Words

I love words. I love stacking them together creating patterns and rhythms. I am fascinated by by long words with parts of other words inside of them. I love teaching ridiculous vocabulary words to my 4 year old and hearing him repeat them perfectly in context.
For my own amusement, I quiz him:
"What are some synonyms for problem?"
"Conundrum and predicament."
"What is a homonym?"
"I don't remember."
"A homonym is more than one word that sound but have different meanings and spellings."
"Like ball and wall."
"No. Those a rhyming words."
I could talk about this all day, but he gets tired of it pretty quick. Then out of the blue, he pops up with some wonderfully random, perfectly executed vocab zinger.
At the grocery store: "Mom! Stop immediately and look at those Kung Fu Panda fruit snacks!"
After church: Mom, I telled Pastor Brad's wife that a bird pooped on our windshield. She made this face." (contorts into some kind of crazy smirk that I have never seen on our lovely pastor's wife's face) "She thought that was hilarious."
Then there are the times he just makes stuff up.
From his room yesterday: "Mom!!! Nathaniel is uncleaning!"
What? He has leprosy? "What does that mean?" I ask as I come into the room to see Nat in the lego box with the legos on the floor.
"That means leaving stuff out. That's what it means."
All of this leads up to the story of Michael the Archangel.
There is a little boy in my MOPs class named Michael. He is a sweet timid little guy and would rather be with his mom--always. Last week, as my fellow helpers and I helped our 3-5 year olds glue together angels out of cupcake papers, I talked to Michael about angels. I told him there is a very special angel in heaven with the very same name as him and that he is an archangel. That means he is in charge of all the soldiers in heaven's army. I told him that he must be very special to share his name with one of God's special angels. His little chest puffed up with pride (as did mine).
I was telling Paul this story in the van when Benton piped up from the back. "I know an archangel too!"
P: "You do?"
B: "Yup. Noah's Ark Angel. His job was to keep the animals calm when they were alone with Noah. He telled them, 'don't be afraid. There is plenty of food for everyone.' He keeped all the animals company."
Benton's gift for words just underscores for me how God gave each of us dazzelingly different talents. He can't put his socks on right and needs help with his coat and shoes, he has no interest in music and no care for sports, but he can recite Kung Fu Panda!