Random Stuff

Just came back from a girls' night out with my sister and stepmother in honor of my 39th birthday. In other words, in honor of the last birthday I will ever acknowledge. We braved the throng of squealing 12 year old girls and saw a showing of "Twilight." It was a lot of fun. There are so many moments in the first half of the movie where the whole audience was laughing when they weren't supposed to be that I smell a future cult classic.

Upon returning home, Maddie handed me a present of a Chinese yuan (dollar) that my dad had given her after a trip to China. Maddie knows I love Chinese food and she explained that she was giving me the Chinese money so I could go buy Chinese food with it. "I don't need it, Mommy. Use it to buy Chinese food." I looked at Josh and said, "Can I use Chinese money to buy Chinese food?" (In other words, this is so crazy maybe I should try it.) Josh's response: "Yes. In China."

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Random stuff not related to my birthday--

Andrew does this speech delayed thing called echolalia. It's where a child will repeat words and phrases over and over, but they have no relation to what's going on at the time. Andrew has used echolalia for years. He likes to show his sense of humor with it. Some of his favorite echolalic phrases include----

"There goes our last female" (from the dodo birds in Ice Age)

"I don't want to be a pie. I don't like gravy." (from Chicken Run)

"God made you special and he loves you very much." (from Veggie Tales)

"My butt hurts." (from his communication device-the school claims they did not program this phrase onto the device. Apparently, it came with this phrase from the manufacturer. Thanks for nothing, Dynavox.)

"Keep or throw away?" (from room cleaning sessions with his mom)

"Where are the car keys? Are in they in the toilet?" (from our situation with him a couple of months ago.)

To really appreciate this, you have to imagine him shouting out these phrases at all sorts of random times--when you're in line at the store, at Church, at the library, etc.

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The dodo bird phrase reminds me of another random thing. I took the kids to the Bronx Zoo at the end of the summer. We were riding the tram through Safari World or something and the driver asked on the intercom if anyone could think of any extinct animals. Other than dinosaurs, nothing was named. Finally I remembered and shouted out, "Dodo Birds!!" Maddie then kept asking if we were going to see dodo birds during the ride despite my repeated attempts to explain what "extinct" means.

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More Maddie reports from the world of first grade:

When talking to me about the pie tasting that Maddie and I were making a chocolate pie for--

Maddie: "Timmy B is making an apple pie and guess what? We're going to eat it with our hands!!"
Me: "Who said that??!!
Maddie: "Timmy B."


Another time, Maddie was describing a little boy in the class who sounded like a boy in her class last year that had proposed to her. (If I haven't shared the story with you, this boy decided he wanted to marry Maddie and his mother shared this with me. I told his mother that Maddie had shared with me that she didn't want to marry anyone when she grew up; she just wanted to live by herself with her cats--which by the way, is 100% true. Maddie's life ambition in kindergarten was to be an old maid cat lady. Anyway, this little boy decided that since he had a cat at home, Maddie would marry him. So, he got up the nerve to propose and went home crying and devastated when she turned him down.) Back to this year's story, this boy in her class now sounded like the boy from last year and I told Maddie this. The next day, Maddie comes home and tells me they are alike because the boy from her class this year wants to marry her, too!!! I can't help but picture the conversation in my mind. Maddie: "Hey, do you want to marry me?" The kid: "Sure." And that folks, is how you become almost engaged in first grade. By the way, Maddie has now decided she would like to settle down and have one child when she grows up, but not with any of the boys she knows now. She wants to "meet some man" when she gets older. That's right, none of those boys for her--she's holding out for a man. Maddie makes her mama so proud!!!