Ho, Ho....Uh-Oh

AJ, in his spontaneous way, can sometimes unknowingly make things seem a bit better...

We decorated the house for Christmas today. Began with him helping me put up the tree...putting all the branches in the wrong places so it looked like a sculpted shrub until I got everything where it belonged. Then, I got lots of 'help' putting on the lights, which amounted to untangling the stuff I had already untangled but he was trying to put on the tree while I was putting on the other end. Finished that and repeated the process with his continued 'help' with the garland. Hoping to distract him, I brought in the 20 gallon plastic container of decorations. I immediately recognized this as a mistake as the tub was excitedly and promptly dumped upside down so he could look at everything that was in there all at once. While trying to decorate the tree, he decided he was hungry, so the decorating process was interrupted to make some pizza. While he was busy eating in front of a Christmas movie, I proceeded to decorate the tree as quickly as possible to avoid more 'help'. He announced that he needed more juice. In an effort to promote independence (and because I was still trying to untangle the garland he had assisted with), I asked him to get it himself. He happily dashed to the kitchen, pulled out the gallon pitcher of lime-aid and immediately dropped onto the floor. This catastrophe necessitated having to wash the sticky mess off the floor, including pulling out the refrigerator to get at the lime-aid that had made it's way under there. All the towels it took to mop up the mess made for yet another load of laundry. There was just enough juice left in the bottom of the pitcher to fill him a cup to drink. We went back to the living room to continue decorating. I kept working on the tree. He busily pushed every button on every singing, noise-making Christmas toy bombarding me with Santas, snowmen and a host of other winter characters belting out a variety of Christmas carols. Either he lost interest in that or all of the batteries in all of those toys died (I haven't checked yet...might not until New Year's). Suddenly it was quiet...for a few seconds. He turned on the Christmas piano, setting forth another barrage of Christmas melodies to which he made up his own words: "Christmas...Mom is nuts. Lights. Crazy mom. Decorations. Thank you, Mommy...Christmas tree. Happy. Merry Christmas. Thank you Mom."

Okay. I'm a sucker...I'll decorate with him again next year.

Abra Cadabra

I was a bit early picking AJ up from school. As I walked in, his aide spotted me from the office and pointed me toward his classroom. The door to the classroom was ajar. AJ's back was turned and so was his teacher's. The kids were busy readying the classroom for the weekend, stacking chairs and the like, and no one really took notice of me. I quickly crossed the room and sat in a chair in the corner, fairly out of sight.

I chuckled as his teacher, who was obviously glad it was Friday, displayed extreme self control trying to get the kids (who were also obviously glad it was Friday), to finish their assigned tasks.

AJ pushed stacked chairs in the opposite direction of which they should go. Not that he didn't understand...he understood perfectly well that he was clowning and had the attention of the boy giggling next to him. That finished, his teacher directed him to finish putting away the clean dishes on the sink. He started toward the sink, she turned away and he began happily fiddling with the pencil sharpener. After a bit, she turned back his way and he scurried toward the sink.

Coming my way with a couple of clean dishes to be put away, he finally spotted me in the corner. I told him, "I saw you goofing around with that pencil sharpener instead of doing your job."

He looked stunned and said with awe, "You're magic!"

Looking Good

I was in AJ's room, putting clean linen on the bed. He comes in fresh from his shower and pulls out clothes to put on for bed. A ratty old t-shirt of mine and a pair of incredibly baggy boxer shorts he snagged from Grandpa.

He puts them on, then admires himself in the mirror. He turns and asks me, "How do I look?"

"Comfortable." I reply.

He rolls his eyes at me, "No, Mom. Perfect."

Really too bad about his low self-esteem.

Mommy Must be a Monster

I was tucking AJ into bed last night and sort of rubbing his back. He begins to relax and then tells me, "AJ itchy. Use claws."

First Day of School

AJ started school yesterday. We really raised the bar as far as addressing targeted behaviors and, so far, so good...

Last year, we finally got to the point where I dropped him at the curb and he walked into school by himself where his aide would wave at me that they had him. He had some major changes this year...new classroom on the opposite end of the building, new locker, new door to line up at in the morning. I took him up to school every day the week before school to practice finding the right door, finding his locker, learning how to open the locker, etc. and finding his classroom.

First day of school. I drop him at the curb...he goes right to the correct door. Greets friends, hanging out. After a few minutes, turns around to see I am still parked at the curb watching to make sure he's okay. He's appalled. Stomps his foot, points to the exit and hollers, "Go! Got it! FINE!" So...I drive out of sight. Park the car. Enter the building on the opposite end, hide around the corner to watch. He walked in nicely with his classmates, found his locker, got his folder out, hung his backpack, closed his locker quietly and went into the right classroom.

You know what?

I need to "Go!" He's "Got it!" He's just "FINE!"

Geesh, Mom...grow up.

First Shave

AJ came out of the bathroom and announced to Caleb, who's watching him this summer, that he had "Shave a mustache".

Caleb said he saw hair on his face and shirt and couldn't quite figure out what was going on. Upon closer inspection, indeed AJ had shaved...one eyebrow.

Poor Caleb was so worried I'd be mad...I found the whole thing rather funny. What kid hasn't tried to cut his own hair...or whatever?

Did tell Caleb that, when it is time for AJ to learn to shave, we'd be calling him home from college and I expect that he will teach him to shave properly!

We were walking into Dollar General the other day. AJ held the door for me and then for the elderly lady behind us (Good boy! I've been working on that since he was big enough not to have the door crush him.) I thought he was behind me, but, glancing back, I see he is still holding the door and watching two teen girls walking across the parking lot. He patiently waits and waits until the two girls get to the door he's holding. He gets big thank-you's, and is quite obviously pleased with himself . He trots up to me, grins and announces, "They gorgeous."