About an hour before we pick up Ben for a visit, we call to ask what he wants for lunch that day, and it’s either McDonald’s for a filet of fish with no tartar, medium fries and two juice boxes; Five Guys for a cheese dog, plain, and a regular fry; or Dunkin’ Donuts for a sausage, egg and cheese bagel and a bacon, egg and cheese bagel.
We add his choice to his schedule, which is basically the same every time, with changes of chow — he likes what he likes.
Yesterday, I got (uh, er) creative. Since I rarely use colored ink for anything, I spiced things up for the big Benny boy’s visit.
After climbing into the car, Ben carefully analyzes his schedule. After looking through the whole thing, he touches, and counts, every “Eat,” and then touches each food.
Then he crumples it up tight, and gives it to me, his hand going up, and then down, ceremoniously, into my waiting palm, before watching me toss it into the car’s garbage bag.
Old enough to remember the Mission Impossible TV series? How about the beginning of each episode, where the agent’s mission-delivering tape player self-destructs after 5 seconds?
Same thing. Ben reads fast, touches fast, and crumples fast.
But Ben also notices change. Any tiny change. This was not a tiny change!
The basic text of the schedule is still black, but the “Eat”s are dark green, and the foods are red.
And I think he really liked it. Or at least he went through it three times, a new record for pre-self-destruction and a lot more than 5 seconds.
Finally, a great use for colored ink.
