All about Malcolm

Oh, Malcolm James...

Helping Joseph drive at Lowe's

• Malcolm loves to help Joseph eat.  I would like Malcolm to stay in his own seat during meals but he can't help himself and gets up constantly, a lot of times to help Joseph.  He gets right up next to his face and says in his sweetest, most high-pitched voice, "You want some WATER, sweet boy?"
• Malcolm is a major extrovert.  Every car trip results in about twenty-five conversations as he chats about everything he sees, including every airplane.  "Michael!!" "What?" "I saw an airplane!" "Where?" "You just missed it."  My particular favorite was the day he asked me, "Mom!  Did you see that something really cool?"  It came out as "coo" and I have no idea what he was talking about.
• Malcolm is highly observant.  Every day we take the same trip to preschool and he notices anything that is different - a chip delivery truck at the gas station, the balloons that are put out by one apartment complex, which construction vehicles are out today at the two or three construction sites along the way.  "There's no balloons today!"
• Malcolm loves listening to our rosary CD.  One of the first times I noticed him pay attention was during the first glorious mystery, the Resurrection.  The meditation text said something like, "They went to look for him in the tomb, but the angel said, "Fear not.  He is not here."  Malcolm said, "Not HERE?!  Where is he?"  I said, "He rose from the dead."  Malcolm asked, "Why he rose from the dead?"  Hoping this was a good catechism answer, I said, "To save us."  Malcolm said, "Hey!  Chewbacca saved Han because he was a statue!"  (Since that time Malcolm has repeated this conversation a lot because he finds it amusing, but he really does seem to like the CD and I've caught him singing along to the hymns they sing at the end of the decades. :)
• Malcolm is working really hard on figuring out time, but it's challenging for him.  Whenever he thinks something would be neat to do, he suggests, "Hey! We could do that tomorrow, after my nap."  He frequently confuses yesterday, last week, and earlier today, but you can usually figure it out :) 





Silly boys with Mama in the morning



• Malcolm loves to be like his big brother.  Michael has recently been making up his own songs, and his own words to existing songs, and generally singing to himself all around the house and in the car.  One song recently featured the lyrics of, "Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Mary, Mark, and John."  Malcolm rode his trike at the park this morning singing that same fragment over and over at the top of his lungs.
• Malcolm is incredibly sweet towards Michael ... sometimes.  Lately he has taken to saying, "Have a good day, Michael!" and "I love you, Michael!" when his big brother heads into his classroom at preschool.  It's amazingly sweet.
• But he also has a mean streak and it's really frustrating when he takes this out on Michael by taking random swings at him getting into the car, stealing his toy trains or calculator just to run away with them, or otherwise harassing him.  He knows what is expected behavior but when he has meltdowns it is sometimes ugly.  I feel awful about these because I have some sense he's not nearly as difficult/strong-willed as he could be, because I've heard stories about this with other kids, and yet even so I still have no idea how to deal with it some days.  I lose my temper more than I would like to admit, and it's almost always with Malcolm.  I wish I could be a better mother to him sometimes.
• To end on a better note, one other great thing about Malcolm is how much pride he takes in doing things all by himself.  He likes to help me make my breakfast sandwich, pour his own juice, get his own water, push the stroller, help with the laundry, check on Mike's coffee, and even sweep up and use his dustpan. We try to say yes as much as possible to letting him do his own things so he can gain his confidence.  We are really proud of him.

A rare sight of Malcolm sitting at the park - usually he's incredibly active, but we'd just come from the library and he loves his Thomas books!