Workin' the System

After a day of school, then Garrett's Personal Care person coming for three hours, Shelby (from previous post), his developmental therapist, arrived around 4 pm only to discover that Garrett has taken it upon himself to draw "Mat Man" on the wall..........the off-white wall of our 5 year old house.....with DARK BLUE MARKER!!!!!



A bit of history: If you have never heard of Mat Man, he is basically a smiley face with a body, legs and arms and is used in most occupational therapy and special education rooms as kids who do not naturally begin drawing happy faces or stick figures are taught the basics over time, which for Garrett has been, oh, about 4 years now. But to date he had never drawn one unprompted, on his own, for his own pleasure. Well, that all changed!!!



When we arrived home, Garrett and Shelby met us at the kitchen, and Shelby hands me our camera and says, "You might want to look at this. Might be a blog!" And here is what she showed to me:

Much like a previous blog when a visiting little boy lost his mind trying to make sense of Garrett not understanding a video game, when in a former life I might have been saddened or angered, this time I had the same thing happen!! I started laughing, and then almost crying because the fact he drew on the walls of our five year old house's walls with dark blur marker on almost white walls means HE CAN DRAW MAT MAN!!!!! ALL BY HIMSELF!!!!!!! HOLY COW!!!!!

But here is the very best part. The artist worked in secret, apparently with no one noticing when he was creating his masterpiece, so when Shelby saw it she called him to it and talked to him about how "we" do not use markers or colors on the wall. But you know what HE SAID????? "But Shelby, it's YOU!!!!" And then he probably smiled that great smile and flashed those magical blue eyes and made her turn into a useless, loving blob of love and understanding!!!

And that, my friend, is how our boy is workin' the system, at least for now. I am sure he has more great tactics up his sleeve (which he is currently addicted to chewing on, thus ruining all his long sleeve shirts and sweaters).

Oh, and by the time we got home Shelby had ALL of the blue off of the wall, thus the need for the photo! And there is another blog for another day......having caregivers who love our family enough to savor the good, entertaining, hilarious and tough things right there alongside us.

Godspeed,

Clara-Leigh