Bedtime Stories....

I've talked on here a little about Lucas being developmentally delayed. One of the things that he is delayed in is his communication skills. He actually has a large vocabulary, but getting him to use it can be difficult. Just recently he has started holding longer conversations and taking more turns in the conversation. He is also starting to get out of his bed nightly again.

Last night my husband went upstairs to check on him and get him back in bed. It was 11 PM and Lucas had not gone to sleep yet. When my husband entered the room, Lucas started talking to him about frogs. Lucas said that the frogs were mad at him and that they were hiding under his bed and in his closet and were going to bite him.

Tonight the frog conversation continued. I learned more about the conversation that my husband had with him last night, too. It is possibly a tactic on Lucas' part to delay bedtime, but I just can't make myself leave. I love listening to him tell stories. I have no idea where he gets things sometimes.

So, as I said, tonight the conversation continued. Lucas is a little anal about how he is tucked into bed. He likes his arms under the covers and right against him. I asked my husband if he had noticed that and he said that he had and that he likes to take them out and watch Lucas put them back where he likes them. Tonight he did it and he told Lucas that this way his arms were out to defend himself from the frogs. He said, "This way you can punch the frogs", as he punches the air with his fists. "Like this! Punch the frogs, Lucas". Lucas stayed perfectly still watching his daddy punch the imaginary frogs. "Is Daddy shooting the frogs?" "No, I'm punching them." Again Lucas watches and asks again if his Daddy is shooting the frogs (mind you, we have no guns real or play in our house). Finally my husband says, "Sure. Daddy is shooting the frogs. Peeeeew-peeeew-peeeeeew! Peeeeew!" Just so you know, the gun sound effect that he made was a joke. That is the sound effect that Logan makes for guns. I'm guessing because he has only seen them on Sci Fi movies he watches with his daddy.

Anyway, back to the frogs. My husband pretended to shoot the frogs and Lucas started crying. He was sooooo upset that his Daddy shot the frogs. "No. I want more frogs!", he cried. We both started laughing. My husband said, "Lucas, they are just pretend. If you want more, just imagine a new one." That wasn't good enough. I actually had to put out my hand and offer a new frog to him.

Happy now, he started more talk about the frogs. "I don't want to eat the frogs. Frogs are yucky. I don't want to hold the yucky frog. I want to hold the clean frog.........."