Location: Wisconsin, US, North America, Earth, Milky Way Galaxy

Alex is learning two very different things now. We are working on naming the parts of the body like eyes, nose, mouth, ears, cheeks, chin, and others, so that when he hurts something, he can tell me what hurts. He is doing a good job with the different parts of his face, but when it comes to the other parts, he doesn't really care. Unless its his toes or his big stinky feet. Then he is excited to show people them. So far, he usually hurts his face the most (running into things when he gets too hyper) so I guess this is at least a step in the right direction.

The other thing we have been looking at is the planets. I got him a planet book when he was in school from his book orders, and right away he didn't want to have anything to do with it. Recently, he started looking through it, and we have read it at least a million times. He is mainly focused on trying to remember the order that the planets go in, Mercury through Neptune (blast you International Astronomical Union! Pluto will always be a planet in my heart!) and the book states a one sentence fact about each planet. When I tried to tell Alex that Earth is where we lived, I think the concept was a little too awesome (in the traditional sense of the word) for him to comprehend. So I told him our address, told him we live in Wisconsin, which is in the United States, which is a part of North America, which is in the North and West Hemispheres on planet Earth. I think before I take this much further, I should go get my globe from my parent's house.

Now, its raining here, and he rather enjoys when we open the window for a second and get rained on. There is nothing about storms that scare him, so he is watching the lightning and hearing the thunder from the storm and loves it. He sings his "Rain, rain, go away" song that he learned in school, but there are times where the rain is almost therapeutic for him, which is no surprise because I love it too. I think I might have to try to explain to him the ideas about how rain happens, and why we hear the thunder after the lightning. I am glad that I have a scientific background broad enough to explain these kinds of things to him, so that when he gets to the point where he asks questions about why the sky is blue, I can give him a truthful answer, rather than mumble and tell him that he will find out later at school.

I question everyday whether I am doing things right when it comes to Alex. He is the most important person in my life, and I want to make sure that I do not mess up so that it makes things worse on him. He still gets sad when I have to go to work, but I am trying to teach him that me going to work should make our time together that much more special. Last night we sat on the couch and read together, I read to him what I was reading (my Women and Religion textbook) and then I read to him what he was reading (his planets book). I try to do my best and incorporate him into every aspect of my life so he is aware of the different things that I do, and learns how to do them himself (he helps with laundry, sometimes helps with cooking, and he is still totally against helping me clean).

It makes me excited to see what he will learn and when. I still am waiting to figure out whether he really knows how to read yet or not, and I cannot wait for the time when he is comfortable with a pencil so we can work on his writing skills. Right now, he is not comfortable holding the pencil correctly, and it makes him too frustrated to get very far with him. So we just have to take it slow, and when he comes around to it, I will have boatloads of words to show off.