David Weekly #11

Hello...this week has been busy!

I took David to the airport on Sunday afternoon. He is quite an attention getter! He didn't like the airplanes up close as much as I thought he would…we can go up on the roof of the parking lot and watch the planes take off and land…he likes planes in the sky when we go for a walk, and he loved seeing the rainbow in the sky the other day, but up close…not so much. We went into the terminal to get him some sunglasses, and I asked the cashier for "sunglasses for the boy." David heard this, so then he repeated it over and over, and now, they're not sunglasses, but sunglasses-for-the-boy. When we were walking through the terminal, lots of people commented on how cute he is, especially with his sunglasses. We had a great time!

Then, on the way back, he fell asleep in the car.

Last week I didn't make it very clear about David's transitions...he goes to Dot's house at about 2:30 or so, and I pick him up from her house at about 11:20. I put him in my car, and then we go home, and he gets in bed, and goes back to sleep. Sometimes he whispers at me to get his "baa - dee" (blanket), and I do. Monday night he wanted to make sure I didn't forget his shoes. By Tuesday of this week, David had adjusted to his new schedule. He went to Dot's just fine, and without argument.

Lately, David is testing boundaries. The other day we were playing in the driveway, and I told him not to go in the street. So he deliberately defied me by putting the toe of his shoe over the line between the driveway and the street. He went into timeout so fast his head spun! He doesn't like to have to go inside if he's outside, and timeout is worse! So that was a double whammy. He paid better attention to where he was and the things I said after that.

David has discovered the joys of peanut butter and jelly. He likes peanut butter better than jelly. Amanda tells me that when he and Colleen get together, they'll have a complete sandwich! I cut the sandwich into quarters for him, but because he can't see the peanut butter, I slather some on the edges of each quarter, which makes him happy. Then he'll eat it. And he likes to repeat 'peabu-er eyyee' over and over when he's eating. It's very cute.

We still spend lots of time outside in the yard, both playing and doing yard maintenance. When we're out there, David likes to excercise his vocabulary...telling me about his hands, feet, knees, etc...

Our days have changed, as I've said. So our new schedule is something like this: David usually wakes me up now, and usually by panting excitedly at me. If I don't move soon enough for him, he gets on the bed and rolls on me, or generally makes it clear I should get up! It's about 7:30 or so in the morning when this happens. I'm still conflicted about giving him naps or not, because this affects when he wakes up in the morning. Dot says that he's fallen asleep in his high-chair at her house more than once since we've been on the new schedule. But he's a bit more difficult to manage without the nap, but with that in mind, he does go to sleep sooner after I put him to bed, rather than laying in bed and playing until 10 or 11 PM. Dot says she has no trouble getting him to go to sleep at her house.

On Wednesday, David made a friend with the next door neighbor. My neighbor has two boys, one a bit older than David, maybe by about 6 months, because he is only a little more intelligible than David is when he talks, and is a bit bigger. We met because we were outside at the same time as the little boy and his father were outside. The little boy's name is Jah (short for something I don't remember), and they had fun playing together. I'm glad to know this other little boy is over there, because it will give David someone to play with during the day.

I feed him breakfast, usually oatmeal or scrambled eggs and toast, and fruit. After breakfast we go outside, with me doing some kind of yardwork project, and him playing, until he gets me to play with him. We're then back in the house by 11 or 12, we eat lunch, which is a variety of things...or PB&J...then it's nap time for both of us, since I need a bit more sleep since I'm just short of what I need when he wakes me up in the morning. Then off to Dot's. I throw a bath in there about every other day after we come inside.

Today (Friday), he woke me up at 5 AM or so, not feeling well. At some point this morning he threw up! But it was clear, and then he acted like he felt better, so no big deal, right? I went to take him to get pictures of him with the Easter Bunny and his cousins Jared and Avery (he knows their names and can say them if asked, but calls Jared "my boy" and Avery "mom" and Rachel by her name -- Amanda, by the way, is "Mommie"), but he wasn't having it! So no pictures of David and Easter Bunny. :-( We then went to the grocery store. And he threw up! And it was a lot! It got on my clothes, and my shoes, and his clothes and in my ear...so we went home after a big scene in the grocery store. On the way home, he kept repeating 'throw up' over and over. Even this new, unpleasant experience for him was interesting enough to him that he was repeating it over and over. LOL When we got home, I gave him a bath, and myself a quick rinse in the shower and then we sat in front of the TV for a while with him on my lap. He asked me for a juicebox, so I gave him one. He seemed better. But then, he showed me his mouth like there was something in it...I now know that this is when he feels like he's going to throw up. Because most of the juicebox made a return trip...ick. More cleaning to be done. I put him down for a nap in spite of his protests, and he went to sleep pretty quick. He seems to be feeling better as I write this tonight.

As I review this rather long post, I see that I haven't really read any books to David in a while. So I'll have to add that to our schedule. I also want to make sure he doesn't associate reading a book with naps or going to bed time...so this is a good opportunity for him to realize that reading can happen at any time. I will take him to the library to do some reading there this coming week, and see what kinds of programs they have...and what are appropriate for his age, since I think he's getting tired of the Foot Book, and a few of the others that we've been reading for the last few months.

One last thing: David is aware the Colleen and Amanda are gone, because he says it: "Mommie gone. Deeddie gone." and I repeat it back to him. He doesn't really have a lot of emotion to his voice, because he's just stating a fact. I don't know what else to say to him. I've had a few photos of him and Amanda and Colleen made up and framed, so now he wakes me up sometimes holding a picture of him and Amanda and Colleen in it, and showing it to me. Other times he just points them out in the picture, saying "Diddee" or "Mommie"...