Funny in the Morning

Yesterday G woke with no trouble.  As he stumbled to the shower, he shook his head and said “..another busy day at school....”  As if he’s some 50-year-old on his way to the office.

This morning he made a funny face.  When I questioned him, he explained:
“I’m stretching my lips out.”

“Why are you stretching your lips out?”

“They feel a little bit tight.”

After I laughed, he added: “What?  Everyone does it.”

Really?

Return on Investment

The other night I was talking with G about his great choices of late.  I asked him what he thought made the difference for him.  He responded: “Well, Mr. Peter taught me, and I remembered.”

 

I'm so grateful for all Mr. Peter invested in this sweet boy.

 

Good Choices

G had an unbelievable summer, behavior-wise. 

 

There was the one incident with the locked bathroom door to conceal the broken faucet.  But I kind of chalk that one up to “boy” more than to “lack of self regulation.”

 

Otherwise, his choices have been astounding me.  Like when he asks for gum to help himself calm down.  Or when he calls: “I’m angry!”  Or even when I give him a consequence and he responds by… complying.

 

Not saying we’re perfect.  But we have come a lot closer to healthy.  And it’s very nice.

G-isms

Here's an example of one of my favorite G-isms.

A couple of young girls have been visiting their dad, who's staying in our neighborhood.  G wants to play with them, so he checks in with me:

"Mama, I'll just go and ringbell the door."

That's one way that G uses "ringbell."  The other is when he's actually pushing someone's doorbell.  As he pushes it, he says, "ringbell, ringbell!" It's very similar to "dingdong," but it's all his own.

Love it.

You know that moment...

... when you're up against an end-of-day deadline at work, but you get the call that your 6-year-old is home tantruming, and in talking you discover that he has deliberately locked the bathroom door closed (and the adults there can't get it opened) (your one bathroom that has a shower in it), so you de-escalate the tantrum and hurry back to your deadline, which is quickly approaching because you're leaving early to get to a 4:30 appointment, which lasts a bit long - which was great, but also not good, because you have to feed your child before you go to 7:00 Book Club, so you rush home and start some rice (and receive cheers for rice & beans) (thank you, God, for rice and beans!) and then you work to appropriately discuss the locked-door situation while still POURING into a 6-year-old love tank, and grabbing the Book Club book, when you decide to try fixing the door really quickly - and you get it OPENED!

And then you discover that it was locked to hide the fact that your 6-year-old broke the faucet.

You know that moment?

Hilarity from G

G dictated a letter to Mr. Peter.

 

Midway through, he had me write:

 

Knock Knock.

 

Who’s there?

 

Mr. Joke Man.

 

Mr. Joke Man who?

 

Mr. Joke Man YOU!

 

And that was it.  Rolling around on the floor laughter.

 

Awesome.

Memories

The other morning, I was warned that our air conditioning was broken at work, so I dressed accordingly – a sleeveless shirt that I haven’t worn since being in Haiti.

 

I came into the kitchen to make G’s breakfast.  He greeted me with a BIG smile and came to hug me.

 

“I love your shirt.”

 

"Why?”

 

“Because you used to wear this shirt in Haiti.”