Alexis is in my bathtub taking a bath and watching TV. I hear the water splash. I hear her spitting water from her mouth. I hear voices and songs coming from the TV. I hear her sing made-up songs. And then suddenly, she screams, very loud, "Woo Hoo! Oh ... I've been there." Not at me. Not at anyone. She just yells these words at the TV.
Do you think they realize they are doing this? Living in their own little worlds? Singing, splashing and yelling at the TV?
I saw my nephew recently. I said, "How are you doing?"
He starts to answer and my brother-in-law bends down and whispers something in his ear and then my nephew mumbles ... "Fine."
I look over at my sister and she laughs. She says, "He's been talking to him about that. Told him to just say fine, when people ask - not to go into a whole long story, 'Oh, not great ... not really liking school. Lost my Gameboy, blah, blah, blah.'" We laughed.
My brother-in-law says, "Yeah, people don't want to hear all that crap - told him to just say fine - like everyone else."
I, of course, told my nephew that he was always welcome to tell me all of his crap, but secretly supported this line of thinking on my brother-in-law's part.
Sometimes, I walk by Alexis' bedroom and see her sitting at her little table, coloring. Often, I hear her say things - complete sentences, complete conversations. Sometimes she is singing - songs she's heard or, more often, made-up melodies. If I ever ask her who she is talking to or what she's talking about, she will act as though she wasn't talking or singing at all; like she feels strange about being caught.
When old people do these things ... talk to themselves or go on and on about crap going on in their lives ... we call them senile or worse. When our little children do this ... we find it endearing and adorable.
It is not normal. It is fine to sing a little song or hum a tune ... but, the random talking is bizarre.
On the upside ... I do it too. One day when I was walking out of my bedroom, I heard a voice coming from the TV say, "Would you like to live Danielle Steele's life?" Bending over to pick up a pile of dirty clothes off of the floor and without missing a beat, I yelled back at the TV, "YES. I. WOULD!" and then walked on out of my room. Alexis comes by her insanity honestly.
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