A Better Way?

After several failed attempts to archive the antics of my children (I've tried baby books, calendars, email accounts for the children, posting photos online, annual christmas gange letters, and weekly phone calls to all 1500 relatives wanting an update on the kids), I'm finally doing what I should have done three years ago - blogging. This will please my mother, who compounds my anxiety by asking, every time I tell a "boy story" (funny story about what they've done), if I am "writing this down somewhere". No, in fact, I was not, but now I am. Hopefully.


Not only will I have a place to capture boy stories (i.e. The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day), but I can also share lessons learned in parenting children less than two years apart - an adventure not for the faint of heart.

Just to give you a sense of what we deal with on a daily basis, thought I'd share my most recent boy story about my oldest, a very spirited child who definitely marches to the beat of his own drummer. He recently underwent a complete speech and language evaluation (long story, but everything checked out fine) and as I was sitting in on the evaluation, I got a unique opportunity to peek into the way his mind works. The speech therapist had a booklet of pictures and she was walking him through the pictures and asking him comprehension questions. A sampling of his responses:

• She showed him a picture of rain , sun and snow and asked him to tell her where Charlie would be playing if he were cold and wet. His response: the snow, but he asked, "Where's Charlie? There's no Charlie here!" (there was no boy in the picture).
• Right after that, she showed him a picture of Charlie in the cold with some items - sunglasses, a coat, an umbrella, etc. and asked him what Charlie should do to warm up (implication being he should put on the coat). He told her that Charlie should go home. Which in fact, would be much warmer than putting on the coat - I agree!
• She showed him a pictures of three things and asked him to identify each. He correctly identified a picture of a shoe, but wanted to know, "where's the other shoe?"
• She showed him three pictures one of which was a boy taking a bath. She asked him what he was doing and Cade said, "Drinking the bathwater!" (Cade and Drew hold drinking contests in the baths, despite the fact that I discourage this on a nightly basis).
• She showed him a picture of ice cream and fire and said, "Ice cream is cold. Fire is......what?". He ignored her a couple of times. She repeated it and said, "Ice cream is cold. Fire is.....". Cade goes, "Fire is what!".
• And of course, the grand finale. When she repeatedly asked him where he plays, Cade's response (as he's checking out all the therapeutic toys in the session): "Right here, lady!".

As you can see, our boy has a unique way of thinking. It was incredible how not one of his answers was really WRONG, per se - just not the straightforward answer she was looking for! Oh, to get inside the mind of a three year old!