David Weekly, #25

From: rhires@earthlink.net
Subject: David Weekly, #25
Date: July 11, 2008 11:49:26 PM EDT
To: hireslx@netscape.net, ceilteach79@yahoo.com, rlamanati@yahoo.com, nkenney@archstl.org, rhires@earthlink.net, kmmmhires@yahoo.com, fkenney@archstl.org

Here we are at about halfway through the year, as we're on Weekly #25...we're missing a few weeks in there when David went with his mother and I didn't write about him, and another week I think I used the same weekly # as the previous week.

David hasn't been as busy this week. I'm lately trying to link he behavior to larger goals, like going to the park. I wanted him to eat his cereal, and he just refused...and I told him if he doesn't, no park. So, no park. This was on Wednesday. I figured out that he was coming down with something by Thursday because on Thursday his nose began to run, and run and run and run...like a marathon! Wednesday he was clingy, whiney, crying a lot, generally unhappy, and would not let me be for a second. And not hungry. But he didn't feel hot, or exhibit anything that would make me think he was sick. Most days he's content to have my attention for a little while, or just have me near him for other times when we're just hanging out. He had very clear ideas on where I was supposed to be and what I was supposed to be doing when he wasn't feeling well. And that was doing nothing.

For his birthday he got "A Pup Named Scooby Doo" -- all 13 episodes of it, on two DVDs. Oh the joy. He loves "Scoob-doo" a lot, and identifies each of the episodes by the color of the monster. So we have the green monster, or the red one...because they are all some definite primary type color. There are a couple of exceptions, though: Dr. Coker (spelling on that one?) and "Ice Monster" . But even then he says "Purple Monster" or "White Monster". He also wants to watch these two DVDs more than watch "Super Why!" which drives me crazy. It's also a problem because he'd rather watch these than do just about anything else, such as play, or read. If I redirect him to some other show he will play or read or whatever, but I have to be careful to not allow him to watch Scoob-doo first, because he'll just watch it all day long, and I can't have that. One of the "redirects" is Finding Nemo, but he will watch that one over and over, too. Ugh. It's better with PBS kids on, because he doesn't get so lost in the shows, and they aren't so repetitive. Super Why! is still the king of the shows, though, because we still do things on the PBS kids website that are reinforcement activities for letters, numbers, and words. Actually, he is a fan of Dr. Seuss, which I have a DVD of the Sneetches, the Zax, and Green Eggs and Ham, which after watching that last one he'll have me read to him from the book. I like that, in spite of the very repetitive nature of it.

On Thursday, the light fixture in my carport spontaneously fell out of the ceiling, with a loud crash. David and I were inside at the time, so we're okay. It's that we went to the store to get a new light fixture that David's personality showed up: that boy is not shy. He told the two or three people that helped us at Home Depot that the light fell out of the ceiling and crashed. Loudly, too. With no prompting from me. And he said it in a way that they could understand it.

The other night after I got home from Dot's, David woke up enough that he was able to make out the letters on his wall that spell out his name. I told him that that was his name. He was just checking out the letters, and noticed that there were two D's, and I told him his name and he said it. He whispers when he's saying something/learning something new. Actually, he's lately waking up when I bring him home from Dot's but only for a few minutes. And he wants me to give him milk.

The other morning, David just said, "I love you" all by himself, and for no advantage to himself. It was very cute. He says all kinds of things now, especially things that he doesn't want, like going to Dot's, or leaving the park. It's hard to hear "I don't want to go" in a full sentence, when before it was much more simply "no Dot's" or "no leave park". He's filling in all of the extra words that normally make a sentence sound complete. It's an amazing transformation.

Today we went to Lowry Park Zoo. David still wasn't himself, because he was crying and whining about everything, when normally he's pretty agreeable. He likes playing in the water usually, but I asked him if he wanted to play in the water and he said no. Very unsual! He was really coughing a lot, and at first I just thought it was post-nasal drip, because his nose has been running (clear) since Thursday. But then I realized that he was breathing pretty hard, and his heart was racing. We ended our trip the park a bit early, so we could go home and give him a nebulizer treatment. The nebulizer is like magic! Within a minute of the mist getting breathed in, his coughing stopped. He had about three quarters of the dose and he tells me he's done: "I'm better, daddy!" Some of his cough really is from his runny nose, but after the treatment his coughs were deeper, and sounded like stuff was coming up, instead of the really shallow coughs he had been making with almost every breath.

So that was the week that was. David's going to see his mom next week, but I don't remember exactly the time. He'll be up in MO for 3 weeks, learning how to swim, and spending time with the other half of his family.

I hope you've had a good week, and I hope you seize the moments you get to spend time with the ones you love.

Rusty