Lots of antics!

I'm so overdue for a cute antics update here!  So, if you don't get my email updates, this should give lots of smiles... thanks to my kiddo :)

• informing me, "You can't sumo-wrestle with an avalanche." (He's been flipping through a book about Mt. Everest.)

Imagining sumo-wrestling that avalanche!

• "I'm lovely.  I'm the only joy in life for you two [pause, looking at us] I'm certain that's not true."

• to make sure he didn't forget his glasses, he ignored the idea of putting them with his morning clothes.  Instead, he grabbed them and headed downstairs declaring he knew just the place to put them to make sure they came with him to school… he went into the garage (in only pajama bottoms, without slippers), opened the refrigerator, and put his glasses on top of the jerky trays. (That was his plan for breakfast, but perhaps he extended a wee bit more effort than required.  I just smiled.)

• informing me, "You're the national cooker of food for our family." (Oh, didn't know our family counted as a nation.)

• "Daddy worked for Amazon when I was a little kid and didn't have my memories." (Interesting and I guess nine doesn't count as a little kid anymore.)

• requesting I "coldenize the heat" (= cool off the hot car)

• "Why are you giving me blue lemons!" (His teasing description of tart blue berries.)

• exclaiming, "Ow I stepped on your toe!" (It was true.  He stepped on his therapist's toe, but… ow?)

• responding to my summary of his plan with, "Precisely. Once in a world of events my mom gets something right." (The tone on this one was a clear joke, but he does get body language mixed up sometimes and will smile when he's done something wrong or sees someone angry.  I think it's an embarrassment thing, but it doesn't look / feel like it at the time!  He'll get frustrated because he's adamant that he doesn't think he's smiling and he doesn't understand how he can be smiling unintentionally.  Obviously, smiling when he's damaged something or someone is saying they're angry / frustrated does not serve him well.)

• One that I posted to Facebook after he yet again "forgot" to cover his mouth when coughing:
My priceless child... the more I bite my tongue, the more his introspective skills seem to improve!
This is what I've been listening to since I've declined sharing my computer after the latest spray of germs. (The distress gradually decreased as I let him process.)

"I don't have any ideas.  I want you to give an idea and then I'll give my own. It's not my fault I coughed on your computer.  Well, it actually is but I forgot and I wasn't thinking about it.  Just give me an idea and then I'll try to think of my own.   Fine.  So, what should I do?  Maybe a reward so I'd have some encouragement?"
[Me] "You can reward yourself."
"Ya, that should be good, but I don't think I'll need it because I think I'll remember and stop.   I might need a reminder to think about it."
[Me] Mmm? Not a job that I'd like.
"No, I don't think I'll need a reminder.  On the whole, I think I'll manage to remember because I usually think about the consequence and don't care, but now I do care.  So, if I do care, I work on it and eventually achieve it.  Since I didn't care before, I didn't achieve it.  Since I'm going to start working on it, I'll achieve it in no time.

• yelling out numbers for a coordination exercise (There are different movements for each number and the goal is to help him process and move more smoothly.  He's so energetic about it that you'll hear him scream "9, 4, 2, 1, 3"!  Then there's silence as he processes and does the movement before we hear another series of random numbers shouted at top volume… he just doesn't do anything gently.)

• making a suicide pit in Minecraft "just in case anyone wanted to use it". (Considering he's not playing multi-player and doesn't want to destroy his own video-game character, it seems like an odd way to improve his online environment!)

• OVERHEARD (a laugh out loud moment)
Husband: You have a way of pushing buttons that I don't think you even realize.
Cameron: What buttons?
(Cameron stayed baffled too, "Could you ever so nicely tell me what is going on?"  It was one of those situations where the tone of voice was perfect.  Bemused exasperation on one side and innocent curiosity on the other.)

• examining a sweet, "I won't eat it in two bites… I'll eat it gradually and slowly."

• describing being hungry as "hunger baiting"

• conversation after Cameron had been chattering at Andrew about Minecraft for thirty minutes:
Andrew: You never do get tired of talking, do you?
Cameron: No.  I'm a talkative boy. So, the talkative boy continues….

• Two stories:

Ahhhh, my child is growing!  He hurt his hand.  I offered to kiss his boo boo.  "They're not boo boos, they're wounds!" I mentioned that when he was little he liked me to kiss his wounds.  He was smiling, but informed me "Not anymore." (And off he went to get a lego game for us... growing!)

Another cute antic, I looked out to see what was keeping my child from bringing in the mail and saw him on his bottom on the drive way with mail dispersed around him.  I commented, "That looks like a splat." He remarked that it was a very neat splat because his legs were equally apart and faced the opposite direction he'd been going. We chatted as he meticulously handed me each piece of mail before getting up and continuing on.  I really, really love my kid!

• old one that I just wrote up...
I was answering a parenting question elsewhere and thought my note about video games might be fun to share:

"The video game "trick" is something we've chatted about before.  He knows games are designed to give lots of positive feedback for easy efforts originally and then require more and more effort, where as real life often requires lots of hard work before any positive feedback.  We were noticing the hint that he didn't want to work hard to achieve values in real life and was preferring the easy "fix" feeling of video games.  It was just a hint.  As soon as we told him the trick, he was bound and determined not to be fooled :)"

• licking an envelope that was a sticker… twice. (Talk about adherence to routine!  I thought it was an accident with the first envelope and mentioned that it was a sticker.  He licked the second one too though and just said he wanted to.) 

• Overheard:
A: (muttered while playing Minecraft) Damn Kreepers.
C: (cheerfully) I can see why you're frustrated.
(Ya, don't you love hearing those parenting phrases echoed back!)

• describing the recess soccer games as the "kids condense and expand"

• giving us a nice list of what he defined as folktales and finishing off with "Hansel and Griddle" (That picked our bedtime reading! :) )

• reporting that he had two new girls at his table and he tried to act funny in school (?, it wouldn't the first time he's sought attention in a clumsy manner because it's just so NOT intuitive for him to understand how to be friendly.)

• responding to my comment that we had failed as parents by missing The Velveteen Rabbit with "Moooooom, I am not amused!" (Yep, that was another bed time reading.)

• while waiting for his speech therapist he commented on his arms that show the signs of his constant picking at scrapes, "It's good to have them scarred, now I'm a martyr!"
(Um, ya, the lady in the waiting room laughed and told him that's when someone hurts you, not when you do it to yourself!")

• leaving a downloaded Scooby Doo episode on my computer desk top… it was in Russian.

• hugging me and saying, "My mommykins is so sweet; she needs to be cuddled." (After a long week of parenting challenges, I'm going to sleep with a smile.  I love my quirky kid!)

• contemplating a halloween costume that was his favorite color (red-orange), I said it would be bright and he corrected me, "Flamboyant!"

• mis-recalling the name The Battle of Laketown (Tolkein's Lord of the Rings) as The Battle of Yorktown :)

• responding when asked by someone "How's your brain doing?" with "It's a good looking brain!"

• going through four rounds of thank-you-you're-welcome when the therapist said she liked his rain boots (which he wore on a bright sunny day)

• placing these lego items on the first place lego, chess trophy and explaining the reasons... 
Gun- to defend yourself
Crown and epaulettes and throne- to show you're the head of your life
Key- to seek your knowledge
Telescope- to see ahead
Wheel- to steer your life
Pirate above- you can conquer your opponents
Riches

• Facebook status:
Kid quotes from our discussion tonight regarding my kiddo's lack of effort in occupational therapy (which is resulting in the therapist needing to repeat herself a lot and he makes less progress) ... I just love that he verbalizes his thinking! 

"No one wants an insubordinate student, Calvin [from Calvin and Hobbes] is a great example!  He's just such a piece of work… but, I'm not that much of a pill...
"Mmmm hmmm, what you say makes sense, but what I say is almost always a whim so you always win.  I just realized that what I'm saying is a whim!  I do think you'll eventually win even though the whim is very persuasive.  But, I think that when I think about it your long range ideas will knock the whim out."