One of these things is not like the other

Sunday morning, I had Mal in the cry room at church, and he did something for the first time... He went over to the big wooden rocker and pointed to it. I said, "Chair," and did the sign. Then he pointed at the 70's wrap-around mint green cushioned rocker. "Chair," and the sign. Then he walked over to the chair that's part of a set you link together to form rows. "Chair," sign. He pointed to the leather office chair I was sitting in. "Chair," sign. Then he went to the little plastic kid's chair. "Chair," sign." Then he came back to where I was sitting, pointed to the table between my chair and the row chair, and shook his head, "No." I said, "You're right! That is NOT a chair!"

Since then, he's done it with several things. He will point to James' chin and James will say, "Beard." Then he'll point to his own chin and shake his head, "No." Same with me (for now, anyway; menopause is calling).

When we went to the airport to pick up his Grandma yesterday, Mal pointed to her black shoes and made the sign for "shoes" himself. Then he pointed to my shoes and did the same thing. Then his own. THEN he got to the stuffed dinosaur Grandma had brought. He pointed to the dino's feet and shook his head. "Right, the dinosaur does not have shoes."

He's also taken to hugging randos. Fortunately, they've all been kids, but we're trying to figure out a good way to teach him boundaries. Today at the gym, he put his arm around a little girl in a kind of side hug that would have been cute if they'd been facing the same direction. As it was, she was facing opposite him, and it kind of looked like he was trying to choke her. After the "hug," he leaned in for her to kiss his head. She had no idea what to do with that.

I was going to write more, but Mal's nap lasted about 20.5 seconds today.

Oh! Speaking of which... I didn't want to say anything earlier, but it might be a thing now. Mal's been sleeping 4-6 hours at night before his first wake-up! He's been sleeping until just after 2 or just before 4 the past 4 nights. This gives me hope that I might be able to have more time to chat with D at night, not having to listen for Mal to wake up so I can put him back to sleep.

I really thought that when he slept more, I'd sleep more and be more well-rested. What's happened instead is that he has A LOT MORE ENERGY. This is not fair. A trade-off, I guess.