1) Clowns. There’s a cafeteria near here that has kids eat free night, and on kids eat free night, there is a clown who hands out balloon animals. It’s an older lady wearing face paint, bright colored clothes, a frizzy wig, and pink Crocs. We have seen her driving up in her SUV and pulling her rolling suitcase full of supplies into the restaurant; she looks like everyone’s grandma and she's always been kind to him. No matter. Carl is terrified of her. We have friends who like to go to kids eat free night, and even though I’m not a fan of the food at this place, for a chance to see my friends and not cook, I would go once in a while, but Carl firmly says No Way.
2) Going upstairs by himself, if no one else is up there already. He’s very insistent that someone go with him when he’s going up to get ready for bed, say, or to retrieve something from his room before we leave for school in the morning. It’s a little annoying, but I can’t fault him for this; I used to long-jump into my bed at night, to avoid being slurped up by some threatening, vague miasma that was on the floor or under the bed.
I was going to add “staying home alone by himself, even for a few minutes” but this week, he decided to stay on the sofa playing video games for the 20 minutes or so between when Ruby and I left for the occupational therapist’s office and when Rod came home from work. It was a big step for him, but thanks to the distraction, he barely even noticed.
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