This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Dr. Seuss book, Green Eggs and Ham. One of Billy's favorite apps on the iPad, the interactive book has been played in our house more than 50 times in the last 48 hours, and it's starting to get to me. I think it's a great book, but I'm starting to dream in Dr. Seuss-speak.
(Random House)
After a couple dozen times, it slowly started to dawn on me that Sam-I-Am reminded me of someone. I woke in the middle of one night to the sound of Billy reciting “Could you?! Would you?! On a BOAT!!” and realized why he loves this book so much: Sam is autistic. Consider...
1. Sam-I-Am has a strange diet. So does Billy. Billy recently brought home a class project called “My Favorite Food.” There were black dots all over a white sheet of paper. I asked him, “What is this?” Billy: “Raisins.” He does love the heck out of some raisins. And ice cream. And that's about it.
2. Sam-I-Am is totally obsessive about a very specific thing and oblivious to whether anyone else cares. So is Billy. Granted, the subject of Billy's obsession can change (thank God) from month to month, but perennial favorites are the planet Saturn, Charlie Brown and fish.
3. Sam-I-Am has a unique style of speaking. So does Billy. Billy can have an entire conversation with you using lines from Finding Nemo and Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Dave and I are the only ones who can interpret. “Alvin, you were a bit flat!” means he's irritated. And “First day of school!” means he's excited, even if you're in the grocery store and he's just spotted some raisins.
Billy memorizes anything easily, of course, but sometimes he doesn't hear it correctly, particularly if the characters don't speak clearly. Instead of “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” which he heard on A Charlie Brown Christmas, Billy sings a beautiful note-perfect version of “Mark, the Feral Danger King,” a far more interesting-sounding character, in my opinion, than Charlie Brown.
4. Sam-I-Am doesn't understand personal space. Neither does Billy. Billy's style of making friends involves getting right up in someone's face and shouting something about Alvin and the Chipmunks before enveloping them in a bear hug and wrestling them to the floor. Boys, girls, the exterminator – everyone gets the same treatment.
(Random House)
5. Sam-I-Am seems completely un-fazed by the potential for physical danger inherent in driving a car off a cliff on to a boat while carrying a platter of ham and eggs. Billy would be right there in that car, nestled between the fox and the goat, given the opportunity.
When Willow was about 8 months old, I found him at the top of our stairs, squeezed into her baby walker, ready to push off. I asked him what in the Hades he thought he was doing and he responded, “Roller coaster!”
Happy birthday, Green Eggs and Ham! And thank you for showing us that, in the end, a singularly obsessive person can make friends, live a rich, colorful full life with some unusual pets, drive a car, and expose the world to new ideas – like coloring eggs green – that we might not have considered.
Dr. Seuss
Tuesday October 05 2010 07:27:21 am
Amanda Broadfoot
@Lynn: Yeah, I'm a bit soured on the whole book right about now as well. There's nothing like repetitive 4 a.m. recitations to kinda take the shine off the penny.
@Maura: You should hear his other Xmas carols, like "Violent Kite." I definitely have to get him listening to some Springsteen. I wonder if I could convince Springsteen to do a cartoon. #awesomecartoonidea
@Chris: Thanks for stopping by!
@Karen: So funny about Ms Niece. Billy got confused his first week of school by the fact that everyone was talking about the school mascot, the Bobcat. They're the Buck Lake Bobcats and there was lots of discussion of "I'm a Buck Lake Bobcat!" etc. His grandmother then asked Billy, "What's your teacher's name, Billy?" And he replied, 'Bobcat!" We FINALLY worked that one out :-)
@outoutout: I'm sure you're right. It takes a special kind of mind to imagine a Fiffer-Feffer-Feff and a Zizzer-zazzer-zuzz!
@Tonya: I've only watched The Middle once -- I'm going to have to check it out again! (I never manage to watch anything until about a week after it airs; thank god for DVR :-)
@Sunday: Billy is now a total Dr. Seuss devotee. He loves his new interactive Cat in the Hat book too!
@Melody: Diagnosis is definitely a constantly moving target. It helps with some things -- like school services and insurance coverage. But no diagnosis will ever explain the uniqueness of our children, their challenges, or their changes. We have to watch them like hawks and be ready for the next development, whatever it may bring. I wish you all the very best. Please let me know if there's ever anything I can help with.
Monday October 04 2010 09:34:57 pm
Melody
I love this & had to laugh all the way through. The single mindedness, the tenacity and determination, the repetitiveness of speech, the lack of awareness for other's oppinions... all of those things and more are rampant in my home! :P
We have been trying to determine the exact diagnosis for my kids, but it seems there may well be no specific target to aim at. I'm afraid we'll forever be treating ever changing symptoms with various therapies and meds. I hate that part, but with no meds, the amount of difficulty for everyone is 1000 fold. Oh wait, maybe I'm the guy who doesn't want to try the green eggs and ham, then "MMmmmm, Saaayy. I do like green eggs and ham!."
Wow!
Tuesday September 28 2010 06:54:06 pm
Sunday
You are sooo right! Both my boys are on the severe end of the autism spectrum and both love Dr. Seuss books with their back and forth flow of reading.
Tuesday September 28 2010 07:36:14 am
Tonya
Wow! I never thought of it that way! :-) I guess he did have some strong tendencies, huh?! lol
Speaking of those with tendencies, I'm sure that Brick from "The Middle" is on the spectrum somewhere. Have you seen that show? It comes on ABC on Wednesday nights.
Found you from the blog frog SITS community. Glad I found you. Have a great day!
Ah, good ol' Dr. Seuss..
Monday September 27 2010 08:10:24 pm
outoutout
He was almost certainly autistic himself. :)
I hear you!
Monday September 27 2010 06:25:10 pm
Karen
Hi Amanda!
As a Mama of a kidlet on the Spectrum, I hear you!! I so enjoyed your comparison and agree with your conclusion that there really are so many options and possibilities for the singularly obsessive (it just takes some digging, patience, & perseverance to find them & help them find the route that will work for them)!
I know that hearing something not quite the way it was really said bit quite well! We introduced a teacher once, called her Miss Denise, only he heard, Mrs. Neice and it stuck for the rest of the summer. And I agree, Mark the Feral Danger King does sound much more interesting!
As a toddler, when my kidlet would wake early, there were no calls to get up, but I could hear Dr. Seuss books being recited aloud from memory and in their entirety. I thought it was so cute & showed a love for books, but now I know differently. :>
Thanks for stopping by today! I'm so glad to have connected with another Mama with many of the same challenges! :>
Karen
Twitter: @timecrafted
PS I saw Angle's air quoting autism.....talk about making my blood boil!!
Nice hooking up!
Monday September 27 2010 01:54:40 pm
Chris P-M
Nice hooking up on SITS! I love the quirkiness of Dr. Seuss, and what a great way to explain ASD behaviors! We sure need a sense of humor with our kiddos! ;)
Chris
Mark the Feral Danger King
Monday September 27 2010 12:51:36 pm
Maura
I like Billy's rendition of Hark the Herald Angels Sing. I'd like to hear how he interprets that Manfred Mann/Bruce Springsteen classic, "Blinded by the light, wrapped up like a duece, another runner in the night," because what the devil does that mean? Perhaps Billy can make some sense of it for me.
Total 12 comments