Quick takes of Reid Speaks

1. As I briefly mentioned Thursday, Nell and I drove Reid down to Watertown, WI -- the halfway point between Oshkosh and Rockton, IL, where Ben's folks live -- and dropped him off with Grandpa. He tried a couple of times to get me and Nell to continue the journey with him, but overall he was more than happy to go have some one on one time with Grandma and Grandpa.

Friday evening Ben, Nell and I arrived in Illinois, but Reid and my in-laws were out visiting the newest Szilagyi grand-baby and making other quick stops. When they pulled into the driveway Ben's mom pointed out our car and told Reid we were inside. His response? "I love them so much."

When he walked into the house he saw the three of us standing across the kitchen, in the family room. His grin was huge, and soon his eyes locked on Nell. When he reached all three of us he paused for a bit, realizing he couldn't hug us all at once, and I told him to hug the family member he loves most. He reached out and gave Nell a long love. I threw my hands up in the air, touchdown style. It was so sweet. He is such a sweet boy.

"I love them so much."

2. Lately he's been really into jokes. Most of them make no sense. Like, how does an elephant walk? On a salamander! We fake laugh for most of them, every now and then he says something so bizarre it is sincerely funny -- but for the most part the joke asks how something walks and the answer is on a salamander or on a stinky garbage hill.

3. Speaking of the word "stinky," he was using it so often (and rudely) Ben had to tell him he'd loose puppy for the day when/if he called one of us stinky. We've tried to make it clear you can call garbage stinky, but not people. He's only lost puppy on two or three occasions.

However, he has turned stinky into his cuss word of sorts. When he gets really mad and just wants to scream he always blurts out a sentence that has the word stinky in it. Either, "you're stinky" (bye bye puppy) or "stinky garbage" or "I don't like this stinky" or other variations you can imagine. He says it with such force and anger. I think it is his three-year-old form of rebellion.

I also think it is hysterical. Often times I have to force myself to turn and look away because I just can't hide my giggles. Am I the only one that finds some tantrums a gentle mix of comical and adorable?

3. One last stinky thing. One morning while we were all snuggling in bed Reid says to Ben, "Daddy, your air smells not good." He said it so seriously and just stood there, right above Ben's morning breathe, shaking his head. Gotta love preschooler honesty.

4. He stills has a worse than normal stutter. The local school is going to lend me a movie that will teach me intervention techniques. In part because they have to show some intervention was made before any further referrals. We'll see where this goes.

He's started making up words and talking nonsense. Many of his answer are "sawsass" or other baby gibberish. I hate that he seems so happy when he talks nonsense. And it is different when he's just being silly. Sometimes, he just wants to be silly, but sometimes it really seems like he knows he can't say what he wants to so he just baby talks to try and avoid the stutter.

Oh, deep breathe.

5. The other day he asked Ben, "how's it going making money, Daddy?" Ben loved it.

At the time he was going through some weird phase where everyday around 4:00 he'd just start asking me, "How are you today, Mommy?" I'd answer and then ask him the same question in return. At 4:04 he'd ask again. I'd ask again. Then at 4:08 he'd ask again. I'd ask again. You get it. This went on for almost two weeks, and always began around 4:00 and lasted until about 6:00. It was one repetition I didn't find annoying. He asked so sweetly and so sincerely and you could just see the joy he found in imitating grown up conversation.

6. Today, he kept referring to his new baby cousin as the "big baby cousin," (born at 11lbs 10 oz, his description was accurate). But then when I asked him how big he (still nameless) was he held his fingers just an inch or two apart. He also told me he wanted to keep his "new baby cousin." I believe his exacts words were "Let's keep him mommy." We had a little chat about how that might make his mommy and daddy and sister Allie feel. He acknowledged they'd be sad and decided we shouldn't keep him after all.

7. He is in love with the sun, or Mr Sun rather. Each day he finds Mr Sun and says a big hello. Then he demands we say hello to Mr Sun. If it is cloudy he gets all concerned about where Mr Sun went. After this long winter, he treats Mr Sun like his very best friend in the whole wide world.