That's gonna leave a mark.

There I was, volunteering in the classroom at Ben's school, doing our third session of ABA for the morning.  This time it was "prepositions", e.g. "Ben...put the block between the cups."  Ben was having a really hard time staying on task.  He'd already played the "go potty" card, and was looking a little desperate.

As I reached for the second cup, he clenched his fists and opened his mouth like a shark homing in on a tasty, tasty seal.  Time slowed to a crawl as my amygdala gleefully flipped switches in my head, muttering something like "gotta save this one for the album".  That amygdala is such a ghoul.

mommy, can we have monkey tonight?

The last time this happened was a school field trip to see "Chimpanzee".  Ben did really well on that trip, and sat in the movie for 45 minutes before having to leave.  He had popcorn, his first soda ever, and seemed to enjoy himself.

Then the music got a bit more dramatic, and the narrator said, "And now the chimpanzees need protein."  Guess what chimps like to eat for protein?  Not peanut butter...not hummus...nope.  They like to eat cute little monkeys.


Now, I don't know if they actually eat them in this movie, because just as they were closing in on the little fellows, Ben (who loves monkeys, but not to eat) screamed "GOOOOOO!", took a big bite out of my hand, and dragged me out of the room.

We spent the next 30 minutes or so riding up and down the escalator with another kid and his mom.  Escalators are happy places.

Back to today...

Just as he was about to sink his teeth into me,  Ben did the coolest thing.  He shut his mouth (with no part of me in it), looked me in the eye, and said calmly, "Chewy tube."

I was rendered speechless, but a chewy tube was acquired stat.

I'm just really proud of him. 

Oh, he turned 5 the other day.  We had a party and everything.  It was quite a lot of fun.  He's gettin' to be a big boy.