Atticus said to us several times Saturday night in the car on the way to dinner, "Guys! Hey! I'm talking right now!" The first time I asked him what he was saying. After he got carried away with it, I more or less had to tell him he's not king of the world.

Other things he's picked up from me: "I'm serious" and "Do you understand me?" and many others I can't think of right now.

I said to Chris tonight at dinner, after Atticus ignored my repeated questioning as to whether he needed help cutting his quiche, that the thing that drives me wild about Atticus is how he sometimes doesn't answer me despite that I've asked a question a dozen times. Atticus perked up and said, "I'm listening now."

I bought him a book called The Way I Feel about a week and a half ago to help him feel more comfortable (and able) to talk about his feelings, particularly sadness over Chris working out of town. It's worked like a charm. He loves the book and wants to read it every night. He's picked up new vocabulary--namely "disappointed" and "frustrated." He enjoys talking about the things that make him happy, sad, angry, disappointed, scared, jealous, etc. And every time we come to the sad boy, he asks (and I swear I didn't feed this to him), "Is that boy sad because his daddy went away?" Then we talk about how maybe he is, but his daddy will come home soon; and plus, he's not all alone because he has his mommy there to take care of him.

I also bought him a book called Goodnight Goodnight, Construction Site so that we could learn the names of the various construction vehicles working to expand Houghton. Another big hit. And educational for me too.