Mom does manga...

This evening I was able to persuade B to begin drawing a manga for Tomoko, our Japanese teacher. She had particularly liked one of his home-made Pokeman, by the name of "Buttox" (yeah, can you tell he's nearly 10....?) & I have been hoping he might feature this character in a manga/cartoon for her. We dreamed-up the story together & B got to work, & since he likes me to be near him when he draws, I decided to draw him drawing :) (that's the picture above). He has Rufus clasped under his arm, as usual. When he saw my picture, B was quite charmed (sigh of relief- you can never tell when he's going to be touchy about personal things these days). He really liked his "manga" eyes :) Then he requested that I draw Rufus doing the "peace" sign that seems so ubiquitous in Japanese photos (even ones portrayed in manga). He loved it, & said I was getting pretty good with my drawing, too :) I will try to remember to take a photo of the finished "Buttox meets Crystal Worm" manga, before he gives it to Tomoko, & post it here.

I shouldn't have been worried about B wanting to resolve yesterday's altercation with his friends. It was the first thing he wanted to talk to Cherie about when he got to school, according to C, who's day off is Wednesday, & who passes-on the day-off to me by taking B to & from school in my stead. There wasn't much time to talk to him directly after school, since he had an appointment to see his psychologist Dr. M, but we were able to get an idea of how it went over dinner. B said that that the other boys had been so caught-up in their "secret plan" (this was the ball-throwing part), that they didn't think about how he might feel about it. B seemed relieved to have cleared the air & be back on good terms with them all. So were C & I!

During B's appointment with Dr. M they talked about the OCD as being caused by anxiety & worry, & Dr. M introduced the idea of "worry warriors" to B... who was not convinced about adopting the concept, but did participate in an exercise identifying potential "worry warriors", such as "farts", jokes, & other distractions that take his mind off of his worries. C (who took B to the appointment- bless him!) said that B also pulled a very funny fast one on Dr. M... I guess B wanted to play with a ball that was out of reach, & was being asked to hold-off until they were finished talking about something else. C said that B glanced out the window & said "hey look, a bluejay!", which caused Dr. M to whirl around (with his back to B) & look out the window. B then grabbed the ball & started playing with it. C said Dr. M just broke up laughing, & appeared very pleased that B was able to "script" a scenario that predicted the behaviour he wanted Dr. M to exhibit- turning his back to him. It sounded hysterical- & just shows what a lovely person B's psychologist is, to be delighted to have been "had" by our kid... :)