Watch your mouth, young man

I know it sounds crazy, but for a long time I ached to hear David say the word, "no." Really, I would have been delighted to hear him say any word, but "no" just seemed like a word that so many Moms can take for granted—a word that so many Moms probably wish that they would never hear again. To have David be able to answer a question—or even insert his little opinion totally unsolicited, with a firm and very emphatic "NO" was a like a dream for a long time.

David has now learned the word "no" and is certainly not afraid to use it. I hear it often and have not yet grown tired of it. I was interested, though, that a few days ago, "no" evolved into "nope. And he says it like he is really enjoying it, kind of drawing it out more like "no-puh." He uses it often, particularly when he wants to avoid talking, as in I say to him "David, say 'Hi'" which he should be able to tell by the desperation in my voice really translates to "David could you please tell the kind woman at the snack bar at Target hello because she is just trying to make conversation with you and since you are the tallest five-year-old she has ever seen, surely you must be able to say hello and not appear rude because I really don't feel like getting into a whole discussion right now about how you have autism when all I was really trying to do was buy you a cinnamon-sugar pretzel so that maybe I can get all 14 things on my list before you run out of patience." And David's answer? "Nope."

Just today, however, there was another evolution. You may know that we recently got back from Chicago, or "Cago" as David calls it and he must have had a good time because he has been talking about it a lot. We have also been talking about going back to school, because David will be in a different classroom this year. This morning, when I mentioned that he starts back to school on Monday, instead of saying no—or nope, for that matter, he said "Go CAGO!" I did not really think too much of it until this afternoon. David has been taking piano lessons. I thought he might enjoy it because he loves to play our piano while singing. It is probably another story for another day, but let's just say I was wrong and as of today (lesson number 5), his butt has yet to touch the piano bench.

So, David and his "piano" teacher were taking turns playing instruments and she had some egg shakers. She was asking David if he wanted the red egg or the purple egg, the red egg or the purple egg, the red egg or the purple egg. She has not worked with David before this summer and cannot understand much of what he says, but she must have felt confident she did not hear red or purple, because she kept repeating the question. And David finally answered her with a forceful "Go CAGO!"

I think "Go CAGO" may have become David's personal and very private expletive. His way of saying, as Radar O'Reilly so eloquently put it on an episode of M*A*S*H (and for the benefit of my 10-year-old, who often reads what I have written), "Go to H, E, double toothpicks."