Martin Luther King Day

Xander and I had a short talk yesterday about Martin Luther King, Jr. We talked about how people whose names are the same as their father's names have a Junior at the end of their names. He has a classmate, Jose, who is called Junior.

Today I traced his hands a bunch of times on a piece of paper and told him how a great man, Martin Luther King, Jr., wanted all people to hold hands and work together on our problems, people of all colors, races, and religious beliefs. I said he could color in the hands all different colors to remind him of this.

"But they're not real," he said.

"No," I said, "the hands are just a picture to remind us on this day when we celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday."

"Are we having presents today?" he asked.

"No," I said, "I hadn't planned any presents. Did you?"

"No," he said, "but he wants presents."

I said, "He is no longer living."

"But he wants one, so we should go underground and give him this. He wants one."

"Oh, because he is buried underground?" I asked.

"Yes."

I'll let you know how this concept progresses.

Playdate

While we were Skyping Grandma Lucy, Xander said he was going to teach Nick, when he was a bigger boy, to eat and drink water and make funny faces and play. Xander is really a great big brother. He is affectionate toward Nick and Nick is starting to respond in kind.

BJ's visit is a huge success so far. Xander got him playing knights, looking at all his Legos and Bakugans, and playing their handheld game systems together. BJ brought his Nintendo DS and Xander has his Leapster, though it looks like he is watching BJ's game more than his own. BJ also wanted the TV on so Arthur is on in the background. Best night ever for Xander!

Dashing Off Some Notes

Nick said "poppy" today, many times, to mean "potty."

Xander's school is still great; he's learning fingerplays and songs about winter, months, days, and more, and he loves his "best friends," but the atmosphere is a little somber there since his center director was fired. I don't know the details.

We are having a meeting friend over tonight during dinner and bedtime hours. Xander loves BJ and Laura, who go out of meeting with him after 15 minutes of sitting in silence. Laura "babysits" them and BJ talks to Xander about sharks, Pokemon, and other things that delight an almost-5-year-old's heart. He has autism, so we will see how we all do tonight. Xander is looking forward to it. If it goes well, we may do this more often.

New Poster At Preschool

There is a new poster up in Xander's preschool room. It lists what each of the kids wants to be when they grow up. Three of them stood out to me. Xander's, of course, which said "Paleontologist". Valentina wants to be a doctor, and Jose wants to be Spiderman.

Good Morning

I got Nick up for his breakfast and sat down on the couch to drink coffee and have devotion time. Xander came out a few minutes later and snuggled next to me on the couch. For the first time in his life, he said, "You're pretty, Mom."

This was on the one day this week that I didn't get up early to take a shower and get dressed and put on makeup!

I was pretty flabbergasted so Xander felt that he had to explain it to me. "That means you're beautiful." Wow. A double whammy. What a nice start to my day.

Nick is happy this morning, too. He wanted to get down from breakfast but of course that didn't mean he was quite finished. Trying to get more out of his bowl on top of the table, he spilled the bowl and all its contents on the floor. I am thankful they were only dry Cheerios. Because I am lazy, I am letting him clean them up by picking them up and popping them in his mouth. What a good reminder that I really should have mopped the floors yesterday.

Now I have put him in his pack 'n play to play with foam numbers. He is very interested in them and saying what each one is as he lays it carefully down on the mattress. I hear a lot more letter sounds than number sounds but that makes sense because we have gone through all the letters together and are just starting on the numbers. I hope I'm not confusing him. I figured now was a good time to put the They Might Be Giants album "Here Come the 123s" on our iPod.

Lovely Day

While Erik paints the finished part of the bunkbeds, Xander has been playing outside. Father-son bonding time. They even went to the hardware store together to get the paint. Erik gave Xander his choice, after deciding that the main portion of the beds would be chocolate brown. Xander wanted green, of course, and pink. Hmmmm. Erik thought about getting around that but these beds are going to be brown with moss green drawers and pink drawer knobs. That way, when Xander gets tired of the pink, they will be easy to redo. I went out to see the brown color. It looks very chocolatey!

It's a lovely, sunny, warm day here. Glad that everyone has been outside a lot today. And we still have half the day ahead of us.

The New Year

Xander is so pleased to be back at school after his long two-week holidays. He can sing songs to tell us all the days of the week and the months of the year, and he knows it is now 2011.

Nick is saying more things all the time. In fact, he's chatting to himself right now (during naptime). Lately he's been falling asleep for nap early, then I have to wake him to go pick up Xander, and then when I put him down for afternoon nap, he barely sleeps. He sits in there and talks to himself. I think it's an 18-month-old thing. Plus I need to keep him up longer in the morning!

We talked about a few goals as a family on New Year's. Erik's are to finish the bunk bed and to win the lottery. Unfortunately, our lottery ticket didn't pan out that day. Xander's are to play with his figures, go to school, go to the Monster Truck Jam, and to play outside. He accomplished three of those things today, and he knows from the TV commercials that he and Dad are going to the Monster Truck Jam in February.

If he won a million dollars, Xander would "play a lot!" He would put millions of dollars in his piggy bank, "and it costs money to play a lot!"