If You Call My House, You Should Know This

Sam has been answering our home phone. At first, he was just picking it up when it rang, and putting it to his ear without pressing talk. Now he picks it up (often after the first ring), and being non-verbal, holds it to his ear and says nothing. If you know this is happening and you talk to him, you may get a "hi," or some chatter, rather than heavy breathing. It took us a while to figure out he was doing this. The phone would ring once, and then stop, kind of like a wrong number. Then the other day, M heard the phone ring and stop and realized Sam had picked it up. M got on and said hello and it was Grandma. She confessed she'd been "talking" to Sam for several minutes. Now, one of generally realizes eventually, so if the caller is someone we know (or one of us), they just hang out, or chat with Sam until a grown-up realizes and picks up the phone.

Another thing Sam has been doing is covering his ears. Sort of like when the noise in a room or on TV is too loud for someone. Not uncommon for "artistics," but not something Sam has ever done. He has never seemed to be bothered by loud noise. Even now, when he puts his hands over his ears it is either not particularly loud, or he giggles when he does it, indicating that maybe he is doing it for some other reason. The only thing we can think of is that he has seen kids at school do it, and he is imitating them.