Saturday, October 9, 2010

He aint heavy..he's my Little Bill?




" I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."~E.B. White 






  
  I don't know if any of you are familiar with the children's show "Little Bill".  It is a cartoon (created by Bill Cosby) about a little boy.  Oscar really likes it...a lot..although not to the point of obsession like he was with "Caillou" or "Thomas the evil Tank Engine" but he really enjoys this show. For some reason (that he won't explain) he refers to the character of Little Bill as his" brother". This in turn aggravates Sammy to no end. 

  "Mama! My brothers coming on!" "Oscar...he's not your brother!" "He is too Sammy! Little Bill is my brother." "Oscar! He can't be your brother!"  "But he is...he is my brother!" "Oscar..look it isn't logical.  How can he be your brother when he lives all the way in New York City?" "But he is..he is my brother!"  "Oscar!! That doesn't make sense.  Look you live here with us and he lives far away so he can't be your brother..Mama..tell him that Little Bill can't be his brother!" "Sam, if Oscar wants to say he's his brother-LET HIM!..It doesn't hurt anyone." "But Mama..Look..it isn't logical..he lives too far away." "Sammy..I have brothers who live far away.." "But they are grown up!  Little Bill is only five!  It doesn't make sense..a five year old doesn't live that far away..Oscar! He can't be your brother!"  "But he is Sammy..Little Bill is my brother."  And on and on it went until..well..until I got sucked further in.."Sammy" I said calmly "Of course he can't be his brother-we know that-Oscar knows that. He is just having fun...he's pretending...using his imagination..leave him alone."   "But Mama! He..." "Sammy-stop! Let...IT...Go."  "But Mama it isn't logical.."  "SAMMY..Oscar knows he can't be his brother! He is a cartoon!  Logically, I could not have given birth to him..Believe me I would know if I had..I could not have adopted him..there are no adoption agencies for cartoons..If either example were true we would have made history..so no..of course Little Bill is NOT his brother..but if he wants to say he is...LET HIM!!!!!"  "but Mama! It's not true!" SIGH..sometimes I wonder why I don't drink. "Sam..why are you letting this upset you..it is no big deal." "Because he keeps saying it..." "Sammy...Oscar says a lot of things..if you don't like it...walk away..ride your bike...go upstairs...play the computer..but for the love of all things holy..LET IT BE!"  "Fine...but he's still not his brother.."...from the playroom comes a giggle and a "yes he is Sammy...Little Bill IS my brother..heeheeheehee"

  Sometimes the two of them...well...sometimes I just can't win. They can both be so persistent.  Which can be a wonderful quality to have.  Although unfortunately at times it can work at cross purposes..like with Little Bill..or Suzy the mannequin at Old Navy.  They get entirely too caught up in reacting and... reacting...and I wind up getting sucked in.  Believe me-I'm not complaining. We have a very vibrant household...  and at moments like this, all I really have to do is look back to see how far they have come.  There was a time when neither of them spoke.  When I didn't always know what they were trying to tell me.  How frustrated we all were.  So you will never catch me complaining ...gently moaning perhaps..but never complaining. Most of the time I look at them in awe.  Usually for good reason.

  This past week Sammy,( the boy who had once stopped talking), was elected to the student council. ELECTED!!! You know that thing where people have to vote for you? Elected-my boy. I am overwhelmed with it all. We were told so many conflicting things in the early days of diagnosis..some better than others..but none very positive. I think back to that time..how afraid we were..afraid to hope..almost afraid to breathe..and now-we are breathless.  His teacher emailed me to say that Sam had given a very articulate speech-that in fact this is what swayed the vote. My boy-a speech!  In front of people!  How earth shattering is that?  I asked Sammy later what he had spoken about. He told me that he spoke about  his concern with too much talking in the classroom, the use of "bad" language and...well the tables in the cafeteria were too scattered and should be lined up neater....I guess some things never change...


  I don't think that Oscar purposefully pushes Sammy's buttons all of the time...at least at first.  Oscar says a lot of "interesting" things.  Usually, once he gets it out-it's out, done-over. But when Sammy starts getting annoyed-Oscar becomes a little bit like Roger Rabbit. He HAS to respond-HAS TO....which makes for interesting arguments at our house.  Either way-I would like to make it quite clear that although Oscar may have some of the tendencies of Roger Rabbit-Mr. Rabbit is not is biological father..nor is Little Bill his biological brother. I have never been intimate with a cartoon character.  I swear-REALLY!...It wouldn't be logical.  Just ask Sammy.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just love Oscar - What a sense of humor!! Tell Sammy I am so proud of him. What a great job he is doing - Is he going to be wearing a tie?

Love, Ei

Melanie said...

Kath, I don't comment but a lot but I LOVE your blog. I passed along a blogger award to you. It is at the end of my latest post.

Melanie said...

*sigh* that is why I don't comment. Leave to me to magically insert an extra but...

Anonymous said...

Elected to the student council! That's enormously HUGE!!! How very very wonderful! Congrats to him and you and everyone! Fantastic...

As for Little Bill, I love him so much, I watch him even when the kids aren't here. :-)

Kim Wombles said...

Hee, Oscar's a wonderful little brother, isn't he? :-) Too funny. Lil's big into the logic stuff, too.

Yay, Sammy! I bet he was thrilled!

Lynn said...

I like that Sammy's big argument against them being brothers is that he lives too far away instead of the more obvious reasons. I was wondering how you would have managed to give birth to a cartoon, but the Roger Rabbit thing really cleared it up.

kathleen said...

Thanks Ei-They are really wonderful and funny..

Hi Melanie-everyone needs an extra but now and again..:) Thank you..that was really really sweat of you.

Hi Lifewithasperger-Little Bill is a sweet show-which is rare considering most young childrens programming is painful...We are over the moon with Sammy right now. It is amazing and wonderful..astounding. He has worked really hard..he's a great kid.
Hi Kim! Yeah..Sammy loves to use the word logical..and yet many of the times his logic is..well..interesting..:) Oscar is good for him..helps him to loosen up...
Hi Lynn..I know..you know, it took me a minute to realize that..I get sucked in and don't look at the whole picture...I did have images in my head though..how would one get pregnant by a cartoon? What would that pregnancy look like? Would you test for it with an "acme" pregnancy test?

Casdok said...

Congratualtions to Sammy - that is fantastic!
Am now trying to get the image of your cartoon pregnancy out of my head!

Floortime Lite Mama said...

oh my how I enjoyed this post
WOW at Sammy and election
This is AMAZING

Ro said...

Congrats to Sammy, that is spectacular!

jazzygal said...

Fabulous, fabulous FABULOUS!!

Oh Kathleen... I'm laughing through tears of joy here!

Sammy's articulate speech won him his election. WOW! What an achievement for Sammy... and you and Omar. Well done to you all!

And Oscar is just the best... Little Bill CAN be his brother if he he so wishes ;-)

xx Jazzy

kathleen said...

Hi casdok-funny, I have images of what I would look like with a cartoon pregnancy as well..I'm betting the labor would be easy..
Hi K-floortime! Thanks..isn't it though?
Hi Ro-It is spectacular and wonderful and..I am beside myself..:)

Hi Jazzy! I can't get over the speech-just two short years ago he could not even manage a presentation for his class-and now look at him. Yes-if Oscar needs for little Bill to be his brother-that's fine...as long as I don't have to feed or clothe him..;0

Stephanie said...

Congratulations to Sammy (and you)!!!

Ah...Oscar. A great kid! I think Oscar and Will would get along splendidly!

And poor Sammy. No, it's not logical. But, then again, why does it have to be?

And the quote at the top is awesome!

Altogether a wonderful post that brightened my day. Thank you. :-)

kathleen said...

Thanks Stephanie! I really liked the quote too..E.B. white has so many of them..

autismand said...

Roger Rabbit? No, that would be silly. But Jafar, the sexy, evil, smoothie baddie from Disney's Aladdin: mmm, yum yum.
Do you think maybe I need help?

kathleen said...

hi bbsmum...hahahahaha...well, considering that I am in lust with the character of professor Snape from the Harry Potter films..I guess maybe I have company? ! ;0