Searching For Santa

Bobby thinks that Santa lives at Playworks.  The more that I think about this, the more that I know that it is true.

Bobby loves to take rides in the car and he seems to know which way that he wants to go during the ride.  When he wants us to turn onto a certain road he turns on his own turn signal.  He sits in his spot in the back seat and be clicks his tongue loudly which sounds exactly like the car's turn signal.  Lately every time we are on Rt. 19 from our house towards Morgantown he turns on his turn signal to turn left into Osage.  If we are just taking a drive or if we are on our way to behavioral therapy I indulge him and make the turn.  Once we are in Granville, Bobby turns on his turn signal again to turn onto Dents Run Road which leads the back way to Playworks.

"Mr. Mike....Mr. Mike....Mr. Mike."  This used to be Bobby's mantra during the car trips past Playworks.  This has made sense to me since Mr. Mike, who owns Playworks, has been Bobby's occupational therapist since Bobby was three years old.  Bobby used to go to this Playworks location every week for years for therapy but for the past year or so Bobby has been going to Playworks second location where all of the therapy services are now located and the original location is strickly now a daycare.

However, this past week the mantra has changed to......."Santa Clause!!"  He is actually saying Santa Clause as he wants me to turn down the road to Playworks.  The first time he said it I didn't think much of it as he says words out loud all of the time for no perceived reason.  But, he is now saying this with force.

He learned the words "Santa Clause" in his behavioral therapy.  We put Santa in his pile of flashcards last fall, before Christmas, hoping that he would be able to identify Santa at Christmas.  However, he didn't get it until closer to Easter and is able to identify the Santa flashcard 100% of the time.  But since it is not the Christmas season he hasn't had any spontaneous chances to use this knowledge while we are out and about.

The first time that he met Santa Clause was in fact at Playworks during our Autism Support Group Christmas party complete with an appearance by Santa himself.

He didn't seem too interested in Santa at the time, in fact, if you look closely at this picture, you will see Mr. Mike hiding in the background!!  Yeah, the arm around Bobby is that of Mr. Mike, who is trying to get Bobby to stay by Santa so that I could get a picture.  We even tried to get a family picture during this Santa visit...

Bobby was much more interested in playing than he was in getting to know Santa.

Just wanted to give a little glimpse of what a special needs Santa visit looks like behind the close up pictures....

No nice lines of kids waiting for Santa with this group!!!  This picture make me happy....my peeps!!

Bobby loves, I mean LOVES, to watch videos on my computer that I have taken with my camera.  They are never more than a minute long and we have years worth that he watches.  However, there are only specific videos that he wants to watch and lately a video I took of Santa walking through the back door of Playworks on this day is his favorite.  When he wants to watch this particular video he says "Santa Clause, Santa Clause, Santa Clause."

For some reason one of his favorite all time DVDs to watch has been Elmo's World, Happy Holidays and he has been requesting to watch this daily in the past few weeks.

I can actually recite this whole movie too since I have heard the dialogue so many times!!

Bobby's fascination with Santa videos has kind of baffled me.  We didn't even go to the Playworks Santa visit this past Christmas because Bobby didn't want to even go into the playroom the previous year.

He's trying to get his shoes off of the top of the shelves so that he can leave!!!  I did manage to get him into the playroom to see Santa for a second...

It didn't go that well...

so he got to go home.  I did bring him back to another Playworks support group event, but I couldn't even get him away from the back door.

He is searching for something out this back door!!!

He refused to come away from this door and would not interact with the other kids.  Fast forward to a full year free of his seizure medication and 4 day a week behavioral therapy...his language is developing and his behavior, well I don't even have the words to explain how much it has improved.  In the moment that this picture was taken I was so unhappy...why wouldn't he come in and play?  What so was important out this door???  Now that he pull out the appropriate words and he is asking for Santa Clause, I am convinced he was watching for Santa to arrive, after all this is the door that he had come through before.

We have also taken Bobby to the mall for the past few years to see Santa for the Sensitive Santa autism event.  He has really surprised us how well he does during this event...

For the past two years he has run right up to Santa even though it wasn't his turn and I had to grab him and take him to wait until his turn.

We haven't really ever talked Santa up to Bobby because I really just didn't think that he understood, or cared about him.  What is he thinking about Santa??  Why is he wondering about him now?  Why is he trying to get me to take him to Playworks and saying "Santa Clause" unless he thinks that Santa is there.  I can come to no other conclusion than Bobby thinks that Santa lives at Playworks.

Ironically, Christmas has been somewhat of a let down over the past years because Bobby hasn't had much of an interest in presents and all of the trimmings.  Or has he and we just didn't know????  Maybe we didn't get to experience the magic of Santa in Bobby's eyes for the first years of his life, but are we going to have to do Santa for the long haul?

I was actually thinking last year when I took him to the Sensitive Santa event at the mall that it would probably be the last time that we went because he would be 9 years old for this Christmas and most 9 year old's are over visiting Santa.  But looks like this year it may be more important than ever to do our Santa visit.  You know, a Bobby interest in Santa and Christmas could cause a mom like me to go a little overboard with the whole decorating thing this year!!  Oh how I wish that he could really talk to me so that I could know what he really thought/felt about Santa!!

Merry Christmas in July!!  If anyone happens to spot Santa, let us know...Bobby would love to check that out!!