Observations of Mal

When we were at Jump Street the other day (one of many times; it's one of Mal's favorite places, and I'm trying to burn him out on it before he turns 5 and the price goes up significantly), I noticed something about how Mal plays differently from a lot of other boys.

First of all, you know Mal has a LOT of energy. He hurts himself so much because he's always jumping from one piece of furniture to the next, or running and looking back and slamming into things. He likes to be active and playing and is full throttle... When we go to Jump Street, he'll often run up and down one long trampoline over and over again. He's just always going.

But he's not a rough. I mean, he tramples my feet all of the time, and he'll push himself up by digging his calf bone into my leg, and he's even stepped on my boob more than once (I KNOW). But this is because he's being thoughtless in his play, not because he's purposefully rough-housing.

I watched these two boys run into the area where Mal was playing, and they were hurling dodge balls at each other, and body-slamming mid-jump and doing these brute force air-bound back flips.

Mal doesn't typically play with kids like this. Besides not enjoying being hit really hard by a ball thrown less strategically than by his parents (wherein we attempt to miss his face and/or crotch), Mal also rarely engages in straightforward physical activity.

For most children, jumping on a trampoline is enough, right? But Mal is always pretending. He's Sonic the Hedgehog and I'm his as-yet childless mom, Sonia, wistfully expressing desire to have a baby to take care of. Or I'm Knuckles and we're trying to decide what to do today. Or I'm Amy and I want him to watch a bird for me.

Or else he's Lightning McQueen and I'm Mater and I don't understand where we are. Or he's Robin, trying to lead the Teen Titans even though he doesn't have a super power.

When he plays at McDonald's, the PlayPlace is his lair or his giant robot. Or he wants to play hide and seek with whoever else is there.

-- Later -- Mal woke up and so I played with him in his room... he wanted to read books, but rather than just hand me books to read, he crawled up under his bed (I had the trundle on the floor, but not pushed in) and fed me the books through the crack between the beds. He was a goblin mailman who delivered books, then crawled through the "mail slot" himself for me to read to him.

Every night when it's time to go to bed, he gets excited and says, "Let's chat about our day. How was your day?" After we discuss what we did and how much fun we had, then he starts asking about favorites. "What's your favorite candy? Sonic Dash character? Sonic Boom character? Cars character? Fruit? Thing to eat at McDonald's? Hotel?" Usually, I have to ask him to talk to me while I rest because I wear out long before he does on most days.

He really is a fun, enthusiastic, imaginative, emotional kid. Watching him grow up is immensely interesting.