AJ moments

I used to call them "AJ-isms" - the cute things AJ said that didn't come out quite right. His vocabulary and understanding have advanced to the point that now he gets things spot on. Sometimes painfully so.

For instance, at Sunday School this past week, I was teaching his class about Noah's Ark. To emphasize how long it rained, I had all the kids count to 40. Just as the kids were finishing, "37 - 38- 39- 40," AJ blurted out "My Mom's 40!" (To my relief, that set off several other children announcing their parents' ages. I discovered I'm not the oldest parent of a kindergartner.)

*****

The night before, AJ showed just how literal he can be in interpreting instructions. Jeff told him to clean his room. Correction... Jeff told him to clean his floor. AJ did exactly that. He was actually proud to show me what a good job he'd done.

I give the boy credit. It could not have been easy to stack that many toys on top of his toy box. This was the point when Mommy took over. Ever since organizing Sydney's room, I've been thinking AJ's room needed that sort of help even more.

AJ looked at me warily as he saw a box of neglected Playmobil Roman figures come out of his room. "What are you doing with them?" he asked nervously, no doubt remembering his book Too Many Toys, which involves a Mom giving away a bunch of her outgrown toys.

"They're going to be basement toys," I answered.

That seemed to calm him, though he still came back from time to time to check my progress. He'll never know how much has been tossed.

The reward for me came the next day, watching him rediscover long-forgotten toys that suddenly were visible now that other junk was cleared out of the way.