Houston, we have humor

Yup, that's right. And not just the rote repetition of 'jokes' either. We're talking about saying things that dance the borderline between what makes sense and what is absurd. What is more -- and what is everything when it comes to humor -- we have timing.

OK, I'm not talking about masterful plays on words or cleverly barbed comments at the expense of Alberto Gonzalez. In fact there are probably a dozen wittier eleven-year-olds on your average suburban block, but the fact remains that we have humor.

I'll give you an example. He was making Kraft Dinner tonight and had misplaced the box. So he asked aloud, "Where did the box go?" Then he answered himself, "Maybe it went to look for its mother." Alright, wipe the coffee off your monitor and try to get a grip on yourself. Or not, as the case may be. The point is the concept. It's a massive leap forward.

I started noticing it only about a week ago. Actually, I first started noticing that he was getting my jokes. For example:

MK: When can we go to Playland?
Me: I don't know, 2012, 2014, something like that.
MK: Slowly spreading grin, followed by a laugh.

A few weeks earlier this would have been, "You're joking right? We couldn't wait until 2012 because I would be too old by then."

Don't get me wrong. I was very pleased with that response. We considered that a triumph. It had replaced what we would have got two years ago, to wit, "No!!! Now I never get to go!"

And of course, two years before that, we were only just getting the hang of sentences, so the whole conversation would have been impossible.

What is particularly odd is the pace at which this is coming on. The past couple of days he's been getting off a good one two or three times a day. This follows on an explosion of vocabulary. The vocabulary thing started a few weeks earlier still. It went from a new word or phrase every day to it's peak about a week ago, at which point I would swear he was using something new in every sentence. -- Yes, don't worry, I did give kudos to his new SLP. (More on her later.)

You know, Steve D over at One Dad's Opinion had a great post on balance that really got me thinking about how having lots of stuff to deal with in my life is a plus, not a minus. I can forget that at times. What I am getting at is that, since MK turned about 2, I cannot ever remember being bored. How many people out there go nine straight years without complaining of boredom once? Steve D reminded me to see richness for what it is and to appreciate it.

It may seem that I have wandered off topic, but I'm actually getting to something. The thing is that I was thinking about segueing from this progress report to a bitter lament about the stupid things some of the school staff said at this week's IEP. It's absurd that MK be doing so well and, at the same time, be evaluated as doing poorly by people who have only known him for a few months and are thus incapable to noticing that he is developing at the speed of light, right beneath their upward-turned noses. But thanks to Steve D's reminder, I'm not going to do that. Instead, I'm going to revel in the absurdity. I'm going to say, "Look at me! I'm so lucky. I've got two opposite things going on at the same time, and me and my wife are the only ones who can see 'em both!"

I will write about the IEP itself shortly. It went pretty well actually. But this post is long enough.