Dear Noah:

The other night you asked me how you were supposed to go to sleep when all you could do was think about traffic lights! Yes...that is one of your newest obsessions. ALL kinds of traffic lights. You want Santa to bring you traffic lights for Christmas. You want an entire "collection" of traffic lights you said to turn on and off and put in the yard. You want to make a traffic light "garden". EVERYTHING you see and do is connected back to traffic lights. You draw them...study them online.....observe them when we go out. You are the only person (child or adult) I know of who KNOWS all about traffic lights not only around the area we live but in other countries all over the entire world! You have studied and learned so much. You can tell me who has what type of traffic light. You know the history of the traffic light. It is mind blowing what you know!

You can do the same thing with major highways and interstates and roadways. YOU LOVE them. You love your Atlas. Well..you have MANY! You love them all. I can ask you "is there an interstate 77?" and you can tell me exactly WHERE the interstate is and where it goes to and from. You know about the interstates in Canada and the United States. Now you are studying the interstates in the UK. You cannot get enough. You draw roadways. You draw interstates. You draw ROAD SIGNS...ANOTHER favorite thing. You love it all. You know all the states...you know the capitals....you know the continents and oceans and cities and states in other countries. You are simply amazing. You cannot get enough. Your brain rarely seems to "rest". You have a hard time "turning any of this off". You were a bit disturbed by the fact that you could NOT get any of these things out of your mind to go to sleep. You felt you had to keep looking at the traffic lights online.....you never want to stop.

SO I said "well you have to find a way to let it all go for the night so you can sleep". I suggested you just say "goodnite" to the traffic lights each night online and say you will see them tomorrow. You can let them have a rest, the computer have a rest and YOU can rest. You can go to sleep knowing they are still there but resting...and you have given yourself permission to sleep and take a break. You can say to yourself "I will think about them tomorrow but for now I am going to think about nothing"....and fall asleep.

I heard you later that night...telling the traffic lights "goodnite"......"see you tomorrow". I asked you the next day if you were able to get the traffic lights out of your mind long enough to "not think" about anything and get some sleep. You said "yes mommy".

when I asked what you wanted to do right after you woke up you said "oh I think I will look at some traffic lights" .....

I guess your little mind stays busy all the time. It is probably overheating constantly. No wonder other things can bother you so easily.

I love you my little man. Mommy will have to have a talk with Santa about those traffic lights!