Max and I (and Jack, usually) have been listening to the Chronicles of Narnia since December. We’ve loved them! We just finished the last book so I picked up Alice in Wonderland for us now. On the way to the store we started it and boy, was it rough! I understood it when I wasn’t concentrating on driving…it wasn’t that difficult, but I doubt Max got much out of it. After the intro ended I turned it off and said ‘Wow, that was rough, huh?’ to Max. He agreed. I said it must’ve been a poem before the chapter and now we were gonna start the book, and it would be easier to understand. Max said ‘Maybe it was a pro-la-gue?’…a prologue That cracked me up; that’s my little reader.

Along these lines almost every time we get in the car if the radio’s not on Jack says ‘Narnia’ or ‘Klove’. And this morning at breakfast he pointed out the window and said ‘fly, bird’!!!! My little talker!

He’s recognized numbers for a very long time now, over a year, I think. But twice today he’s actually counted something. I think he may be beginning to understand what numbers are

Poor ole Jack…haven’t written much about him lately though he’s changing so much. I guess part of the problem is that change happens so slowly by the time he really gets here I forget to blog it.

January or so he was hardly even talking. A couple of weeks ago he would say one of 2 phrases: ‘I hear atrain’ or ‘I hear aplane’. Last week he added ‘I hear a thunder’. Tonight he said ‘I hear a bird’ then ‘a Max’ and ‘a Mama’.

He still has trouble remembering that talking gets him what he wants (or it’s a good start, anyway). I took him and Max to run errands Friday and it was just so miserable because Jack just whined and whined instead of saying ‘down’, ‘eat’ or ‘drink’. I don’t ask him to speak in complete sentences, but if prompted he can remember to recite ‘I want _____ please Mama/Daddy’. He’s definitely making progress and lots of it, it’s just sooooooo slow.

The other day he gave Tj a ‘biiiiiig hug’ then a ‘little hug’ I think that shows he’s starting to understand/see the relation between those two words.

In January we started forcing him to put his own clothes on more and to climb into/buckle his own seatbelt. Just yesterday he put on shirt/shorts/socks and one shoe w/o me touching him He can put both arms in and can buckle the top part of his seatbelt.

I have a big plan to potty train him when school ends…he has 2 weeks off of therapy and I’m hoping to mostly accomplish that goal by the time summer therapy starts up. Say a prayer: May 21′s the big day!

Max heard about baby showers and asked if babies get presents when they have their first shower. I told him it may have to do with ‘showering’ a person with gifts. I tried to quickly explain but he cut me off to ask excitedly if they really drop presents down like out of an airplane?! I said no, and he asked if we could do that his next birthday…then started figuring out the logistics and talking about how many parachutes we’d need. This is such a fun part of having kids… imagination/innocence/presents out of planes.

Well, I got an iPad cover and he got the cardboard insert that looks like an iPad.

So this morning he’s horsing around and I told him to clean up something…he looked at his iPad and said “Oh, ‘Attack of the Chicken-head!’” That really cracked me up I love that boy.

This morning I told Max that we’d be going to a meeting and he’d have to sit quietly and do schoolwork or read a book. He asked if he could ‘join the conversation sometimes’ which totally cracked me up since he’s a 7-year-old boy. When I told him no, that we’d be talking about Jack and where he’s going to school next year he said, ‘oh, I though I could join in with some funny stuff like when Mrs. Sherry was here’! I’d worry that he was too old for his age if he hadn’t also just asked me if he could play with his sword while we were talking about Jack.

About a week ago we went through the car wash in Tj’s car (we’ve switched cars since he’s retired). Jack was scared and started crying. Before I could even comfort him Max leaned over and covered Jack’s eyes! I’d never told him to do that before; I think that’s super sweet that he thought of doing that on his own.

Backstory: we’ve been listening to Narnia on CD in the car since December. Story: yesterday Max made himself a crown and has been carrying a drumstick sword in a paper towel tube scabbard tucked into his waste band. He came in from playing with his friends outside and asked if I’d be his servant! I told him I already was, couldn’t he see me folding his clothes? He asked his dad and Tj said what would being his servant mean? Max said he’d have to do all his chores. Heh. Guess it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Max told me last night that he was going to put his clean shirt on before bed last night so he didn’t have to get dressed in the morning…he was saving time, you know

This morning Jack needed a bath, and then Max started playing with him but stayed out of the tub. After a bit I asked if he wanted to just get in the tub with Jack, and he said “Mom!! I just put on my new shirt last night!!” like it was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard to do it all over again.

Mom, I know this sounds ridiculous, but, can anyone marry their mom?

And a week ago when I was talking about him growing up he said “Childs are never as big as their parents!” like I’d just tried to pull the wool over his eyes.

That’s what Max told me when I forced him to cuddle with me right after I put on perfume

Poor Max, we live in an area that’s not very diverse. I sometimes wonder what he thinks about other races…he’s got his info jumbled up for sure!

This morning we went to homeschool co-op. I sent him into the big room before it all started while I dropped Jack off. When I met up with Max he said very excitedly “Mom! There’s Chinese people here!” I tried to quiet him but he was so thrilled! “I saw the name ‘Crawford’ on the nametag board!” I told him that wasn’t really a Chinese name. He reminded me that we’ve been reading about Lottie Moon, and she went to help some other missionaries named ‘Crawford’ in China. Heh.