Every morning Marshall wakes up sometime in the 5 o'clock hour. EVERY MORNING. And we used to have the rule that he needed to stay in his room until 6. Not necessarily sleeping, but definitely letting the rest of us sleep or start our mornings as the case may be. But lately, he's gotten in the habit of climbing into bed with me at 5 (and if Will is still in there, he inevitably kicks him out). He says he needs to snuggle. And while I know that I should probably stop him, I also know that when he is 13 I will be missing all this snuggling time, so I should probably take it while I can get it.
Marshall works best with a routine. We know this. If he can't get a concept, we break it up into steps. He can follow steps. He likes to know what comes next. But he can handle flexibility too. I mean, it might send him a little crazy silly, but it doesn't break him down. But what does break him down is chaos. Too many people, too much stuff, too much anything. What can I say? I am the same way. We like things simple.
Last week, there were pieces of balled up papers all over our house. Marshall came home from school and needed, NEEDED to make word balls, like they use on the TV show The Electric Company. He took a marker, wrote words on scrap paper, balled them up and put them up his sleeves, and then he "shot" them out of his wrist. Earlier this week, Marshall came home insisting he wanted to eat 50 carrots because he saw a show that called them "sports candy" and he wanted to be super strong. Then he did indeed eat the carrots (about 4 sticks) and then went around the house picking up "heavy" things to show how strong he was now. Frequently when I tell Marshall that he can't watch TV, he flips over a box or a basket, makes himself a remote from Legos, and creates his own imaginary TV show.
From these (and numerous other instances) I have learned several things. First, Marshall LOVES TV and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It certainly sparks his imagination and he takes over where the show leaves off. He is a super creative little boy and television has definitely shown him that your imagination really knows no bounds. However, the downside of loving television is that I will continue to monitor what my children watch very carefully. There is no Sponge Bob in this house because I know that Marshall will not be able to leave it there on the screen. Or even those silly teeny bopper Disney sitcoms. Because in creating a plot, those shows pick out the worst behavior of kids and televise it. Popularity contests, teasing, bullying, goofy clique behavior, etc. And even if the ultimate message is positive, they are still spending time illustrating that those negative types of behavior are "normal" and thus somewhat accepted. At this point in his life, Marshall doesn't need to get those messages. For goodness sakes, he thinks State Farm Insurance is some magical company that can fix all his problems. SERIOUSLY. There is a State Farm office next to our Blockbuster and every time we get a movie he sings "Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is There," and pleads desperately to go in. Someday we will and he will see what the exciting world of selling insurance is all about.
But I digress....
Back to what I want to remember about my six (SIX!?!) year old little boy.
Marshall has a blog, professormarshall.blogspot.com. Don't try to go view it. What do you think I am? Like I would really let it be publicly available. Someday I'll get to typing in e-mails to allow other people to read it, but right now, it's just for us. It's for his inventions. He creates inventions all the time. My personal favorite was the ice cream sundae machine, which consisted of a box with three hole cut in the top. Plain ice cream in a bowl went in one side of the box. The magical machine added chocolate syrup, m&ms, and whipped cream through each hole, and VOILA! an ice cream sundae came out the other side. He is a scientist at heart and he is going to be devastated to find out that all professors do not simply work in a laboratory all day long creating kooky inventions, because that's his intended line of work.
Marshall and his sister are still best friends, but I must say the sibling rivalry and bickering is coming out more and more. I knew it would. But they handle it as well as they can, and for the most part they are still great playmates. I think Marshall is just getting more upset that Josie actually has a distinct opinion that is different from his and is becoming much more resistant to let her ideas go in favor of his. Ah, Will does always say that Marshall is his mini-me.
But most of all, I love how this little big guy gets excited about the little things in life. Yesterday when his class was re-enacting the Polar Express, he told his teacher, "I am so excited! I have never been in a real live book before!" And when we lead up to his birthday trip by telling him he was getting a big surprise, he said, "Oh, I hope it's the science museum!" Being around Marshall definitely helps you appreciate the simple things in life just that much more.
I love Marshall because he is who he is, for better or worse. He is self-confident and happy. I learn so much from him everyday. I am so lucky to be his mom.
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