month 49

I've decided to start keeping monthly stats on my kids so that someday I can look back at all of this and laugh--not even that insane cackle I do now that keeps me lucid; but laughter springing up out of genuine fondness for this time of my life.
Here goes.

Alex
Oh Alex, how long will this Star Wars obsession last? It all started when I saw you light-sabering with a stick (something you learned from your cousin Steven)and I thought it would be really cool to show you an actual Star Wars fight scene with real-live light sabers.
It's been pretty much downhill from there.

I almost thought we had seen the last of it when you refused to wear your Darth Vader costume for Halloween, but the Star Wars birthday party 4 days later reawakened any lost interest. I think you own 5 light sabers...including a light-up one fully equipped with 2 colors and realistic sounds, and yet you still can't manage to share them most of the time.

It has even spread into your other playtime activities. This morning I found you playing with the small wooden pieces of a toy clock and pretending they were x-wings fighting the Death Star. I've only let you watch episode 4 because, honestly, I don't remember enough about the other episodes to know If I would be turning you into a cereal killer by letting you watch them right now. That, and all I can remember about episode 6 is that Leia doesn't wear very much when she is enslaved by Jabba the Hut, and I don't need you asking me why she is only wearing her "boo boos", which is what you call my bras. Also, I don't need the continuous onslaught of "whys" after I give you my carefully constructed answer. So, just episode 4 for now.

Of course, you are convinced that you're 7, so what does it matter how I parent you? You are practically full grown. I don't know if that's because the number on your soccer jersey was lucky #7, or because you had so many birthday parties this year and that at each one you turned a year older.But you are stuck on 7. In fact, the only time you aren't 7 is when I ask you to do your chores or get ready for bed. Then you are just a baby. When I state that 7-year olds clean up their own dishes, you reply that you are really only 3.

Maybe that's why every article of clothing you put on has to be backward. I think at first you didn't want to admit any mistake on your part and so you said you had done it on purpose. Now, however, pants; must be backward. Shoes; gotta be on the wrong feet. It is a matter of principal. Though, now that you know your right from you left on a fairly consistent basis, I am usually able to convince you which shoe goes where.

You're getting very good at your alphabet. Anytime you see an "X" on anything you assume it's yours. This makes Christmas a little more fun because you can pick out which presents are yours.

Other milestones of note: You are beginning to know which days of the week go where thanks, in no small part to preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which you look so forward to. You love your teacher enough that you invited her to your birthday party, and thank goodness she came because I don't think I could bear to see you that disappointed. The first question of every day is "what day is it today?" followed closely by, "Is it a preschool day?"

You also love to get your own food and you know where it is located in the fridge, which has made my job as your live-in nutritionist slightly more complicated. Gone are the days of merely setting healthy food in front of you and letting you eat. Now you basically eat cheese all day because you can get it yourself.