I was very nervous leading up to this appointment. I didn't want the Speech Therapist to read into anything Bennett was doing or the way he said something or the way he might have looked at her when he answered a question - or ignored it. I was VERY nervous. Bennett is my loose cannon - anything can happen. And it did.
The appointment begins with the nice lady showing Bennett a basket full of plastic food that he was to 'feed' to the stuffed monkey. He was to name all the food items as he 'fed' them to the monkey. He loved this game. He said all the words properly and with a grin on his face the entire time. The only doubtful part came when he fed the monkey a 'fanich' (sandwhich) which was actually a plastic piece of pizza. I read that to mean: either the faniches I make him look like pizza or the lady could be thinking we never let our children have pizza and I will in turn look like a bad parent. (Remember my 'worst case scenario' outlook on life here).
I was REALLY afraid of her reading into anything he said or did. She then asks Bennett what his favorite food is. My son answers, "shicken (chicken) - burnt shicken". Although I was only in the room to sit and watch and not speak, I simply could not let a comment like that come out of the mouth of my dear child and not clarify for the nice lady. I piped up, "Let the record show that Mommy is not the one who feeds him burnt chicken. It is the chicken Daddy cooks on the grill. And it is not charred. It just has a few burnt spots on it." Whew, close call. I wouldn't want her thinking we only feed our child burnt food.
Next, the nice lady pulls out a little plastic family. There is a Dad with a cap that can't seem to stay on that Bennett seems to fixate on the entire time. A Mom, a son, a daughter, a baby, a dog and a cat. The lady takes them out of the bag and stands them all on the table. Bennett immediately goes for the Dad and begins putting its hat on properly (which continuously slides off). In between fixing the hat, he proceeds to take the dad doll and knock down all the other family members - repeatedly. My face is starting to blush. I'm getting nervous. I wanted to explain how they wrestle ALL the time. This means NOTHING. I'm praying she's not reading into this one. Bennett also has this facetious grin on his face the whole time. I've already interrupted once, I can't do it again. I let it ride and see where she takes this.
She then decides to show Bennett the son doll and asks him, "What do you think his name should be? Jack or Mary?" Bennett, not even looking up from his whacking activity with the Dad doll responds, "Mary." She questions his response, "Are you sure?" He is taken back by her doubt and looks at her and emphatically says, "Yes." Great. Not only do I have a son who likes to whack all the other family members down with the dad doll - he has issues with gender recognition now too. If she finds out I homeschool - I'm finished!
Finally, she puts the daughter doll on top of the cat doll and Bennett proceeds to knock her off the cat. The lady responds to his action by saying, "That's right. It's not right to sit on the cat. Is it?" She asks him, "Bennett, would you mind putting the cat under the desk?" He looks at her as he continues repositioning the hat on the Dad doll and says, "No thank you, I wouldn't." I'm thinking to myself, Bennett, she wasn't asking you if you wanted to - Do it, NOW. Put that stupid doll down and listen to the lady! Thankfully, she rephrased her question into a command and Bennett promptly obeyed before I could interrupt.
I left there on a wing and a prayer and Bennett telling me, "Mommy, I wuv to spend time wiv wu."
