A late entry today. We made an impromptu all-day visit to the in-laws today to help my sister-in-law with some household projects and attend the thirteenth birthday party of one of my nieces. AJ was beside himself with joy with so many people to pay attention to him. His cousins also have a new fussball table, which seems to have given him a whole new outlook on life. Even though he was barely tall enough to see over the edge of the table, he could not stay away and was actually getting pretty good at it by the time we tore him away kicking and screaming. He spent most of the ride home (until he fell asleep, that is) demanding more fussball. I may have to rethink my Christmas list.

We also discovered that AJ seems to know how to read more than we thought he could. He was pointing out an alarming number of words on signs as we drove by: "Look, Mommy, that says big! That says stop! That says in!" and on and on. He doesn't do phonetics. He just knows whole words and he sometimes has trouble with things that look a little similar, like if/it and on/no. Still, he's only two and a half, so we of course think he's a genius (it should go without saying that as his parents, we'd probably think that regardless of what he was actually doing. I think that's part of the job description.)

The other AJ devlopment this weekend was his discovery of the word "why." I'm not sure where it came from, but yesterday morning he began asking why after just about every instruction or statement we made and has not let up since. I find it pretty entertaining, as it has resulted in some pretty funny exchanges, as when I tried to explain to him why I couldn't stop the swing we were on immediately and found myself launching into a lecture on laws of inertia. It is, however, driving my husband stark raving mad. While it's probably mean of me, I think that only adds to my entertainment. Give me a few days, though, and I'll probably be joining him in the loony bin.

0 people said it like they meant it