The Way Mal Talks

My son expresses himself often, and often humorously.

Last night, he was lying in his twin bed, almost perpendicular to the "right" way, and inching toward the foot of the bed. He has fallen off many times before, so I said, "I'm going to get you back to your pillow" before grabbing him under his arms and pulling him up. Mal said, "I don't like dealing with these things."

The day before, I'd had a dream that he and I were driving in Phoenix and when we were stopped at a stop light, a guy tried to get into the back seat because he thought we were his Uber. When I told Mal about it, he said, "I didn't want to hear that. I don't like lame stories."

If you're getting the impression that Mal doesn't like a whole lot of things, you'd be right. He doesn't like food he's never eaten before, which really limits what we can put in front of him to consume. In fact, though, he doesn't like or eat many foods he HAS liked and eaten in the past. But he definitely likes mashed potatoes; especially at 10:30 at night.

On Thanksgiving, we were at my parents when Mal needed to go to the restroom but thought the guest bath was occupied. It wasn't; someone had turned on the fan and shut the door behind them. Regardless, he apparently went just a bit, enough that it trickled down one leg. He tiptoed, bow-legged, into the living room, announcing, "Mom, I seem to have gotten myself into a situation."

-- It is now the following day, Sunday, December 1. Last night, James and I watched "Flight of the Navigator" with Malcolm. He started sobbing, tears streaming, when David finally got onto the space ship. I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "Why isn't he home yet? He needs to be home!" He asked us to turn the movie off and to read a book, which is something he NEVER does. I would have if the movie were fatalistic or objectively scary, but I really wanted him to see that it turns out well.

He did say once, "I don't even know why I'm crying. I'm just so sad for him."

Then when David saw his brother's fireworks from the sky (sorry if you haven't seen it and that's a spoiler), Mal cried even harder. "I'm so happy! He's going home!"

This sweet kid will watch Star Wars at a rate of about two full movies a week, over and over. But he is overwhelmed by a kid who just wants to be with his parents and can't.

After the movie, we DID read a book. Mal had gotten his first issue of High Five from Highlights. We read almost the whole thing, but when we got to the page with the "recipe" for a breakfast hot dog, Mal wanted to make it. We didn't have anything necessary for it, but it was only about 9:00 PM, so I took him to the nearest grocery store to stock up on fruit and to get hot dog buns.

We drove around the lake park on the way home, looking at the lighted Christmas decorations. He asked me if there were any more "Flight of the Navigator" movies, and I told him no. He said, "Good." I asked him about Star Wars. He said, "I like Star Wars, but I don't like the deaths, and that's why I don't want to watch the part with Darth Maul." I remembered that he does avoid the scenes where, for instance, Yoda dies -- of the most natural cause of age. So I said, "You know those are actors and no one really dies? They're telling a story, and they film it, pretending to die, then once the movie is made, the actor hops back up and is fine." I'm not 100% sure he's clear on that, so we'll have to talk about it some more.

Although the magazine recipe called for a hot dog made with peanut butter, berries, and granola, Mal only wanted the banana, yogurt (as ketchup), apple (as mustard), and grapes (as relish). He did eat a few blueberries on the side (as soda). Here it is: