I took Max to his annual doctor's appointment yesterday evening. If felt good to do something mundane, a way to take my mind off the Newtown massacre.
Max acted like he owned the office. He greeted the manager, Pat, and noted that his teacher had the same name. He showed one mom and kid a packet of Cars 2 napkins he's been toting around. When a nurse took him back to an exam room, Max asked for a corner one and she obliged, like he was some finicky restaurant patron who needed a better table.
The exam went well. Max is growing nicely. His heel cords are tight, particularly his right one, which his physical therapist has also noted; it may mean another round of serial casting (sigh). Max told the doctor all about his Cars 2 party and our upcoming Disney Cruise.
On the way out the door, Max turned to the staff at the front desk and said something, I couldn't tell what. He repeated it, then again: "Err-ay iss-us!"
Max was saying "Merry Christmas." I told the ladies behind the desk, and they grinned happily. "Err-ay Iss-us!" Max said again, waving as we walked out the door. "Err-ay Iss-us!"
As we headed to the car, I told Max that a lot of people like to say "Happy Holidays."
"No!" said Max. "Err-ay Iss-us!"
"Um, Max?" I said. "We celebrate Chanukah in our family."
"NO!" said Max. "Iss-us!"
"Some people celebrate Christmas, some people celebrate Chanukah, and some people celebrate Kwanzaa," I answered. "We celebrate Chanukah!"
"NO!" said Max. "Iss-us!"
I didn't think Max was having a faith crisis; I suspected he figured he could get more presents if he convinced me we celebrated Christmas, too. I also thought he liked saying "Merry Christmas!" because of the reaction he got.
To be sure, this year Max was really into lighting the Chanukah candles, holding my hand as I lit each one. He downed a whole lot of latkes, traditional potato pancakes that are a handy excuse for carb-holics like me. The other night when I told him to wish the babysitter "Happy Chanukah," he said it super-clearly and it was THE best gift I could have gotten. "Can you tell her again?" I'd asked just to hear the words one more time, and he did.
As I put Max to bed, he looked at me and said, "Err-ay Iss-us!"
"Happy Holidays," I said back, and quickly shut off the lights so he couldn't see me smiling.
Sweet -- so thrilling that he can express himself verbally!
ReplyDeleteI know. I mean, he could say a curse word and I'd probably get excited if he articulated it clearly. Not that I want that. But. You know.
DeleteMy son is 10 and has autism. His speech has really blossomed in the last couple of years. We also celebrate Hanukkah. My son wants to celebrate all the holidays for all the sweets! For example he thinks Christmas is associated with cookies. Last year and this year he is insisting that we go in his words "to a christian house to eat cookies" Last year we went to a family we know really well, in the evening after they were done with gifts and all. We had tea/juice and dessert and Ben was ready to leave. He never mentioned gifts and did not get any
ReplyDeleteI love that he wanted to go to someone else's house to eat cookies! Max is always inviting himself over to people's homes, he just loves exploring.
DeleteSounds like Max is trying to cover all the bases!! Go Max, go!!! Happy everything happy and joyful, and thankful our kiddos are making speech physical advances!!!!
ReplyDeleteI can hear him saying that to the ladies at the doc's office desk!! precious. Smart boy working on getting more gifts from the Christmas angle!! HE HE HE!!!
Oh, and you reminded me that one year one of our little girls had three different birthday parties when she turned three. It had to do with one friend party at home and two parties thrown in different states by different sets of grandparents. So when she turned four, guess what she wanted? FOUR PARTIES!!!! We had to break her of that assumption!!
ReplyDeleteHA! Smart girl!!!
DeleteJoy!!!
ReplyDeleteI say Merry Christmas too! If it offends you, I would say, "You can't tell me what to say if you're not God."
ReplyDeleteHA!!! He'll be a minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church (all faiths or none, they don't care, they're very accommodating) before ya know it!!
ReplyDeleteMax is a hot ticket! Was there, perchance, a Christmas tree or decorations in the waiting room? That might have given him the idea to offer the greeting...?
No! There wasn't! He just said it out of the blue. Hey, if Max turned out to be a minister that would be lovely, though I was counting on him to be a movie star and support us all.
DeleteLove this! Such a head strong boy;) happy holidays xx
ReplyDeleteLooks like political correctness isn't his strong suit! Ah, well, when my niece was Sabrina's age she had a Muslim friend and kept trying to convince her family that they, too, were Muslim just so she could be like her friend. Kids, amirite?
ReplyDeleteHave you ever tried letting Max talk to Siri on the iphone? I swear sometimes 'she' can understand Reid better than I can. And she can never understand me even though I supposedly have no speech issues. I bet she would have figured out err-ay iss-us! Happy holidays, Ellen, Max and family!
ReplyDeleteHA! I don't have Siri on my phone but Dave does, so that would be something fun to try on vacay. Happy holidays to yoooooou!
DeleteSo cute! Who cares if he says Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas he's talking I'm SO HAPPY. Way to go Max!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful and adorable!
ReplyDeleteThat's adorable. Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas to both of you! :)
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