World of Words

 Communication with James fro me continues to have its Dada moments. This morning, for example, he keeps wandering into the kitchen and asking if I have noticed the van or truck driving by outside. We live on a small quiet street, and I am setting up our week, so no. There are times when he will come out of his room and ask me if I like/hate Kim Jong-Un. Several times he has asked if our cat has eyes (ummmmm, take a look and yes/why???). Last night he asked about explosions. When I asked where, he replied "National Geographic".

I overhear him talking to his cousin or aunt on the phone and it sounds much more normal. I am so glad he is able to practice more expected types of conversations - it helps him feel more connected.

Our more normal communications happen by texting, Facebook posts, or walkie-talkie bursts ... and we are in the same house. Those exchanges revolve more around are we going out (almost always a "yes"), is there a skunk under our house (sadly also a yes, I suspect), did [insert name] really have the flu (yes), and does Disneyland cost a lot of money (yes again).

There is so much going on inside his head. I'd love to hear more. On the other hand, I will never be bored. These brief exchanges require history retrieval and sleuthing skills to figure out where they may be coming from, to get a bigger picture. I will keep encouraging communication, so he can make himself heard when he wants or needs to be heard.

Myths and Our World

Homework assignment for James: Come up with your own mythology: 3 sentences, less than 1 piece of paper. I weep.

James has been fascinated with the deer who live in the area around us. He loves to spot deer on rides through our agricultural region. Today we took our first drive along Geyser Road since the fires came through and ravaged our county a little over a month ago. It was very evident that this road served as a major firebreak.

During the hour plus-long drive, all I heard about were the deer. Did we see the deer? What did they do? What do they eat? Did they escape the fires? Do they get hit by cars and die? We did saw the deers, didn't we?

He gave the deers voices and dialog, usually "Oh no, we're on fire!" or "The deer are eating, Mother, hear them? Munch, munch, nom-nom-nom." and "Crash! The car smashed into the mommy deer and the baby deer! Aaaaah!"

We saw one deer dash across the road out of a burn zone, across the road, to the foliage on the other side. We talked about that one darned deer for 37 minutes.

All this came together for the Mythology assignment:

1. The deer had bright colours (like purple and red).
2. They walked into some smoke.
3. The smoke turned their colours into camouflage.

Thank goodness, a productive outcome!