I Like It. It Has a Good Beat, and Jay Jay Can Dance To It.

Jude loves Jay Jay the Jet Plane. The figure, the wooden one. We are on the fourth Jay Jay in three years. They tend to wear out from so much dancing. Let me explain.

Kids with sensory stuff do this thing calling stimming, which is short for stimulation. They do things to wake up sluggish parts of their brains. Which is why I can spot a spectrum kid a mile away. Coming out of the doctor's office with a sticker, holding it up at a weird angle and peering at it with one eye and the other closed. Back and forth, near and far with the sticker. Classic.

Jude holds Jay Jay in just that way , and Jay Jay dances to music. Jay Jay flies right next to Jude's eyeball and moves his wings in time to the song. Jay Jay is a excellent dancer, too, and I think he has a future in conducting. He really captures the feel of the music, whether it be classical music (Jay Jay just adores Vivaldi) or the background to a cartoon. When Jay Jay is worn down, and missing an engine, his movement is droopy and half hearted. When Jay Jay is brand spanking new, his movements are sweeping and grand. Apparently Jay Jay has bad days just like the rest of us.

When music comes on Jude yells NEED JAY JAY FOR DANCING!!! And we all join the hunt, rushing to find Jay Jay. I do try to keep Jay Jay handy, because you never know what music will be Jay Jay worthy. Jay Jay does not like Tori Amos or Neil Young. He likes country music (no accounting for some planes's’ taste) and to my husband's delight, Jay Jay can really get in to an industrial ambient piece. Don'’t even try to get Jay Jay to move to smooth Jazz, but Jay Jay loves the Ramones. Yea.

The truth is, I am supposed to be discouraging the kind of visual stimming that is going on here with our little blue friend. But when Jay Jay is triumphantly directing Beethoven's Ode to Joy and Eden is standing next to Jude with his fingers together, moving along with the music, expressing all sorts of feelings that can'’t be put into words, well, Jay Jay is all good with me. Rock on, Jay Jay. Rock on.