“Everything I Know I Learned in Kindergarten”… well.. not exactly. But the things I hear my ward Cam (5) spews out are certainly ahhmmmm interesting. He is in French Kindergarten, and  when bored after playing Xbox for a couple of hours, he calls out to me and insists that I be audience to his playing the video games.  I have been trying, more successfully each time, to show the boys that they don’t have to scream out loud to be heard. And that being rude and crude would not get them what they want. I can see huge changes in Cam these days, and so I reward such behavior with more attention. I used to cringe (well I still do) when he wants some company in the basement. It would mean that the clothes would have to wait to be folded, and food prep would be delayed indefinitely. But if that is what is gonna take to make this boy less abrasive, then be his audience I will be.

And the entire playroom has been rearranged in such a way that I could still see the TV while checking my email. And I do welcome the chance to sit down and relax. … and relish Cam’s comments. He’d say, “Ginee, tell me to stop when it reads Jabba’s Palace (Star Wars Game).” At 5, he doesn’t read huge words yet. Yet his vocabulary is so expansive, it’s amazing. Mediocre is a word I learned when I was 13 and I had to look up in the dictionary many times so I could remember it. It is one of Cam’s insulting words. The other words escape me now, and there are many other words he uses that I think are beyond the vocabulary of 5 year olds.

If it wouldn’t be so ridiculous to keep handy a pen and piece of paper every time when around C, I would. I should have just for laughs. I remember laughing out loud about his comment but I forgot now why I found it so funny. I should have logged it down.  The first time he admitted he lied so he could get his older brother in trouble, his announcement was so pure and unnerving, it was so honest, I had trouble keeping my face straight.

Now he doesn’t command, he requests. Now he doesn’t scream his head off, just his neck. Now he doesn’t jolt Kyle, he chastises him gently.  He now knows he can get his way me sometimes. He also knows that when I say something I expect him to get moving and I mean what I say. Now if only I could convince him that going to school without underwear is unacceptable, that time spent putting undergarments on is not a  complete waste of time.  The gregarious kid think it's funny to go “commando!”