We just shipped the boys off to school. It was such a warm, pleasant, snuggly sort of morning that I wanted to write a blog post about it. 

There's a lot of drama going on around here. We've had plenty of drama in the past nine years and I've always written about about it on the blog, But, now, I can't. Or I can't just yet. It's the mean elephant in the dark hat that is perched on my kitchen counter glaring at me. 

Despite the mean elephant, life is pretty good right now.

Jonah continues to elongate. He is growing into the adult that I always wanted him to be. Hard working and kind. He floats around the soccer field with his skinny legs sticking out of his black shorts. Stick figure legs. The coach puts him on defense, because he barks out instructions and encouragement to the other players on the field. When did he get that much confidence? 

Over the summer, Ian learned how to talk. He makes grammatical errors and gets stuck on certain topics, but the words are there. He can deal out those words like playing cards and have marvelous conversations. He wants to know if it snows in the winter, because Pluto flies closer to Earth. He wants me to explain how a microwave works. He likes to diagram sentences to identify the adverbs and the adjectives. He's beating the average in his mainstream math class. 

Ian hums a little tune to himself as his assembles Lego in the basement.

Yesterday, Jonah showed me his short story for English class with pride. He can write. He's my boy. 

The boys know nothing of the Dark Elephant and that's a good thing. Their joy helps to mock the Dark Elephant and shrink him down to mouse-shaped proportions.