You LOST Her?!?!

Whether he looking for a toy, his shoes, his favorite pillow, his "pink princess gloves" or a person if Brogan cannot almost immediately find it he comes to me, asks me where it is and if I reply "I don't know."
He'll respond, "You lost it?"
Which, irrationally, makes me rather annoyed. I know he's not actually accusing me of losing it, it's just how he phrases sentences and questions. "You" replaces I, we, me, us, she, he. So in reality he's more than likely telling me he can't find whatever it is because he lost it. But, because I am a hormonal mother I take it personally and throw back "I didn't lose anything but maybe you did." Then go help him find whatever it is he feels is lost.
The other evening I was in the laundry room attending to the sea of clothes when I heard this exchange:
Brogan, "Where's mommy?"
Jerry, "I'm not sure."
Brogan (accusingly), "You lost HER?!?!"
Jerry (slightly defensively) "I didn't lose her I just don't know where she is."
It amused me to hear someone else in that situation and to hear they react pretty much the same way I do. Is that wrong?

*Oy*

I would so love to blame ANYONE else for this. Kimberly, want to take one for the team? Pretend like you're the one to introduce these kinds of things to my son? No? Oh. Alright, so it was ME. In my defense, Rhiannon has become more and more interested in the differences between girls and boys. Not wanting to make a big deal of it, I told her the names of various body parts expressed my desire for her to not be QUITE as "blessed" in certain areas as myself and moved on. Hoping it was all done in a non-chalant "it's just the way things are" kind of way.
The boy, apparently, was paying close attention.
"Who is this?"
"It's Brogan!"
"And what are these...?"
"Breasts, Belly Button, Peni"
... Errrr ... Beg your pardon?
"Uhhh ... Actually Brogan boys don't have breasts. You have nipples." (Three to be exact....)
I showed the picture to Jerry and he asked, "What is that, a tail?" Errr ... not exactly.

Pictures

I love the creations Brogan makes at school, they always make me smile a little bit when I look them over. He brought home these pictures today ... (click on them to enlarge)

I'll Fix That for You

Yesterday Brogan brought in the repair manual for my truck. He's odd about where things belong, so I thought maybe he just figured it didn't belong in my truck, but in the book cupboard. However, this morning I walked into his room and found him sprawled out on his bed studying these pages: I wonder if he'll fix them for me when they go out ...

Rub A Dub Dub

Sympathy

Rhiannon's been milking a head ache this afternoon and Brogan has been "babying" her more than I have.
First he brought Rhiannon her favorite stuffed animal. Made sure she and her stuffed animal were tucked in "just right" on the couch. Then he sat next to her and stroked her head murmuring to her "k Rhiannon? 's okay."
To top it off, when he went to get himself a drink he got her one too.

Be Good!

We're in the midst of "weaning" Brogan off well, me. Not in THAT way! He's five for heaven sake.
He, however, has a painful attachment to me that borders on unhealthy. It may even cross the border. As his mother however, I'm trying to be positive.
Back to the weaning. After I put the kids to bed, Jerry has started being the one to respond to Brogan when he calls down the hall or requests anything. This practice in and of itself is totally fine with me. That is until he starts panicking because I am not the one to answer his summons.
What he wails out absolutely breaks my heart, "Be good, go see mommy?!?!" This question gets called out louder and louder till he's all but hyperventilating. I hate that he thinks that his dad being the one to deal with him says, "You've done something wrong, now you have to see your dad."

Recognizing Issues

In several Autism books they state that one of the issues Autistic people have is they do not understand facial expressions. Therefore they miss out on a great deal of conversation because so much is "spoken" silently.
I do not believe Brogan has this problem. If he's in the middle of doing something bad, I can shoot him a look and he knows immediately what I want him to do. No words needed. But that may also be because he KNOWS when he's doing something wrong ...
Another thing that was suggested is that because of certain brain function delays some Autistic people may not be able to hear voices at a certain level. Therefore they are not ignoring you when you talk loudly or yell, they are just unable to process what is being said. What they basically hear is, "Blah blah blah" or maybe a better description is thinking back on the Charlie Brown teacher and all the viewer could hear was "waa waa waa waa waa ..." that's how it distorts in thier brain. That's something to think about. Maybe will help me keep my calm better, thinking that if I starting talking loudly when I'm agitated it's not helping anyone because he can't understand me anyway ...

That's New

"Count with me, mommy! 1"
"2"
(and so and and so forth till 50)
"51"
"Excuse me, mom. No more counting."
Ohhh... ahhh ... sorry? I didn't know there was a number limit. My mistake.
Or, while he's playing with his "boy toys" ...
"No, sir! We do not do that. No, sir!"
Just to be clear I have never said "No, sir."
That comes from school where I think it may be easier to say "sir" than to think of a particular child's name in the midst of chaos.

But Mom!

I hear him call down the hall, "Go potty mom?"
I call back, "Yes you may, but you must go back to bed afterward."
I hear the bathroom door shut and lock. I wait two minutes. Then go investigate.
Using the "key" I open the door and find him ... scrubbing the floor with the toilet wand. *pukes a little in mouth*
Calmly, "Okay Brogan, back to bed."
"But mom! I'm CLEANING!"
"I appreciate that, but right now it's time to lay in bed quietly not clean."
"I'm clean-ing"
"No, it's bed time. Daddy can show you how to clean the bathrooms tomorrow." HAHAHA the last part is only a joke because I am not sure if Jerry knows how to clean a bathroom.
Seriously. When I come back to Texas after our 6 week "tour Canada" trip I am always surprised to find out he knows how to do laundry. I'm pretty sure he just does that because he hates clothes shopping more than laundry.

Take it to the table!

One of my most strict rules is that food/drink (unless in a sippy cup) MUST stay at the table. Even if I give the kids food/drink at the island, they know they are to walk it over to the table and eat it there. If they don't finish it, it stays on the table till they do. It's just the way I roll.
This evening as I was getting Rhiannon's lunch ready for tomorrow Brogan brought in a plate of his play food piled high and proudly announced, "For you mom!" I thanked him for the offering and started pretending to eat the food. "Stop mom!" he shouted. Thinking I wasn't meant to eat the food after all, I paused waiting for his next move. "Take it to the table. Sit on your bum." I apologized for being rude and went and sat down, then started in on the food. I peeked up at Brogan, who was still standing in the kitchen and he had this HUGE smile on his face. When I caught his eye he started laughing like the funniest thing in the world just happened.
What a punk.

Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch

Class field trip ... most taken AFTER the rest of his class had left.