episode of the show one evening and I noticed that Pink Panther was having an epic struggle with a fly. As the episode progressed, Pink decided to find a way to rid himself of the fly and began teaching himself karate. All of a sudden it clicked. Was Prince Charming’s newly-found bravery due to Pink Panther demonstrating that you could retaliate against a nuisance insect? It made total sense!

I asked him, “Honey, did you learn how to smack flies from Pink Panther?” He replied, “Yes.”

Well, there you have it. Go, Pink Panther! Not only do I like you for not having dialog in your funny cartoons, you have also turned my 6-year old into a brave fly hunter. I do not miss the screaming one bit. And for that, I thank you.    

Pink Panther to the rescue

At the suggestion of one of my autism mommy friends, I decided to check out Pink Panther cartoon episodes for my kids. I remember watching Pink Panther as a kid, but it never really held a lot of fascination for me. However, I do distinctly remember the theme song! You remember it too, right? I think you would have had to be living under a rock if you didn’t have that song permanently ingrained in your brain. I used to love the mellow tones of the saxophone and the jazzy lilt to the music that ran through the episodes.

Well, I was complaining chatting about the latest cartoon my kids were perseverating on. She understood completely. Echolalia can take over our home with the latest brand of cartoon fascination. It can become consuming and after a while I can get downright annoyed. In February I wrote, “Chaaarge! Retreat!” about how my boys were reliving an episode of Bugs Bunny over and over again. It’s cute to think about them playing nicely together (for once!) and acting out the parts, but when you’ve seen and heard it a zillion times in a row it ceases to possess the same level of cuteness.

In case you don’t know or haven’t yet figured it out, echolalia is when a child repeats or echoes back something that is said. When they do it for an extended dialog, like memorizing all the lines from their favorite show, it's called scripting. Then, you add in perseverative behavior (an obsessive interest in something; in this case, repeating something over and over) and it feels like it’s frying my brain one cell at a time. They love it.    

I’ve heard practically every single cartoon I’ve ever seen with my children repeated back to me in some fashion. Often they are able to pull phrases and words from various shows they’ve seen and string parts of them all together to form an in-context conversation. Most people who don’t really know my boys may have no idea whatsoever that the words they speak may not even be their own. It’s a finely crafted facsimile of a conversation and it’s an astonishing feat when you think about it. I could never do that in a million years! The way my boys can categorize and memorize information is beyond my comprehension, and is most certainly one of the gifts that comes with their particular brand of autism.

Anyway, my friend reminded me how perfect Pink Panther would be for my kids. There is almost no dialog! (Insert singing choir of angels here...) They would only be watching it for the musical and comedic value and I likely wouldn’t want to strangle them afterward. Yes! This was something I could get behind! I discovered that Hulu.com picked up some of the old episodes and made them available on their site for free online viewing. Since we no longer have cable television, it was perfect for us. And, the best part is, the kids love watching it. It’s a win-win!

Pink Panther, thanks for your jazzy tunes, funny style, and for being quietly cool. You may have saved my sanity. Well, at least for a little while.

 
April is Autism Awareness Month! A group of mommy bloggers have joined together to help spread the word about autism. Please visit these wonderful blogs!

Organizing Made Fun
Earth Monkey Moms
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Goodbye House, Hello Home
Pieces of My Heart

Caffeinated Autism Mom
Mom's Flight School
Helping My Boys
My Thirty One
Life with Lissy
Frou Frou Britches
This Journey Through My Life
Endless Crafting
Loving This Life with 5
Snails & Puppy Dog Tails
Me, You, Wine, Cheesecake, and Autism
Organizing Amid Chaos
The Five Days

Join us, won’t you?

Chaaarge! Retreat!

Do you remember watching Looney Tunes? You know, when good cartoons were a Saturday morning tradition? My boys have recently decided their favorite is the “Bunker Hill Bunny” episode with Bugs Bunny and (Yosemite) Sam von Schmamm trying to storm each other’s fort.

Bugs defends his wooden fort with a single cannon and Sam defends his formidable stone fort with multiple cannons. As always, Bugs calmly outwits the irritable Sam. A highlight of the episode is when Sam comes out with a musket bayonet and charges Bugs in the wooden fort. Bugs charges back with his musket bayonet and they end up switching sides and changing their respective flags from “We” to “They.” It is this portion of the episode that has enamored my boys, keeping them entertained for hours as they recreate it in their play on a regular basis.  

Like many children on the spectrum, they both have a talent for absorbing things they hear from their favorite shows, cartoons, songs, and games. I consider this to be a verbal form of photographic memory. Many people call it scripting, but at our house we call it dialoging. Dialoging has become a preferred form of stimming for both of my boys, and is a way for them to perseverate on something they really like.

In times past, Monkey was the only one who did this. Now that Prince Charming has also honed the skill and the boys are finally learning how to play together successfully, they’ve found it enjoyable to dialog in tandem. They derive intense satisfaction from repeating particular scripts over and over. At times they have an uncontrollable need to get all the words out from their current favorite dialoging subject, and it’s very difficult to get them to stop in the middle of this type of activity. I discourage them from dialoging out in public, but I usually let them do it freely when we’re home. I believe that if they have the overwhelming urge to stim, home should always be a safe place to do so. If I simply can’t listen to it anymore, I have them dialog in their rooms with the door shut.  

As I mentioned, their current focus is on recreating the Bunker Hill Bunny episode. Over and over. And over. They each choose a part to play and then go through the episode, providing both dialog and action. Serving as their pretend musket bayonets, they use the plastic Star Wars light sabers that they got for Christmas.

It always starts out super cute. They have great attention to detail and it’s impressive how they work together to be accurate. They take turns playing different characters and have fun mimicking their tone of voice and mannerisms. After the 50^th time in a row in the span of about an hour, it’s a smidge less cute.

Remember Scrat, the saber-toothed squirrel in the movie, Ice Age? You know how he gets a twitchy eye when he’s reached the end of his proverbial rope? Yeah. I get that. Completely. By the end of the night, I can sometimes be found wildly grabbing for their light sabers and making threats about never allowing them to watch Looney Tunes ever again. Ever. It’s usually about that time that I’m wishing the martini fairy would bring me a stiff drink, and that the sleep fairy would knock my kids out into a deep slumber. But, I digress…