Last night I was in bed, and Nathan and the boys had stayed in the living room til a little later. Then Nathan came to bed and Morgan asked if he could crawl in bed with me for a few minutes. I said ok and we talked for a bit, and then he started scratching my back (I love back scratches ).   We talked about bats and caves I'd been to, and all sorts of things.

While talking he said, "Mommy, you're such a good cook. I've never even eaten at a restaurant that cooks as good as you do." Of course I gushed and thanked him. (I think he was still thinking of the tator tot casserole I made for the 1st time last night).

After a bit he said, "Mommy, it's a good thing you don't have an exoskeleton!"

Chuckling (and picturing myself as a giant lobster), I said, "well, I'm glad I don't have an exoskeleton, why are you?"

He said, "Because I like hugging you so much, and you're nice and soft!"

He's such a sweety huggy bug.   We have just finished Sonlight's Intro to Biology for science 3 by Holzman, and the book ended with the invertebrates, crustaceans, insects, etc. - must have been fresh on his mind.

Then today Morgan and Tristan were reading their readers (Morgan started The Cabin Faced West and Tristan finished Bears on Hemlock Mountain).  I asked Luke to do a little chore for me, and he said, "Mommy, I have to read my book."   He had this junior-high type Spaceship book, maybe 200 pages with no pictures - and remember Luke can't read yet - in his hands and he was looking very intently at it.  I said, "Well, what does it say?"   He said, "I don't know yet, but I will later."

I said, "Luke, maybe you should get a picture book you would understand with alphabet letters in it."   He said, "No, I can read this one, but not outloud, just to myself."