David Weekly, #32

This is why you have to pay attention to your kids every minute: at first, he was being cute and calling me "Old man." I have not the slightest idea where this came from, or why it started happening today. But he calls me "old man", and I think it's cute. In the middle of all of this, he picks up the scissors, and I'm in the middle of cooking...a minute or two later he comes back and tells me he cut the sheets on my bed. So I go check this claim out, and sure enough, he did. I now have a hole in my sheets. Lovely. I tell him this makes me very sad. And I asked him why I'm sad, and he says, "because I cut a hole in your sheets," very matter of factly...but I told him again how upset I am over this, and he got it. He went to his room, obviously feeling guilty. He didn't put that together with "I'm sorry," so we'll have to work on that. The best part is that I didn't yell or scream, but I did say emphatically how I felt about it, and it did have an impact.

Comparison...David is now saying that something is "best" "prettiest" "loudest" or whatever... but it's always something "est"...he's learning how to attach affixes to words: like, "est" or "un"..."un" is funnier, because of the way you can attach it to words in unexpected ways. Like at the zoo, he decided to go play in the fountains, which we never do, and got all wet. I told him that we can't go see the animals because he was all wet and because we ran out of time. So he asked how he could get unwet. What a great kid! It was also funny when we went to see the penguins how he sees the water and calls it "Lovely (wovewy) wa-er" ... (he doesn't say the T's in the middle of words)... this is a phrase from the Splash! book that we read a lot. In fact, that Splash! book is his favorite. Another thing is that he says "Ta-a!" instead of Ta-Da! when unveiling something with his blanket, or showing me something that I haven't seen before.

Did I mention that he loves Blues Clues? Yeah, he does. He loves the episodes of the Mystery Builder, and "Missed her friend" -- the second one he's aware of the character (a cat, Periwinkle) missing her friends, because she lives in the country instead of the city and is missing her friends. The way David says it, though, it's close to "Mystery" and it was a mystery what he was saying for a while...he would say "Missed her friend" and I would hear "Myster(y) friend" and not completely make sense out of it. Then it clicked one day...Epiphany!

David went with Matt and Virginia Thursday for his trip to Missouri to see Amanda. Very Easily. Happily. No Problems at all. Matt was pretty happy about that. David was happy to see them. Matt likes that David's pretty clear in his speech. That'll make their interaction easier. They played for a few minutes before leaving, and they're going to have fun. David was going to go swimming at their house...I'm sure he fell asleep on the ride there...He always asks me to give him a hug, and a kiss, and a squeeze whenever it's time to say goodbye. I'm afraid of the squeeze part, because I don't want to hurt him, but he always wants more squeeze!

He's been looking forward to this trip for a week or so, ever since I told him that he's going to go up there. It's interesting because he hasn't displayed a lot of emotion about it. It's been pretty matter of fact. Except when we got closer to him leaving that he wanted to see pictures of his mom...and I'm realizing that these photos I have are now a year old...it's been a year since the divorce process began, and it was around this time that we stopped taking pictures. So if you have pictures that are more recent, please email me or send copies in the mail, for David's benefit. And when you're with him, please take lots of pictures. I take pictures of him at least every week or two, because he sees the camera and takes pictures of the TV shows he's watching, or of the world around him. It's interesting to see his point of view in picture form. (It reminds me of the Rug Rats) I also end up taking a picture or two of him during all of this, and he usually fills up the camera. He takes pictures of me, too, but gets random body parts, like my knee, or my left shoulder. He's just not big enough to properly hold the camera...but until he is, it will continue to be interesting how he holds the camera and what it reflects in his ability to point it and get what he wants, or what's there...

Sometimes I'll tell David he can't do something, and he'll say "WHHHWYYY????" in his best whiney voice. Sometimes it's when he's crying. I'm getting more immune to his crying and delay tactics. I'll warn him that it's time to go, or do something or whatever, and sometimes he delays by not doing anything, or telling me to wait until (the TV show or whatever) is over, or he's done with something. But I'm reaching the point where I can no longer allow that to happen...so we do things when I say, and his ability to get me not to do something is fading. Hopefully this will teach him that we have things we must do no matter what he feels. I know I feel like he does...so this is maybe another benefit of having kids: you get to live vicariously through them: they express all the feelings you can't, and act the way you know you want to, but can't.

David is funny because I ask him why he's doing something, or wants something, and he says, "because I want to." He basically answers the question of why with no answer, other than he wants to. He's not getting the motivation part of the question. I guess if he were an actor he'd be fired. :-)

When I give David a juicebox, he always wants me to take the plastic off the box that the straw was in...not sure why he cares so much, except that it's his sense of order coming into play again...

Lastly, I'm back to potty training. He's more willing lately. I'm finally being more serious about it, too. I made this decision when he would wake up soaked through his diaper to his jammies. I realized that there's a connection there that he hasn't made. On the other hand, he's still unwilling. He'll just sit on the potty, and not do anything. And sit and sit...sigh. But at least now he sits. And I'm doing it in the morning when we first wake up (which is sometimes at 6:30 -- early for me, since I'm usually in bed by 1 AM)...Yeah, he likes to wake me up by climbing on the bed and rolling over me a couple of times. Some days I'm able to take a nap when he goes to his preschool...anyway, I'm making efforts to be consistent, and positive about this whole thing. I get frustrated when he doesn't cooperate, too, but I try not to let it show.

So this week, the temperature got below 70 degrees for the first time since May...the days are beautiful, and David's wanting to play outside more now. I hope you make time for play, whatever the weather is outside.

Rusty