The Need to Capture...

Little Mr. A has had some good moments this week. I want to write them down before I forget:

• While trying to quickly run into the high-scale WalMart establishment this evening, Mr. A refused to go in without his cowboy hat on. I told him that if we left it in the car he could wear it the whole way home. Nothing doing. He refused and so, as I like to remind myself, I decided not to pick this battle, and we "sauntered" into WalMart in full cowboy hat glory.
• Somehow Mr. A tore off a good chunk of skin on the palm of his hand this week. We treated it for a few days with some much needed Elmo Band-Aids and then I told him that it needed to "air out." Every so often, though, I'd catch him putting his palm to his mouth. I finally said, "A, don't touch your ow-ie so much. The Band-Aid will fall off." He looks right back at me and says "Mama, A kiss it!" I didn't realize it but apparently my kisses weren't sufficient for the healing - he needed to kiss his own ow-ie too.
• Tonight Mr. A was saying his prayers and we typically say "Bless A that he'll be a good sleeper" (he says that sleeper part, among others). We said a few other things and got to, "Bless Uncle Chris on his mission that he'll be a good _____" and I left it open for Mr. A to fill in "teacher" but instead he said "sleeper" - just like him. For some reason I found it hilarious and had to wrap up the prayer quickly. So, Uncle Chris, if you read this at some point, I certainly hope that little Mr. A's prayer helped you rest a bit more soundly.
• As is typical, every reference to himself is in the 3rd person. Just this week, though, we've started making progress and finally this morning, when asking for a "ride" down the stairs, he said, "Mama, hold ME!" and had a big smile on his face. We cheered and relished in the fact that he wasn't asking for "Mama, hold YOU!" since holding me these days is not quite possible for anyone!