As much as we adore one another, the lines of communication aren’t always clear between myself and the little man. Naturally the situation has improved with age (my age granting me additional patience, his additional vocabulary) but often we have standoffs that thoroughly frustrate us both…when we fail to grasp just what the heck the other is talking about. Recently we stumbled through another of these instances. He was making a request for a video, something that should be simple enough. Generally he refers to each not by their given names, but with esoteric titles he’s come up with himself. Most are easy to figure out. When he asks for the rocket video, that’s Wallace and Gromit’s A Grand Day Out. But he asked for a blue rocket video…and not on VHS, specifically a DVD. I had no flipping idea what he was talking about. At first I thought it was the aforementioned A Grand Day Out (which we have in both formats for some reason) but that rocket is orange, and his frustrated “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” told me I was on the wrong track. It went back and forth for a while, with both of us ready to start banging our heads against a wall. Thankfully I got the bright idea to hoist him up. For the sake of preserving the DVDs they are kept out of his reach, on top of a tall bookshelf. So it took a good deal of muscle and sheer force of will to hold him up high, while standing tiptoe atop a chair, so that he could point to the object of his desire. Turns out it was the Schoolhouse Rock DVD that he hasn’t watched in half a year or more. The word “Rock” is in the title, which is similar to rocket, but the case is silver…not blue. Go figure. Speaking of which, maybe we’ll be figuring out more of this before long. I don’t want to get my hopes up, but tomorrow morning’s appointment could be the start of something good. I’ve scheduled a screening to see if the boy might benefit from some speech therapy. Indubitably.