:-)

Today, when MacTroll and I walked over to pick up X-man, we were met by his teacher. She has very pretty, large eyes. And as she started talking to me, I focused in on them. They were happy -- no. They were elated. His teacher walked him out today to tell me that he had a phenomenal week at school this week. It was awesome to hear. 

I opened his backpack and found some writing samples from earlier in the week where he was practicing his spelling words. The difference between how he's writing now and how he was writing in late September is amazing. He's met with the OT four times at school and three times and there is considerable improvement, particularly in his Rs. 

I honestly gushed over him all the way home. 

When we got home, X-man and MacTroll wondered down to the basement to start playing the new Lego Wii game we ordered. It's Lord of the Rings. And this time, MacTroll and I have decided to play a slot together that is different from the game X-man has declared "the family game" or "group effort" (because he doesn't like to start from the beginning). 

Our new oven got delivered today because the old one broke right before Thanksgiving. But we'd been eating our way through the things in the cupboard and had no groceries, so we went to Burger King (X-man's choice). Ironically, BK actually has something I can eat that's not a grilled cheese sandwich or a pile of iceberg lettuce. So I had a veggie burger without the mayo and a diet soda. While we're waiting for our food, X-man looks up and sees an Exxon Commercial. And he says to me, why are they lying?

I turn around to see the commercial. It's got a lot of green in it and the words I see are about ExxonMobile helping teachers. Then X-man starts to go into an advertisement he saw on TV where ExxonMobile was talking about having cleaner gas in an effort to try to put a "green halo" on their non-eco-friendly product. X-man still sees things in black in white most of the time, and he's aware that the oil companies are pretty much raping the Earth for oil because Americans (including our family) use depend on our cars way too much. And if he didn't get enough of that view leftist me, he totally remembers the BP oil spill in the Gulf. (I'm pretty sure Valdez was when my childhood distrust and disgust for ExxonMobile started, so this makes sense to me.)

I pointed out to him that it is possible for large oil companies to give money to lots and lots of causes that help humanity out (like donating to school teachers) but that it doesn't really make up for the environmental issues. It's pretty much just a misdirection. I also talked about how Exxon was the richest company in the world until a year ago when the Fruit passed them up.

X-man seemed to like this information. It made him smile. 

Then we dropped him off at the Little Gym for a parents' night out. He hadn't been to Little Gym since August. They're relocating to Urbana in January, so I'm not sure he'll ever really go again. We've been making use of the longer (and cheaper) parents' nights out at the Savoy Recreation Center and the YMCA. 

Now he and MacTroll are playing Legos. There's a whole military command scenario being played out. 

Now he's using Facetime to tell me he's coming to give me  a hug.