Synopsis of today’s visit . . .
I picked Tyler up at 10:30, and I asked him if he’s like to go feed the ducks. He said yes, so we drove to Green’s Feed to buy some hen scratch.
While we were waiting for the clerk to bag up the duck food, I asked him if his mommy had talked to him about maybe coming to stay with us.
He didn’t really give me an answer or seem to want to discuss it – so I let it drop.
We went to Virginia Lake and fed the ducks. He asked me lots of questions about my dogs and cats, and whether I had flowers at my house.
I told him I had the two dogs at home, and we have two cats at work. I told him that we had some goldfish in a barrel at my house, and he asked me if they were little fish. I said no, they are like this big and held my hand up with my thumb and index finger spread as wide as I could (the fish are like 8” long). He said he likes little goldfish and I said that if he came to stay at our house, we could get him a bowl with little goldfish. I asked him if he wanted to go to my job later and see my cats, and he said yes.
After feeding the ducks, we went to Meadowood Mall and he built a camouflage bear at Build A Bear Workshop. Leaving the mall, he wanted to talk about dogs. He said he had two dogs (I am guessing he was either making it up entirely or referring to his natural family), a large one named Ham (or something like that), and a little dog whose name was “Stacy, like your dog.” (My dog’s name is Sadie.) He spoke of having a big house that got small, and then he went to like with the Tongan family (he used that term). I asked him how he felt about that, and he shrugged and said “Fine.” I asked him, if he came to stay with me, did he want his room decorated in Spiderman? He initially said yes, then seemed to change his mind. He said his room has Spiderman stuff, but that now he wants Spongebob. He said not Spongebob, but Patrick (a Spongebob show character). He said his favorite colors are pink and purple, and Patrick is pink. I told him that if he came to stay with us, I would decorate his room with Patrick stuff. I asked him again if his mommy had talked to him about why he couldn’t stay there. He didn’t answer directly, but he said he’d like to stay either with his mommy or me. I acted all surprised and said, “You would come stay with me?” He said yes.
After that, we drove over to my job so he could see where I work and he saw my cats. He met my business partner, Guy, and was very friendly, not shy at all. I introduced Guy to Tyler as my best friend (significance will become clear in a minute). They shook hands, we played with Sebastian’s toys for a few minutes. Then, we went to McDonald’s on Kietzke near Vassar. I got him a Happy Meal but all he would eat was two of the four nuggets.
By then, it was time to head to school. On the way, he said he didn’t want to go to school. I asked Tyler did he not want to see his friends; he said no. I asked him who his best friend at school was, and he said “Guy, like your friend.” I don’t know if that’s true, or if he just has a habit of mimicking. At school I goy him all signed in and found out more about his school schedule (he is out for the year after June 9). Before I left he said he was going to ask his dad if I could come get him and we could do more fun stuff. I told him that was fine and if his dad said that was ok, I would come get him. I told him that I would see him Friday either way. He gave me a hug after a little coaxing and I waved him a cheerful goodbye!
