Milo and I have been competing in Ticket to Ride for a couple years now.  Today he beat me, despite my best efforts, with a record high score of 480. As you can see, he’s chuffed.

Milo is an interesting creature right now.  He can be very responsible and capable, even quite pleasant company.  Still, he’s egocentric as all get-out.  He expounds upon the egregiousness of everyone else’s actions without a hint of realization that they might well feel aggrieved in their own right by his behavior.  Tonight he had a long tearful moan about the unfairness of his mates and declared that he wants to move to Mars.  I laughed and told him he should look under the playground slide for a Mars Portal, then gave him a hug and read him Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day.  He took it in good humor.  A little affection and empathy seems to go a long way with him, but he seems incapable of extending the same to others.  Hopefully it’s all part of the growing up process.  Whether or not he’s learning much academically at school (they seem to have taken it very easy the first week back), school is an academy for social skills.

Oh, and speaking of learning social skills, the kids have both been enamored of the earthier side of humor lately, expelling giant farts with relish and magnifying their burps with wide open mouths.  As parents, we are less than amused.  Naomi had a new friend over this afternoon, a perky little girl who is the middle child of 5, and Milo tried out his silly act with her.  Apparently it went over well, because he reported “Amelia has a sense of humor that doesn’t occur in our house…..she laughs when I smack my butt!”  Fantastic.