Our Ticket Addict

Our little Nathan has a tendency to fixate on things. For those of you who know him well, you know that he's been obsessed with balls since he could walk. He did nothing but play sports all day every day---and became very skilled. Then (thanks to the movie "Madagascar") he went through a "lion" phase where he would do nothing but climb on things and roar all day long, saying "I Awek a wion!" ("I'm Alex the Lion!") Well, now he's got a new passion: tickets. And it all started with this movie:

Yes, The Polar Express. It has become his entire world. For those of you who don't know the story.....it's about a boy who goes on a magical train ride to the north pole and encounters great adventures while trying to return a ticket to a fellow passenger. (That's being very brief.)

Nathan is now living vicariously through this character.


All he wants to do is watch this movie. Of course, I won't allow him to watch it all day; so when he's not watching it, he's living it. And having his "ticket" is as important as breathing air.



These are a portion of the tickets he's accumulated in the past month.


And this is a visual of the "evolution" of his tickets. Going clockwise, you can see how his requests for the perfect ticket have progressed. After a few weeks of tedious ticket making, TJ and I went online and found a couple printable Polar Express Tickets, which Nathan eagerly approved.


The movie is full of intense scenes, like this one, where they were frantically trying to stop the train. So Nathan spends his days rushing through the house in a faux-panic saying, "Gotta stop a train! Gotta stop a train!"


Then there's the 'balance beam/train track' scene over a huge drop off that Nathan has been recreating over our kitchen sink:


I can't count how many times a day I have to take him down from here.

And this scene is when the boy meets this bum/ghost who offers him a "cup of Joe." Now everything Nathan drinks is referred to by him as his "cup of Joe."

He won't even go to sleep without a ticket in hand.
~
And there's more, so much more. He knows every detail of that show. In fact, TJ and I were a little concerned with his obsession and mentioned it to his Hearing & Speech Teacher. But she assured us that it is very normal for him to find comfort in things like this that he can feel some control over.
~whew~
So now we sit back and let him entertain us, while wondering what his next fascination will entail . . . . . .