mental storm

Joseph has been having these weird mental storms, usually towards the end of the day, where he just obsesses about something and can’t let it go no matter what we do.

On Saturday night, on the way back from Harland and Lynne’s, he starting saying the names Julia and Renee and Cameron and Alisa over and over, as if when we got home they were going to be there.  He had just seen them a couple days earlier but hadn’t said anything at all that day that I recall about them.  Before Julia came over I had been coaching him to say “Hi Julia” and before we saw Alisa I had been saying repeatedly “when you see her you’re going to give her a big hug.”  So suddenly Saturday night he started saying “Hi Julia” and “Alisa hug” over and over and over.  He was way over-tired – no nap and up very late – and got very frustrated as we tried to get him to bed.  He went racing from his bedroom into the living room pointing towards the door saying their names again and again.

So I thought that was a one-time thing, but then yesterday at dinner he suddenly started saying “Sonya” and “Malka” over and over.  He hadn’t seen them in maybe 5 days, and I don’t think we’d said their names or been talking about them at all.  But at dinner time he dragged his chair from the kitchen into the dining room – where we eat when we have guests – and kept repeating their names, trying to will them to show up for dinner.  We didn’t know what to make of it.

Funny thing is, when we initially got together with the Stetzers, or with Sonya and Malcolm, he wasn’t particularly responsive to them.  But later he latched on to their names and wouldn’t let go.  I have noticed that often when he says a word – something simple like ‘ball’ – it doesn’t necessarily mean that he wants that thing.  Often he is just cycling through his vocabulary, or saying what he sees or is thinking about, but not necessarily what he wants.  Or at least that what it seems to me.

We had Susan over for a play date on Monday – which went great – and the fellaz from work were over again for lunch yesterday – so I won’t be surprised if tomorrow he starts babbling about them about Harland, Lynne, or Mila.

Note:  my blog’s spellchecker seems to think that Malka isn’t a word.  Next time I’ll try Walta.