Visit With My Son (Mama & Princess)

My son looked really good, better, at the last visit. He looked better than he did Wednesday and it was a good morning, that Friday. I felt like it was such a non-harassing day, while walking, it was nice for a change. I got there and Oliver just started giggling and laughing again. I could see him through the tinted window and he looked worried and was looking around and when I peeked around the door, he burst into giggles.

He looked great that day. There were still signs of brainwashing though. I felt bad, and I think I know a little bit more now, because someone (I won't say who) allowed me to see something before we went into the visit. Something about BBQ King and in bold and underlined. I was supposed to see it I guess. I'm pretty sure it was BBQ King and not Bob King.

My son picked out a sponge Bob character from the basket and someone had it set out in the other room, and he picked this out, which was yellow, and a cement truck toy which was yellow, out of a yellow tub. I just noticed. So he brought them in and I held him and he was affectionate and happy to have me hold him.

We got to the room and he wanted Sponge Bob and the horse to have a race. There were all kinds of triggers or things lying around for him to find in the room that day. He wanted Bob and the horse to race and sat up on the table, calling out "Go go!" and telling me to have some go faster. So I alternated with who was winning and tying and, I had rubberbands around my wrist, and my son took one off and was going to put it on the horses head and decided to put it on Bob's head instead, and said, "Like a king". We had the rubberband around and I said it looked like a sweatband and laughed and he laughed.

It was either after this that I took a rubberband off and put it around a pen and pulled it out to shoot the rubberband. I got the idea last minute as I was leaving the house because I had just moved some rubberbands out of the way. So I was thinking David and Goliath. I asked him if anyone had shown him how to do this and he said no, and I demonstrated and he got it right away. Later, he was pointing it torwards himself so I told him to only do it around adults. But I let him shoot rubberbands all over the room and then started telling him about a boy named David and partway into it he was bored with it and wanted the guys to race again.

That, interspersed with the caterpillar gobbling me up and my falling over, whereupon he pounced onto me saying "yay!"

So then he wanted the stuffed animals to play and have them go to outerspace so they did, to the gum planet again. He gave them all something to eat and was very sweet about it. Then he had Sponge Bob as a king and said he was looking for the princess. So I said, "Oh? okay, where is going to look?" and he said, "In the castle" so we pretended there was a castle.

Keeping in mind how things go public and not wanting to imitate a traditional tale where I sound like I'm trying to insert myself into something (egad wishful thinker), I tried to mix it up. I picked out a figure, and there were only male figures, so I used one and had him pop around the corner and acted out Bob looking for the princess and calling for her. So then the princess speaks up in a crass voice, "ANNABELLE?! I'm PRINCESS annabelle!" and I had her yell, "What do you want?" and she goes on, ranting, saying, "I don't NEED finishing school!" and my son's eyes were wide as saucers and I decided I needed a puppet show at that point. He had a faint smirk on his face, appreciating this princess' shocking and beligerant, uncouth, behavior. So then she says, she's actually not the real princess. She says, "I'm not the real princess, I'm just pretending to be." So I said to my son, "Where is the real princess then?" and told him sometimes it's not what you think and told him, "Sometimes there are doubles." After I asked where she was he said, pointing to the dollhouse, "In the house!" so I walked King Bob over and said, "He is looking for his daughter". He calls for her and she says "I'm almost finished" and comes out and they go for a walk. Oh, and I asked my son what she was doing in the house and he said something like taking a bath or something normal.

I told my son, "We don't have a pretty princess figure here so we will just imagine the princess is with us."

So Oliver enjoyed all of this and after that, he brought the horse in and I said they would all go for a horseback ride. He brought in some other guy on a horse with a cowboy hat. So the guy said "Howdy partner". Then they were all going for a ride and I used the animals to talk to eachother, asking if each thought Oliver would like to go with them and then I peeked at him and said, "Do you want mama to give you a horsey ride?" and he nodded and hopped on and I walked around neighing for a long time. Then, I just stayed in one place and told him, "Oliver, this is a trot." and I bounced a trot which made him laugh out loud. He couldn't stop laughing. Then I said, "And this is a gallop!" and I undulated into rolling gallops, saying out loud at once point, "This is cheaper than a ride at the mall."

I was literally like one of those coin slot horse rides and he loved it and couldn't stop laughing. Then he'd say, "Giddyup!" and give a little kick and I would walk around again. We did this for a quite awhile.

Then he wanted to get a puzzle out ,and it was of babies and their mothers, in the animal world. One side was animals in the jungle and the other side was animals on the farm. I had each of them talking to eachother as the baby made its way to the right peg with the mother or vice versa and talked through it, with the baby saying he or she missed their mother and where did they go, and I brought up several scenarios he could relate to. He just kept saying, "mama, mama, mama..." over and over with each baby. Then, he gave them all a cheerio to eat and I pretended they were eating the food he'd brought for them. We did the jungle side and then the farm side and they were altogether at the end, after with their mothers, he lined them up to be on the pasture and by the barn and I enacted scenes and used their voices to make things up and talk to him.

I feel like it's been almost an effective and healing kind of counseling for him but we need much more time. He seems to appreciate and understand explanations from the animals one to the other

He kept talking about them being with the mommy. With the cow I said, "Hello my little one! you are here to eat! and I am the only one with milk so we will have cereal! all the other animals have to get it from me." when it was the goats there were two and I had them arguing over who was going to try the food first and then they tell their mother to eat it first. Some of it was humorous and other parts were about why were they separated and how the baby didn't do anything wrong, and they missed eachother.

Over and over he was murmering mama and it was very sweet but also very sad.

At the end, he didn't want to leave and stood there with a big hug and crying and then I made a calendar for him and he took this and walked out and then at the other door, turned around and yelled all the way across the room, "Mama, stay there!" and I said I would and he looked worried and I said not to worry. Then he added, "Promise!"

So someone is teaching him about promises. Hmmm. Probably people who don't know the first thing about keeping promises. I told him "I promise! I'll be right here!"