First week back

Oh my goodness - The Elder has gotten Good marks across the board everyday this week. I'm trying not to get too excited because it always seems to come back and bite me in the butt when I do. But honestly he has been really communicating very well lately. He's very much so a rule boy. Yesterday he was telling me how he had "two rules." He never completely told me what they were but he was very "grown-up" as he was announcing them.

I have been using the "Use your words" technique for sometime, but now that he is actually using them, I have to really think about what words I give him to use. About 2 weeks ago I started using the phrase "Mommy will handle this" so that he has a default thing to say when he doesn't know what to say. For example if The Younger is "bahvering" The Elder and he doesn't know how to "redirect" him, instead of pushing him, I'm trying to coach him to say "Mommy will handle this" and then come get me. Today was the first time I actually heard him saying it.

"What happened here?"
"I just pushed him onto the thinking chair." (It's a chair that resembles the Blue's Clues thinking chair)
"Why did you do that?"
"He was ........ with the bottle." (I'm not sure what the verb was here. Something like squishing, I assumed he was bothering The Elder by making too much noise with the plastic water bottle while he was playing a video game.)
"It's OK for him to do that, but it's not OK for you to push him. If you don't like what he is doing, what words should you say?"
"Mommy.....Mommy...You can handle this."

This is all good and well until the day comes and I can't handle it. Anyone got a better suggestion of a phrase I ought to be using instead?

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The Younger is exhibiting some traits that are starting to get me concerned. The Elder's psychologist told me not to worry about him until he is 4 because he might be imitating his brother. Which does totally make sense, but he is so smart which is supposed to be a warning sign according to The Elder's OT from last year (who got the dx ball rolling).

Today he wanted to watch the Polar Express and he was matching up words on the screen with the words on the DVD case. He learns things very fast, not just visual things though. Like languages, he started learning Portuguese from The AP so fast that I started to think I perhaps I should start teaching him Tagalog - my parents native language. So he is learning, English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Tagalog all at the same time! And doing well at it. At least vocabulary. He knows most of his colors (but he doesn't distinguish between blue and sky blue though like The Elder did at his age), even pink (of course), and he knows his shapes - square, rectangle, circle, triangle, oval, star, heart, diamond, and octagon. He learns lyrics immediately and sings along to everything. He finishes my sentences when I recite the Lord's Prayer. He recognizes letters and numbers, and can count to 15 without help..higher with help. He's OCD and ADHD wrapped up in a cute little ball. Mood swings out the wazoo, but then again...He's 2 and a half. His memory is just amazing. But he is incredibly social. Gives the best bear hugs, pretends like a champ, is developmentally on track or above average. I can see a huge difference between him and The Elder at the same age (except for intelligence level).

So then I'm back to square one of not being concerned at all. I think I'm just afraid that it is going to sneak up on me and I want to be prepared. Again, it's that fear of getting ahead of myself vs. the fear of not being prepared. Never having a "typical" 2 year old, it's like have a first child again and I'm not really sure what to expect. What a weird feeling.

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Well, yesterday I missed my first day of the year of working on the book. =o(
I guess I'll make up for it over the weekend perhaps and have 2 sessions on one of the days.

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AND and and and...I'm a SOLD fan of mind-mapping. I wish I had invented it.