Positive Discipline Tool Cards

I participate in an online parenting group and I've particularly enjoyed a recent development there.  Each week, one of the members picks and writes about a Positive Discipline Tool Card.  The tools that are covered are all focused on positive ways to help a child develop independence.  Discipline is all about enforcing natural consequences, not punishments; the focus is on guidance over forced compliance.  Anyway, I'm loving this process and looking forward to each week.  I hosted a couple weeks ago and wanted to share what I wrote.  I'm going to start sharing these tool cards with my kiddo too so he can practice these respectful ways of interacting right back :)

Tool Card Monday:

Validate Feelings and Winning Cooperation

I picked these two because I think they're such a game changing skill in parenting. It makes parenting so much more fun for both kid and parent when you use them (and they're great outside of parenting too, of course). As you can see, "Winning Cooperation" starts with "Validating Feelings" so they're nested skills. I think responding to kids' big emotions can be one of the hardest things to cope with as a new parent. Toddlers and early preschoolers especially can be so exasperating when you just want them to see the big picture they're missing, but they're too upset to understand… you're out of bananas, the park is closed, a particular dog hates kids, a tool works a particular way, rat poison isn't for eating… they're just screaming mad and can't hear you and you can feel so stuck as a parent with this distraught, pre-rational creature. Validating Feelings is a life saver skill to foster as one's default, first thing, immediate response when in this situation. It's an awesome basis for getting cooperation and in a much more pleasant manner for all. (I do think step 4 requires some modifying for age since younger kids are going to need help in that working out process, but giving them some time is still helpful.) Moving on to "Winning Cooperation" then from a place where a kid feels heard and you aren't super aggravated is so much easier. You haven't agreed that they get to sample the rat poison or nuzzle noses with the fear-biting dog, but you've given them the chance to be heard and to calm down and, potentially, understand aspects of the situation that they didn't before. Of course they may not the first or tenth time, but that's the growing process. Kids can be so creative once they can hear you and solutions are often much more innovative and pleasant for all. I find using these skills not only fosters that growing independence in kids, it also makes my day to day parenting life so much more rich and happy.

(The whole deck is available on Amazon.)

(The whole deck is available on Amazon.)

Chocolate Bliss!

I met my chocolate maker guru (http://www.claudiocorallo.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7&Itemid=)!  IT WAS SO COOL!  A lady translated for him and I was just riveted as he answered questions for almost two hours! Glorious!!! Thrilling!!!  Exciting!!!  Hip, hip, hooray!!! 

With his translator teaching us about the life of the chocolate bean in the germ and how other chocolates are dead, "Chocolates like Valharona are like Egyptian mummies: fancy on the outside, inside... a cadaver!"

Me in seventh heaven!!!

And... on to Cameron's cute antics:

• correcting me,  "I'm not cute! I'm sweet and lovely!" (I should stick around after waking him up more often :) )

• informing me "You need a hug." Hugging me.  Then nuzzling my arm with a crooning, "My lovely motherly sweety poo." (No repression of affection in this kiddo!)

• We were discussing the take away points from dealing with a friend's younger sibling who has a really quick temper.  My kiddo waxed eloquent on what to do when someone has a short fuse and then informed me, "Mom, it's practically impossible to blow your fuse!" (Ah, a compliment!  But, oh how I've been tried! :) )

• "My feet are as clean as iron!" (I naturally asked what that meant and I got the isn't-that-obvious look.  He told me it means they're very clean.)

• after requesting some rough housing where he really loves to be squashed, he got all serious and dignified, "Please don't smother me; it's very unpleasant."

• writing himself a note to help with procrastination, "Past Cameron: No matter what you think it's best to edit your writing right after water and bathroom."

• choosing to color a geography map while naked, hiding in front of Andrew's car in the garage, in a dirty corner, near where we'd seen a scorpion.  (?!?!?!?  I brought him pajamas so he could do the map inside, but he didn't have an explanation for why he chose to hide in the garage instead of clothing himself… he had his room and pajamas available.)

• after one of his exuberant hugs and energetic nuzzles that was lasting awhile, I mentioned that we really should get a dog and he informed me, "You're better than any dog would be."

• trying to print 135 copies of his latest story so he'd have back up  

• randomly commenting at 9:15pm as he looked down,"Hooray, I'm wearing my pants correctly. [Pause]  Hooray, I'm wearing my shirt correctly too."

• mishearing my "wait a second" when he wanted my attention and forlornly repeating, "On August second?"

• sending his grandma "hugs as big as rockets" when she was sad about losing an old tree to lightening

• Cameron's flow of  who's next in history… he paused in listening to the ancient history class to make it clear how world history works.  He rattled off:

"So, what happened is, Egypt starts and then Mesopotamia conquers and becomes next and then Persia conquers Mesopotamia and becomes next and then Greece conquers Persia and becomes next and then the Romans conquer the Greeks and they become next and then the European barbarians conquer the Romans and they're next and then the European barbarians become Renaissance-men, civilized Europeans, and then they're next, and then the Europeans discovered America and then Americans rebelled and then America became the world's super power and that's where we're at now."

• convincing me to do our walk along the road barefoot

• making himself scrambled eggs and then declaring, "The next step in the process is enjoy."

• when I'd mentioned something about a grown up loosing their temper, "Losing their temper? That's very unadult. [I mentioned some do.] Not yoooooou! Not, Dad.  I'm not used to adults who do that. When you become a teacher your fuse gets extended by a meter! On second though, you really need to train more than anything else to be that, but you're not automatically that.  If you lose your temper in front of a kid because the kid did something bad, the kids wont be able to learn.



• "I first knew you five years ago!" (Since he's nine, I asked what happened then. "When I was four I got the memorization effect." He explained that meant he started remembering.)

• When asked who he'd rather have as an evening play buddy, "I always get you as a play buddy, so of coooooourse I want Grandma!"

• getting the words "forgery" and "foundry" mixed up

• responding to me pointing out all the windmills on a hill with, "Oh. They're very numerous."

• fighting a volume war with his dad in the car… Dad wanted to listen to music and Cameron wanted to read to us about tanks.  (It got pretty loud before Cameron noticed the gradual challenge and the giggles took over.)

 • "I just learned that ice cream with ketchup tastes good to me… better than alone!  It's aftertaste is like a burning fire. I like that!!!  No, not a burning fire, a blazing fire!"

• deciding that hefting sticks was what he wanted to do during our stroll… and discarding each one for a more appealing one after a minute or two.

• during syllable work, breaking words up the way he does for spelling; "nation" turned into "nat, ion"… he thus missed the syllable break for the "shun" sound :)

• responding to me helping him with his kitchen chores, "Wow, you must really love me!  Just pooping out somebody makes you automatically love them."

• stating, "I made a new sport with myself.  It's called grind your teeth down.  I click my teeth together, clench so hard, that they chip, making stronger fronts of the teeth and sides." (It sounded like scratching silverware along a plate.  Shudder.  I showed him a little chip in one of my teeth and he decided to never do it again.)

• "sold" his socks to his friends for pretend Minecraft emeralds (This is how boys play cashier.  No pretend cash register to ring up your groceries, a pretend blacksmith forge instead where sweaty socks count as currency and pounding out pretend goods on the cement with an inflated SpiderMan mallet produces wonders.  Cameron has been talking about it all week!)

• after some banter where it was clear that he was not interested in his dad's reminder, his dad asked "Do I need to pop your toes?" and Cameron responded with with a pondered series, "No. Maybe. Probably. Yes."


• It turns out feeding the birds isn't the only thing worthy of doing with one shoe… he hopped around to water the plants too.

• when getting ready to go and looking for socks he yelled, "Let me check my classic hiding place!" (and proceeded to search under all the furniture).

• not wanting to sing the yo ho song because, "It's illegal to be a pirate."

• confusing the words "testicle" and "trachea"

• Pediatrician: The bathroom is on the other side of this wall.
  Cameron: OK, give me a battering ram so that I can get to it.

• making an exception to his snuggling love, "Please don't kiss my eye because it really grosses me out and I think your saliva goes back and gets stuck in my brain."

• coming to the door with hands stuck behind his back in the handle of the watering can, "Great, now I found that you can use watering cans as hand cuffs!"

• after turning off his thinking again during a short melt down, he noticed his own introspective progress and informed me gleefully, "I was noticing I'm angry and I'm stewing."

• spelling usual, "useawool"

• explaining that one of his nicknames for me, "moomykins", was a snuggly version for a cuddly mom :)


• informing me, "I have too many minds for some things."

• counting 85 pixels on his new Minecraft, foam sword

• "Dad, I made your writing legible to me… just letting you know."

• reading along the car dealership signs and coming to "bluck".  (As a family, we were laughing about buying a bluck car and congratulations on your new bluck for at least five minutes. It was an attempt to pronounce "Buick".)

• fixing his OT with one of those looks and saying, "If I didn't know you were a specialist at this, I probably wouldn't believe you."


• naming his new, foam Minecraft sword "La Joyeuse the second" and posing as a serious warrior… I imagine Charlemagne would be a wee bit surprised at the turn of events :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyeuse

• "Why would I be in the army?  I'd get driven crazy by people giving me orders."

• going out in the dark, "I see fake wolves!  My mind supplies coyotes in front of me!"

• responding the to the reminder "bed" with, "Bed Bath and Beyond"

• when he found out his favorite summer chess teacher was joining the team of coaches for his regular club, I asked if he was so excited that he was jumping up and down and he answered, "No! I forgot to!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emory_Tate

• saying "It's like hitting stones.  What? You don't understand metaphors?" (Classic autism moment of not understanding that everything in his head isn't understood by others. We explained that if you make up a metaphor you could mean any aspect of that action like futile, painful, difficult…  It turned out he was going for inflexible.)

• over the breakfast table, "I am being your oracle.  You need a million hugs."

• after he turned his head so that we accidentally had a lip kiss, he declared, "I accept.  I'll marry you!" (He said I could have two husbands and continued to describe how it would work. He'd be my little husband and then, when a teenager, my medium husband, and when he grows up my second big husband.)

• Story:
I've heard that the near ten age frame is when the adolescent behaviors start and I really, really hope my kid keeps talking through this process so that I can follow his peaks and valleys!  Today, after having a meltdown in the car with tears and trying to blame me for his mistakes and refusing all responsibility of learning from mistakes… I kept my cool and (within twenty minutes) he recognized the issue and moved into another space of how to learn. Then he had an awesome swimming lesson and on the way back to the car he asked...

"Doesn't this look like a renaissance for me? 
Doing really well at Minecraft 
Getting my problem solving better
Writing conversations are more productive and I'm writing better
Listening-turned-off conversations that annoy us are getting quicker faster and faster
Being promoted in my swimming...
Doesn't all that look like a renaissance for me?"

(Holy cats!  He'll turn off his hearing and be like a toddler and then he's like super-introspective, kid genius! I'm buckling up, because boy oh boy does this look like even more intense roller coaster time!)

• Choosing to feed the birds wearing only one shoe.  He was adamant about this and it's is not a gentle spot among the pine needles!

• answering his music teacher's written question with a cheery and contemplative paragraph (not at all a combative tone):

Why is the sound of a language a good place to start for understanding culture more broadly?

I don't think it is a good start because who cares about the language if we can just get along with the songs.  Aren't the tones of the music and the beauty, not the language, important?  Why would the language ever matter?  I think you might think the language is important because the character of the language might reflect the character of the country.  But, take the French for example, their language is nice and sweet, but: they had big time wars with England, had a big French Revolution, and after that Napoleon went around and made mince meat of most of Europe.  So, the French weren't particularly a smoothing, nice people even though their language says so.  

Cousin Love!

We had a great visit with Cameron's grandparents and cousin.  It was really sweet to see how Cameron treated his cousin differently from other five-year-old girls.  They snuggled and bickered like siblings :)

Cute antics:

• when the chess master noticed Cameron standing up on the monkey bars and got him back down, Cameron wanted to know why.  The master said that bars weren't designed for that and my child pondered that a moment and answered, "Monkey bars weren't not designed for that." (We're working on that line of thinking for himself and understanding reasons while being respectful of authority and generally pleasant company!)

• inviting "Lets go to the stairs so we can have our battle!" 

• his statement of our jobs:
Mom
To make him happy and teach
Dad
To make him happy when he can and work and make us a successful family 
(Hmmm, interesting what was the top for both parents in his view!)

• after patting my head he told me that that means comfort 
( We had a fun chat about that being more for animals, not people, and I talked about patting shoulders.)

• getting into the car with his me, his grandma and his cousin and inviting, "How about listening to Hobbit, gals?"

• deciding to retrieve his draft from the printer as if he were blind (he groped his way up/down stairs and around the house)

• deciding the garage was the best place for privacy when changing with a houseful of people

• He kept saying, "Rats! Another period!" while editing his story.  I caught this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGum_WukSTs&feature=youtu.be

I love the explanation which is classic Cameron.
"I'm trying to find mistakes and I want it to be exciting!"

• choosing to color a geography map while naked, hiding in front of Andrew's car in the garage, in a dirty corner, near where we'd seen a scorpion.  (?!?!?!?  I brought him pajamas so he could do the map inside, but he didn't have an explanation for why he chose to hide in the garage instead of clothing himself… he had his room and pajamas available.)

• after one of his exuberant hugs and energetic nuzzles that was lasting awhile, I mentioned that we really should get a dog and he informed me, "You're better than any dog would be."

• trying to print 135 copies of his latest story so he'd have back up  

• randomly commenting at 9:15pm as he looked down,"Hooray, I'm wearing my pants correctly. [Pause]  Hooray, I'm wearing my shirt correctly too."

• mishearing my "wait a second" when he wanted my attention and forlornly repeating, "On August second?"

• sending his grandma "hugs as big as rockets" when she was sad about losing an old tree to lightening

• Cameron's flow of  who's next in history… he paused in listening to the ancient history class to make it clear how world history works.  He rattled off:

"So, what happened is, Egypt starts and then Mesopotamia conquers and becomes next and then Persia conquers Mesopotamia and becomes next and then Greece conquers Persia and becomes next and then the Romans conquer the Greeks and they become next and then the European barbarians conquer the Romans and they're next and then the European barbarians become Renaissance-men, civilized Europeans, and then they're next, and then the Europeans discovered America and then Americans rebelled and then America became the world's super power and that's where we're at now."

Cousin Love: Update From 2013
Update For Holidays 2015-
Cousin love is still going strong and it's such a delight to see them :)
Belly Bash Dance

Scuba Diving!

I think the most exciting hoopla recently has been Cameron participating in this program at The Monterey Bay Aquarium: http://specialkidsscuba.org/faq.html.  He had his first scuba diving experience, used up a full tank of air and let me know first thing upon coming out that he was awesome :)

And doesn't his expression say it!

I think someone was feeling proud of overcoming sensory challenges… like breathing through a regulator that nearly stopped him at the start.  I love the look! The sensory issues can be so heartbreaking to see and so limiting; breakthroughs mean so much. That look, that self-evaluation is real fuel for future effort and it made me just teary happy!

Cute antics:


• after I'd made some comment about his dad mis-planning sometimes too, "Even Dad?  Dad is one of the most prestigious people I know! (It turned out he defined prestigious as someone who does things well and doesn't procrastinate :) )

• "Mom sure does know how to insult.  My that's sure not true!" (I commented that Andrew was frustrating during some playful teasing and this was Cameron's attempt at joining the banter.)

• pausing his playing of the musical "Jekyll and Hyde" to comment, "There's nothing good about being a prostitute." I asked why and he replied, "You don't get an iPad."  Not wishing to insult, I didn't laugh, but when I mentioned that they might actually have an iPad now a days, he said, "Well, you don't have a house."  When I mentioned that they might have that too, he put on the full melodramatic voice and told me "Well, they might get sick and… die!"
(Okee dokee, he's got me there!  I'm always in for surprises.  Never did I expect that line of reasoning?!?!?)



• commenting, "Dad is more of a king than I am and I am more of an intrepid explorer."

• "I can't believe that I forgot!"
(Me: Forgot what?)
"That I am magnificent!"
(Once he noticed I was making a note for a cute antic he added, "Be sure to add an exclamation point.)

• after I noticed the finger eating and gave a friendly point at his fork he informed me, "I don't mind eating like a brute." 

• describing what his occupational therapist's exercises were doing, "You were waking my pieces up, my lovely Ms. Mary!"

• Conversation:
Cameron: You're young for an adult.
Me: Oh? What's old?
Cameron: 50
(Very matter of fact, as if I should know these things.)


• "Don't just yank off my pants!" (Ah the days when I could notice a pair of pants needed to go to Goodwill and just give a playful tug seem to be gone.  Apparently, he's opposed to exposing legs to Mom anymore.)

• informing me, "I have enough money to buy a ring for my fiancé in a few years." (Oh?  It was a hypothetical fiancé and the focus was on the ability!)

• describing how he conquered a challenge in an iPhone game… he really really wanted to tell me every detail and when he paused for breath he added with flare, "So I simply used my brilliant mind and…" (I'm afraid my Mommy brain didn't follow the details of his conquest, but he sounds a bit like The Great Brain in his confidence!")

• Cute antic when my child wants the computer:

Cameron: Lovely mommy of sweetness, will you have mercy on your poor son?

Me: Poor son?

Cameron: "I'm trying to make you laugh so that you'll let me use the computer and have fun."

Well… it worked, but he had to wait for me to type up this cute antic.

• describing a story, "One time he managed to escape and one time he managed to die."

• getting well trained by the neighborhood dog who came to visit while he was doing his chores, "Well, I had to do something. So, I went over and got my frisbee."

• Story:
Last weekend, he had decided to make a cursive p in a way that added a second loop and was refusing to acknowledge a reminder.  He looked at the youtube video I pulled up and insisted that that was just one way to make a cursive p and he could do it differently. He got very upset, but I chose not to fight the battle at that time.
This weekend, at breakfast, he was just quietly contemplating and said:
"I should have just listened to you and I would have been done much better."
"I spent a lot of time arguing with you about things that you turned out to be right."
"Why didn't I just agree with you? I know that you're much smarter than I am and you're usually right."

There are times when staying quiet for a bit can be quite shocking!  We had a nice, meaty family chat after he came out with that triple punch of musings!

• My Facebook post:

One of his speech therapists told me years ago that I should write a book entitled "My quotable son." Here is the latest of his wisdom, now that he's reached the ripe old age of nine, "I'm very fastidious about my dirty feet."

Note: I think the idea was that he should be allowed to keep the layer of dirt atop his feet as an expression of his explorer spirit.  Well, I pick my battles. I don't fight over backwards clothing, but inside out is too much. General dustiness is expected, but a dark layer means  Mom will point him to the tub before sharing close proximity... or proximity to her things like the ever tempting computer!  Only having a sister, perhaps I suffer from inexperience with little boys who sometimes seem like a slightly different species :)

• And a cute antic for the parents of this child… My Facebook status:

Mommy win.

I didn't lose it when my kiddo scraped the coffee table across the floor for the third time in a row!

After taking a deep breath...

I could see it was clear he was upset with himself and really just forgetting as he listened to music class.

I flipped over the table.

Andrew Miner You can readily imagine a wrathful Rachel overturning furniture in a hulk-like rage, can't you?

Rachel Miner Hey, hey, hey! You know I was calm when I flipped the table... the losing it after the third repetition though was a near miss!

Ireland

Andrew and I have enjoyed our first couple vacation that lasted two weeks since... I was pregnant with Cameron!  That's almost ten years and boy did we enjoy ourselves thoroughly :)
Here are Cameron's latest cute antics and some pictures of our vacation too!


• while thinking about a math problem, "Processing…. processing…"

• explaining why I was not hearing tooth brushing, "I've just finished tending to a blood wound." (Allow me translate… he's ripped off another scab.)

• perhaps listening to The Hobbit a bit too much? He gave me a hug saying "My moomykins of preciouskins.  May your memory never fade." And, then proceeded to eagerly explain that he was thinking of " Bilbo and how he said good bye to Thorin and the Lonely Mountain and Fili and Kili who died in the end."  
(He was just going downstairs to do the dishes while I finished up some computer work?!?!?  Well, the dramatic flare does keep life interesting!)

• when I pulled out the conversation cube for breakfast fun:
"How are you different from everyone else."
Cameron: I cuddle you the best!

• hurtling insults at the ocean as the waves kept splashing him. (He had a blast with this play-arguing… he even threatened to drink it up.)

• telling me his pimples were turning white (um, that was nipples and he was indicating he was cold).

• informing me, "I know full hearted sarcasm when I hear it."

• hitting himself on the head and saying, "Ow, that was extra hard."

• a few bizarre statements out of the blue that deserve a Spock eye-brow-raise!

 "My hand searches for a giant armadillo to rest on."

 "I feel like eating a billion ants."

 "I'm more or less a humbug."

• and one that was the  most unusual response to discussing how he could benefit from learning about Japanese history.  We'd been talking about xenophobia and he said, "I wouldn't like to have kids.  It's a big bother to have sex."  I wasn't quite following, but asked why.  He said, "It's a lot of pushing.  Pushing and pushing. I couldn't stand it."  (Well, there you have a nine year old who has clearly not started feeling adolescent hormones and has translated the idea of not wanting to be around other people into not wanting to have sex, ever.  Hearing his thoughts is never dull!) 

Cameron in his Titanic captain hat!

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."