He drank the whole pina colada. Squeee!

Dave and the kids regularly called and texted me from Disney World over the weekend, which was almost like being there. Almost. Most of their updates were of the "We are on the monorail/We got Mickey ears/Max pushed me/We saw Mickey Mouse/We had Mickey ice-cream pops/We went on the safari five times help me/I got all my friends gifts/Max isn't listening to Daddy/We saw Donald Duck/The kids are so happy" variety. Then this came in: 

"Mommy this is Fireman Max I drank a whole Pina colida."

I knew that pina coladas were on Max's list of Disney must-dos; he was going to have one poolside at the Animal Kingdom Lodge (sans alcohol, of course). Max downed several during our vacation in The Keys last year, and he associates the drink with Florida and good times; Sabrina is a Shirley Temple kind of girl. Max doesn't request them at home, nor has he demanded that we install a tiki hut on our deck.

Reading Max's message gave me a lift. It wasn't just a text, it was eleven words filled with accomplishments:

-- He's texting! He just started doing it in the last year. Sometimes, it's to remind me of important to-dos ("We are going to fire house today") and sometimes it's to say "You're the best Mommy ever." Swoon.

-- He wanted to share his experience. This hasn't always been the case; for a long time, getting Max to recount anything involved us asking a series of questions. These days, he's taking the initiative to share.

-- He is writing in sentences.

-- He correctly used the past tense. 

-- His spelling is really coming along; even if he doesn't get things right, he's often close.  

Also, Max has discovered what I've suspected all along: Pina coladas are the secret to life.