David Weekly, #22

We have had a great week! Last Saturday was David's cousin's birthday (Jared), who is now 6! David's birthday is June 29, so we're going to have a party for him here at my house for him, in the back yard, with the pool, and hot tub, and lots and lots of activity. Invited are family and a few of the kids from his day care, and a few of the neighborhood kids, too.

David had lots of fun at Jared's birthday party, with a bit of swimming, since he really didn't want to go in the pool...he was more content to run around the pool...at one point when Jared was opening presents, David interrupted the action with an intro saying, essentially, "Look at me!" and then nothing else. It was pretty funny.

Sunday we spent mostly at home, but went across the street to play with Ella for a bit, and my mom came by...

During the week, David has discovered books! He will randomly pick them up and ask me to read to him, and it's becoming more frequent. Since I want to encourage this behavior, I've read some books to him! He's also not attached to the TV, which I find interesting. I think he just wants it on more for the noise than to really watch it. He does follow Super Why!, and sometimes stops what he's doing to watch a small part of whatever's on. He will have me sit in the living room with him to watch TV with him or whatever it he's doing. He's learned how to sumersault, and he does it with gusto! And he wants me to see, of course. "I show you," he says. And grabs my finger and drags me where he wants to show me whatever it is, like his sumersaults.

Back to the TV for a second...sometimes he doesn't even want it on! No, he wants to watch "Big Kids Central", a potty training video. My mother got this for David, and he loves it. He calls it Big Kids Cestral, not being able to put together the 'nt' sound...and he really wants to watch the little music videos that they have in between the segments, or play the little games they have about the potty (For example, two pictures of toilets, one at home, and the other a public one, and the question, "Which is the potty away from home?") But there's about 5 different "music videos" , and he has to play them over and over. And they're really short, too. They are identified by their colors, so he says, "The green one" or "The blue one"...it's helped with bath time, interestingly, since he has a concept of "getting clean" now that he didn't have before. He still hates baths, but they make more sense to him now.

Today we had Avery, Jared, my sister, my mom, and our neighbor come over and play in the hot tub...okay, the adults didn't really play in the hot tub. Rachel helped me fix the pool that had gotten into a state of disrepair, to put it mildly, and it's taken quite a while to fill up the pool. David had his toe crunched under a door when he and Jared were having a fight about whether the door should be closed, but David got over it pretty quick, and later on was saying, "It's better!" I don't have a good way or relaying the way he says it, because it's not as clear as that, but it isn't completely baby talk, either. It's just good that he is able to identify when things are bad, and when they aren't. I appreciate that he can tell me when things happen, or what's going on.

David is learning how to hmmm...how shall I say, turn things to his advantage? He has a hierarchy of things that he'd rather do. Go to Dot's? No, "take a nap at daddy's house." Actually, now that I think about it, that's the preferred activity of his to get out of doing just about anything. Do this? No, take a nap. Do that? No, go lay down, take a nap...He just volunteers. In the mornings sometimes I wake up with him next to me, and one day I was pushing him away from me, and he says, "Wlove you" over and over...he just wants to snuggle up to me, or put his feet on me...or push me off my bed.

David asked to go the zoo again today, so I think I'll make that his birthday present: annual passes to the zoo. He really likes the animals.

Last thing: David is in "throwing mode" again. He throws balls, and toys, and stuffed animals, especially "Blue" from Blues Clues, and the singing talking dog toy...it's kinda strange when he throws it and it says, "Hug me!" or "I love you" after he's been mean to it by throwing it. He doesn't throw it out of malice, but just because he can hold it easily by the tail and give it a good heave! And it's a bit heavier than his other toys. Naturally, this gets stern warnings from me, but he still does it.

It's the first day of summer today, so I hope you have many days of summer fun and excitement!

Rusty