Visit on Demand

This was my first morning with Joey; the first week of ESY 2008 has come to a close. We were thinking of going swimming, but my trainer kicked my patookas yesterday, and walking, rising, or sitting sets my thighs on fire. Four ibuprofens haven't touched it. Tylenol? A joke. I have a high pain tolerance. I'm a lady who got through her first c-section on Advil, not Percocet. Swimming was out.

However, I had some things to mail, so I thought a trip to the post office would be good. Joey's been talking about post offices lately, and his new re-interest in Blue's Clues includes Mailbox. So off we went, to chat about the post office.

Most of the short trip was a barage of questions from me ("What do you do at a post office? See what Mommy has? What are these? We're going to send these thing to other people- mail them. We pay to have them taken to the other people. See the postman print out the stamp?") with only grunts, deliberate silence, or sullen "I don't know" in response. This was not going well. So I decided to switch to letters instead. Mailbox gives letters to Steve. People write letters. They tell other people all the news and all about themselves. Would you like to write a letter? Who would you write a letter to? Dexter? Andy? Max and Charlie?

Joey perked up. "Want Max and Charlie." I finished up my business and persued this interest.
"You want to write to Max and Charlie?"
"Want to see Max and Charlie."
"You want to see them? You want to visit?"
"Yes."

Alrighty, then. Into the car, we're off to see Max and Charlie. I'm worried he might be thinking of his cousins, one of whom is also called Charlie, but when we get to Aunt Christina's, he goes over and says hi to Max and Charlie. He wanted to see them. Then he plays with Jack, their younger brother (Jack and Joey were in the same class at one point).

Why is this amazing? For one, Joey doesn't often communicate what he wants. He tends to go with the flow and take what comes. This is especially true in activities. For two, we haven't actually gone to play with Max and Charlie in months. We haven't even played with Jack in a long time. It was probably around Christmas when joey saw them last. Finally, having a playdate with Max and Charlie is a little different than having one with other children. Their mobility is highly limited. Their communication is highly limited. Its not like he could play his favorite game, duck-duck-goose, easily with these children. Even Jack is a different matter. Joey does make them laugh, especially if he is running about or acting very silly. Perhaps he enjoys making them happy. I don't know. Joey has always liked them- now I know he has missed them. We need to get over there more often.

And yes, he had them all in stitches. He played with Jack, too. I got to talk to Aunt Christina. A good time was had by all.