Gage: “Mommy, put on the song I like.”

Me: “Which song Gage?”

Gage: “The song with the presents.” YOU KNOW! WITH THE PRESENTS!”

And me, naming each CD we have in the car that he likes…

“On the Notting Hill CD?

“NO!”

“Gage, I’m trying to figure out which one…is it on the Johnny Cash CD? You know, the one with Ring of Fire

on it?

“No, that’s not IT! It’s the one about the presents!”

Me: “On the purple CD? With the kids singing?”

Gage: “It’s the party one”

Me: “Oh, is it Let’s Get This Party Started?”

Gage: “Yeah! That’s it, the one about the party and presents!”

Me thinking:

Um, yeah, that makes total sense!

This happens about 3-4 times a day and is typical dialogue between us about various items. Gage is 7, but he doesn’t think like a 7 year old. Developmentally he’s probably more like a 5 year old. He knows he should remember something or know something but can’t quite grasp it at the moment and he gets frustrated often. At least a few times a day I have to interpret for Gage, to figure out what he is talking about before he realizes that I don’t know, because I want to ease his frustration. It makes for interesting conversations that begin like this – with no prior connecting dot, I might add – from Gage:

                “Remember that house with the steps?”

                “Mommy, do you know where that thing is?”

                “Can we go to that playground again?”

“We talked about the flecting pool at school and we see it when we go see that White House” (he meant the reflecting pool that MLK is buried in and where Mrs. King was just buried as well, but confused it with a trip to DC)

“Mommy, can we have that stone?”

That was just this past weekend. And the ones that I remember.

Trust me when I say it can be exhausting.