Zack got off the bus today with a new book in his hand: There’s a Wocket in My Pocket by Dr. Seuss. I was thrilled to have another Dr. Seuss book to add to our collection, and one that is not about a certain cat or off-colored breakfast food. He was thrilled because his name was written in the front of the book.

We are working on complete sentences with Zack. That means he has to say, “I want food please” instead of simply “food please” or “hungry.” It’s easy to let him get away with fewer words because we all know what he wants, but his teacher and speech therapist have it on his IEP (Individualized Education Plan) for the rest of this year, and I am happy to get on board with that. (We had a meeting yesterday.)

Zack isn’t so keen on saying a complete sentence, however. He does this funny “I … I . I . I …” stutter and shakes his head when I ask. It stretches him to have to speak more, but it’s important, and he can do it. When he does, voila! He gets a lot of praise from his excited Mom and exactly what he’s asking for. (Hopefully he won’t catch on to that anytime soon.)

So today he wanted chips, and once he said the required sentence, he got them–along with rice, ground turkey, hummus and carrots. He sat down at the kitchen table to eat and opened The Cat in the Hat for me to read. But I was having none of that, so I went in search of the new book. Easily found on Jay’s desk, which is one of Zack’s first stopping places after he gets home (he likes to turn on the light and check the computer), I brought it back and insisted on reading all of it.

Then we read about the cat. After all, we can’t completely abandon him.