Really never imagined it would go this way. Also did not think it would happen quite so soon but alas, my first born has lost his heart at the tender age of not-quite-4. Here is how it went down: New Years Eve at my Mom's house. Violet, a long time girl-friend of my Mom's, often indulges the kids with presents when she visits and she did not fail this time. Annelies was already in bed when Violet showed up, so Marco got to open his present. Not quite satisfied, he dragged (I say dragged because it was a LARGE box) Annelies's present over to me with a request to 'open Annelies's present, please'. My Mom told me to just go on ahead, Annelies would not really mind if Marco opened her present. He tore the wrapper off the box, carefully handing us each piece. So cute. When the wrapper was finally off, Marco's eyes became round as saucers and he grinned from ear to ear, because he was face to face with...an almost life-size doll. We found out her name is Lisa (The box said "Lovable Lisa") and we sat her down on the couch. Marco stood facing her, and looked at her out of the corners of his eyes from each direction, with a goofy grin on his face. We were all astounded at this very non-autistic bahavior. We told him to hug Lisa, and he did. We told him to kiss Lisa and he couldn't do it quickly enough!
When bed time came, Lisa had to come with. Marco asked for Lisa to sleep in the crib that is in my Mom's guest room, and I would share the big bed with Marco. (I asked him if he wanted her in the bed, he said 'No, Lisa in the crib'). We tucked Marco and Lisa in and told them good night. An hour later, I went to check on Marco. He had gotten up, turned on the light, gotten Lisa from across the room and tucked her in bed next to him, and fallen asleep (there is no way for him to reach the light switch on the wall from the bed, so the light was on). Unbelievable, so very cute!
The next morning, Marco wanted to take Lisa with him from the bedroom to the living room. I announced to my Mom that this was not just a one-night stand, this is the real thing! To this day, Annelies has not been able to get anywhere near this doll, who happily lives in Marco's room. (He does not insist on taking her everywhere, he is happy for her to just be there when he comes home.)
