What? Why? But I want to!!

Here are some things I wrote to my brother (on a mission) today:

We are doing the same stuff. Today Rychen P. and I went to Goodwill for fun. He loves that store because he always finds random things and chooses something to buy (maybe). Last time he got a game with keys and puzzle peices. This time he picked a stool. Funny huh, but he's been wanting a stool for a long time. He likes to be taller and reach things. Everytime we go to somebody's house who has a step stool in the bathroom he gets all excited and wants to wash his hands. And lately at home he's started doing this, he always asks to wash his hands with soap. He loves it! So now he has a stool to stand up to the sink and wash his hands.

He's also learning a lot of things, mostly by accident. He just picks it up and I am surprised by how much he knows. Like he knows counting and he's even started using some math - don't ask me where he got this from, but he says "Five and Five make ten." and when we say "5 more minutes" a couple minutes later he'll say, we used this many (shows me 3 fingers), now we have this many (shows 2 fingers)." It is really cool for me to see this because kids really do learn on their own, it's natural, they are curious, and they love it! You don't need to "teach" them anything!! They just pick it up!

He can also write reasonably well now and writes some easy letters and numbers. He can count pretty well and has memorized the alphabet song (we only recently taught it to him). Now if only his emotional skills were this advanced......

He also has a sense of humor and surprises me with how mature he can be. He makes jokes all the time, he loves being silly (so much that sometimes I need to say "It was funny the first time but now stop it!") like calling us the wrong names, making up nicknames for himself, saying the wrong answers on purpose and laughing, etc... everything he can do to drive me crazy! Some things he does are just annoying like when he wants to lick my face (pretending to be a dog). If I tell him not to do something he says "But I want to!" in a whiny voice. Also, he asks "Why" ALL the time. Even when it makes no sense. Like he'll ask if he can do something and I say "Okay," and then he says "why?" or sometimes I've already said why--I say "Be careful so you don't fall." "Why?" If I am irritable that day, this is REALLY annoying. But he's just curious and wanting to talk, talk, talk, as always. Another thing is he always says "What?" like he can't hear us, but he says it OVER and OVER.

He has a favorite song on Courtney's CD that he insists we put on EVERY time we get in the car. If I sing along, he says "No, let Courtney sing!" ha, ha. He's a little Hitler. Other than that, we love him.