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.

    

Cars are cool

You know how kids with autism often have a thing they perseverate on? We’ve certainly run the gamut around here. Some of the things my boys have obsessed about become experts in have included: license plates, geography, numbers/calculators/clocks, trains, cartoons, States, Presidents, and more. Now, Monkey’s favorite topic of interest is cars.

Kia Soul in Alien green.

To the best of my recollection, I think this started when he got to accompany Titan by himself (no little brother!) for the emissions test on my husband’s car. While sitting in line at the testing station, Titan talked with Monkey about the cars in front of them and in the lanes next to them. I am not really sure that Monkey had ever taken much notice in the different symbols and words on the back of cars before. That day I remember him coming back home and telling me that he saw a Toyota and it was very exciting.  

He absolutely loves to point out every car that is the same make and model as ours. He has been so enthusiastic about it that Prince Charming has joined in and they both hunt for the cars whenever we are out and about. If he happens to see one from his “list” he gets super excited and I have to acknowledge that I, too, have seen it driving on the road or I won’t hear the end of it.

His "list" includes all of his current favorite cars that he wants to buy. The favorites are subject to change at any moment! He is practically a computer expert at the tender age of 8, and in the past couple of weeks he’s asked to go online to the various car manufacturer websites to look at the different makes and models of cars. For each of his favorite cars, he goes online when Titan is home to help, and he works to create a custom car using the manufacturer’s online personalization tool. He spends lots of time talking about all of the various add-on options for the cars and asking what each thing is for. Nine times out of ten, he wants any and all available options to be added to “his” car.

Although, I kind of found it funny when he checked off every option on one particular car, and when it came time to select an iPod dock, he said no because, “Well, we don’t have an iPod so I don’t need that in my car.” This made me chuckle since an iPod is a drop in the bucket in terms of cost as compared with the price of a car. Too funny.

When the custom car has been built online, he wants a color printout of it so that he can file it (and read it over and over and over again) and then keep it in a special spot in his room. He’s actually creating a little stack of them! If I don’t have time to print it out right away for him, he hounds me until I do. Then, as soon as he gets a new spec sheet in his hands, he wants to go back online to another website and start the process all over again. I’ve had to rein him back in a bit so that I don’t use up all of our printer ink for his latest car kick!

So far, in order, he has selected the following cars that he wants to buy:

·         Subaru Outback in Cypress Green Pearl with options totaling $30,185

·         Kia Soul in Alien with options totaling $19,585

·         Nissan Sentra in Blue Onyx with options totaling $19,669

·         Ford Focus in Yellow Blaze Metallic with options totaling $23,665

·         Subaru Legacy in Caramel Bronze Pearl with options totaling $26,587

·         Chevrolet Aveo in Summer Yellow with options totaling $12,875

Let me tell you how thrilling it is for him to see a car driving down the road that is on his list! And now, as if it couldn’t get any better, he has a new love in this grand topic: the Audi brand. I went on a road trip with the boys and their Grandpa (my dad) last week and over those days he counted all the Audi cars he saw. By the time we got home he ran into the house and told Titan that he had seen 13 Audi’s on our trip. He was so happy to share that information with his dad! You should have seen the smile on his face.

Oh yeah, mama like.

I think we can all agree that Audi does not make a cheap ride. We’ve talked extensively about how expensive cars are and that he will have to save a lot of money if he wants to have one when he is old enough to drive. We have even talked about how long it would take him to save up his birthday and Christmas money in order to buy a car. Last week he was fishing around for some possible help in that department and all of a sudden asked me if I could stop by the bank and withdraw $200,000. Not sure where he came up with that figure, but I almost fell over when he asked the question! He was so earnest in his request! I tried to stifle my laughter (I think I succeeded...sort of) as I talked with him about how I would just love to have that much money but, sadly, I do not. Just yesterday he was asking Titan if he had $20,000 in the bank that he could withdraw. I gotta love his tenacity in trying to find a way to get his own car despite the fact that he’s not old enough to drive it.  

The good thing is that Monkey is learning about the value of money. With his latest obsession interest my husband and I have been making a point to be more vocal with him about how much things cost. We want him to understand the value of money and that things are not cheap, and it takes hard work to get even the little things like gas for the car and food to eat. And, let’s face it… This mommy needs to pay off her bills before anyone in the family gets a new car, for cyring out loud!

Now, Monkey is one smart cookie. I wonder if there is a way to engage that amazing brain of his into an endeavor to earn money to save for his future car? Hmmm…that is worth some consideration, don’t you think? And yes, I have already thought about counting cards in Vegas. That idea has been brought up by our friends about a dozen times already! Somehow, I think I’d rather stick to something that he enjoys that also happens to be legal. Minor detail. J  

I wonder how long he’ll be in love with cars and what his eventual next interest will be…?

Does your child have a special interest or perseverate on one thing? What do they obsess about? Do you find it cute, potentially educational, or it is just plain annoying? Share your comments below!  

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…