The rest of Christmas week

David was put in Time Out at Rachel's house, and when he was in Avery's room, he decided to "Make something beautiful for Avery!" but then, "Can you help me cut it?" What he made was just some scribbles of different colors, but in some kind of pattern, and surrounded by a box, which I had to follow the design of when cutting around it, but leaving some space. He knew what he wanted...

Christmas Eve I had to take the boy to the allergist, who says he's just fine. David has grown an inch since Thanksgiving, I have found out. He's now 43 and a half inches. We opened the gifts from each other, which made David pretty happy. He was running and running and running all over the place at Rachel's, because Jared and Avery had so much energy and excitement.

Wednesday David and I went to the store to look for his mom's gift...we'd already found something for Colleen, and I'm not sure how to handle David getting something for Tait, so we just let that one go. We also just spent a good part of the day with Rachel and Jared and Avery...In particular, David got a message from Santa: http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/f9cfc0a98a67c1e5bc362c95166bdb3a. What was interesting is that David responded when Santa asked if he'd been a good boy, and to other questions that were posed to David. It really was something to see.

Tuesday he went to school like normal...and then after that we went to the "Church Street Christmas" up in Dade City, FL, where there are churches and houses lit with Christmas lights, and carolers roaming around. David, of course (at the this point) was having none of it. He says he likes Christmas music, but doesn't like the live singing for whatever reason. I'll even hear him singing (in some detail) the lyrics of some songs, like "Jingle Bell Rock". He just sings rather spontaneously, which I like. Maybe it's just one of those things...

David killed my computer

So David killed my computer today. He spilled coffee on it. I cried. A lot. He just kept saying, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" and "I made a big mistake"...I just kept telling him that it was ok. He draped his body over my back at one point, when I was crying. Took him to school like normal. I got a call around 1 PM and they said he had a fever. I went to get him, took him to the doctor: Ear Infection. $43 later, he has the medicine to make him feel better, and starts to feel better a couple of hours later.

Sunday night we did not sleep well. David would wake up every so often, unhappy that he couldn't breathe through his nose. Then complaining about his ear hurting...He told me at one point that he can't stop crying. I gave him everything: ibuprofen, his allergy medicine, ear drops for the pain...I spent lots of time comforting him, trying to help him not cry, since that can just make you more stuffy. At 5 AM, we finally decided to get up, and then watched "The Polar Express." He asked me what that means, and I tell him "a train" and show it to him. It was different to watch him watch the movie. He was still pretty rapt, and paid attention, but he was more active, more involved...having the emotional reactions to things that make him want to hide...

Saturday we went to Lowry Park zoo to see the "Winter wonderland". David was not overly impressed.

He has an ear infection. Sunday we spent at Tracy's and he played Wii, and even beat me in bowling.

The map on his chest. Cinnamon and I were going to dinner, and David was point to different places on his chest saying that's where we are or where we need to go...it was sooo cute!

David Weekly, #78

"Why?" is the answer/question to everything anymore. "You have to go to school." "Why?" "It's time for bed." "Why?" I try not to let it bother me. I explain, but only to a point, and then it becomes, "Because I said so!"

I asked David if he can show me any of the dancing he's doing at school, and he says he can only show me at school, so I guess I'll never see it!

My mother's birthday was Sunday, December 13, so for her birthday David and I, and his cousins (Avery and Jared), aunt Rachel, and some friends of my mom's all went out to dinner, and then afterward we went to the "Country Christmas Stroll" in Dade City, FL, about 10 minutes north of my mom's house. David did not really have a lot of fun. He says he likes the Christmas music on the radio, but at the same time, does not appreciate in the slightest live singing. There were singers at different points on the stroll, and David just wasn't having it. He sat on the street (which was closed off to traffic) and just pouted! Eventually I picked him up to carry him off in a different direction, and he just started to cry! Poor kid. He got over it pretty quickly, though, because I realized that it didn't make sense to keep trying to drag him around to things he didn't think were very fun. I expected him to be a bit better about all the Christmas stuff, but he just wasn't interested. We did, however, go see Santa, and I got a couple of pictures, but David wasn't into being seen with Santa, so he has a couple of sour expressions on his face. I asked what he asked Santa for Christmas, and he said, "A candy cane." After that, we went and played on the inflatable slide and other stuff that seem to pop up everywhere. Ok, so I watched David go down the slide 100 times, and go play in the two or three other air-inflate things, like the bouncy house. That's what made David happy...

Then we got back to my mom's at 10 PM, and David got the special priviledge of staying up almost to midnight! I went through a bunch of my mom's records because I've gotten my genealogy bug back lately, and as a result, I've been able to trace David's line back 4 generations on each side of his lineage, and in a few instances, much farther back. So I'm asking for any info you have to spare regarding your family tree, going back as far as you can. And so we also ended up spending the night there, and of course, all the kids got up at the crack of dawn...We spent a good part of Sunday at my mom's...

Monday we went out to dinner with Cinnamon, which was nice. I kept telling David that he needs to sit in his seat in order to impress her. And he did a really good job of behaving! He ate his cheeseburger, and a few of the carrots he asked for. Afterwards, I thought it might be nice to go look at Christmas lights in our neighborhood. Again, David wasn't having it. He kept insisting we go home, until I convinced him that the way home was the way I was going, but that it was just the really long, unfamiliar way...and he bought it! Then he began to enjoy the Christmas lights a bit.

Tuesday, I got out the Charlie Brown Christmas on DVD, and we watched that. Thing is, we've been watching the two Christmas Charlie Brown specials on that DVD for two days straight! I finally replaced it with "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"...I've noticed something interesting about David, though: he hides from exciting or tense (for a 4 year old) scenes on TV shows. Either he'll go in another room, or go under the closest table...

Wednesday we went to the softball game, but I didn't play this time, just watched, and spent more time with David and another little boy that was there. I think I had more fun than playing in the game! We just climbed on the monkey bars, which for David is going to be a problem owing to his hand...I was able to help on some of it, but of course, I won't always be there to help him. I'm curious, now that I think about it, how he's going to deal with it...

The rest of this week has been mostly normal. I asked David what he should get his mom for Christmas and he said...well, I can't say. :-) And for his sissy he thought of a few things, too. We bought a gift for a gift exchange at his school, and he got a transformer as his gift. He also got another visit with Santa Clause (at the school), whom I'm told there will be a photograph of at some point. David doesn't really ask Santa for stuff. I told him you have to ask Santa for stuff for Christmas...but he wasn't too much interested in that aspect of it.

Tonight, Friday, David seems to have developed a cold. He is coughing, and though I gave him some cough medicine, and some vapo-rub, he's still having a rough night of it.

Lastly, we're still working our way through the Advent calendar, and David is counting the days until Christmas. "You have to wait until Christmas to open your gifts."

"Why?"

David Weekly, #77

David is back in Florida. I met him and his mom at the airport. He sees me, runs up to me, calls out, "Daddy!" After a minute or so, he realizes that he's not going to see his mom again for a while. He cries. In a way I've never seen. He just kept wiping his eyes...

David said he wanted to see his cousins, so Jared and Avery and Rachel (his aunt) came over, followed by my mom. I had bought a Christmas tree the day before, and had yet to decorate it...but the kids took care of that. David kept asking if he could decorate the tree, and I kept telling him yes, and he kept putting all the ornaments on the same branch, in about the same spot. I'm pretty sure my mom came in after the kids did their thing and fixed the spacing of the ornaments, because my tree looks decently decorated. I did at least put the lights on. He was also very aggressive towards Jared, so he got to spend some time in time-out.

It's been a normal week for us, and so, not a lot to report. I took David to see "Fantastic Mr Fox" which he hated. And he said so, too! We had the whole theater to ourselves, since we saw an afternoon movie. David had mixed feelings about that.

Earlier in the week I tried reading "The Little Prince" to him at bed time, but it proved to be too many words, and not enough pictures. He much prefers that I sing to him (after books, of course), and says his mommy sings to him, too.

Because it's December, I started doing Christmas cards. David kept saying that he wanted a card for him. So I told him I'd make one for him...what I ended up doing is buying him a special Christmas card, which I'll likely give him in the next day or two. The question I have of myself is whether to mail it first, so I can have him get the mail and see the card with his name on it. Also on the Christmas theme, Cinnamon gave him (and me) our gifts, and they sit under the tree. Naturally, this is killing David. He wants to open the present! I tell him that he has to wait until Christmas day to open it. And so every day, he asks if it's Christmas yet. I have an Advent calendar that we do each morning, where he finds the day and then opens the little "door" and gets the chocolate out (the days are in a random order). So, that's the first thing the boy eats in the morning, a new chocolate. He asks what day it is, what day tomorrow is, how many more days to Christmas. And then at points later in the day he will tell me what day it is. And he looks at the calendar and tries to figure out where the next day is so he's ready in the morning. Often at night he will claim that it's already the next day, which I never let him get away with.

Lastly, David asked if Cinnamon could come with us to "The Restaurant". I ask him, "Which one?" He says, "At the restaurant. That's all I know!" complete with hands held out in a shrug. Funny thing is, I hadn't said anything about going out to eat...

Have a great week!

debriefing before Thanksgiving 2009

Hello all. I just figured this is a good place to vent, tell you all about my dropping off my son to his mom...

She lives 1000 miles away. I fly with my 4 year old to St Louis. I tell her by text when I'm on the plane, and when I've landed, and that we'll meet at the usual 5 min parking.

She's always late. Usually I only have to wait a few minutes, and that was the case here. She always has her bf with her when she picks him up, or drops him off.

As I'm waiting, my heart is pounding. I'm expecting her to berate me (because that's what she does), or to try to give me some reason why she should be allowed to reduce her CS payments.

She gets there, and I'm waiting by the 5 minute parking. I see her car before she sees me, so I walk in that direction, holding the boy. There are 4 empty spots, but they're reserved for the courtesy shuttles to the different hotels/rental car companies. I thought she'd just park there, since the spaces were empty, but instead, she opens the car window to yell at me to go to the 5 minute parking...which is full of cars. Of course, I could see this, and she couldn't, but I followed directions anyway, because I could see they weren't stopping.

And of course, there was a small traffic jam, that I walked through, to get to her car. My poor son looked lost after I set him down. My ex's bf took my son and put him in the car. My ex didn't even look at me, and she asked about his allergy medicine. Her voice cracked and waivered. She was at least as nervous as me! I was surprised. I put his "pack-pack" in the car, said good-bye to him, and they took off.

I get home several hours later, and this is her fb status:

... thinks that anyone who tells a 4 year old that they have to keep something secret needs a wake up call. ESPECIALLY when said 4 year old acts sad because of it.

The problem here, is that I didn't tell him to keep any kind of secret. I think he's choosing not to tell her things because if/when he does, she probably flips. I don't know that for sure, but I can see not wanting to say things to her for myself...kids don't tell things because they're worried about the reaction. I know this. That's why I try to keep calm when my son tells me things he probably knows I'm not going to like, such as him fighting with another boy at school. And for the most part, he tells me. I also have the idea that she interrogates him, which I'm sure he doesn't like, but I have no way to tell...He does come back in two weeks. Sigh. And I miss him already.

Rusty

David Weekly, #76, Thanksgiving Edition

I asked David if he wants to see art, and he says, as long as they have a park there. So we went to the Temple Terrace Arts Festival, so he could see some art, and all he wanted to do was go to the park. I should've known. He did see some drawings and things by other children, so he got a little bit in. I asked him what the different things were, and he was able to identify them, except for a few of the more abstract ones.

David sings, "We will, we will...rockin'..." I ask him where he heard this, and of course, the answer I get is "I don't know!" I figure it must be at school, because I can't imagine where else he would have heard it. It's just funny to hear him singing it at random, out of any context.

He is also capable of giving me driving directions. He tells me he wants to go to the yellow park. I don't recall the yellow park, not immediately anyway, so I ask if he knows where it is. He says he does. So we get in the car; I drive. I ask, at each turning point (stop sign, traffic light, fork in the road), which way? He says, Left. Then we get to the traffic light. Which way? He says, Right. "Now which way?" I ask. He says, "Drive that way for a while." But it's only another block, and we're there. Too bad the park was closed. So we went to another park, with the bumpy slide. At this park David ends up with two different little girls following him around. He wasn't really aware of the first one, but he made contact with the second, actively encouraging her: "Come on! Let's go slide!" or whatever he was wanting to do. Sometimes she'd follow and other times, not.

David embarrassed me in a way that I've never been embarrassed before. We're at the grocery store checkout, and he points to the three men in front of me, saying, "Those are boys." If only it were that simple. Because they're grown black men, and we're in the South, you can't say such a thing. Even a little boy. I just play dumb: "I don't see any boys, just grown men." I figure out after a few minutes of correcting him that he simply means, "not girls." All of this is played out in front of one very disgusted man, another who is understanding, and a third, the cashier, who isn't really paying attention. The two in front of me were either in their late 40's or early 50's, and unrelated, as far as I could tell. I just apologized quietly to the more understanding man, as the disgusted man just left, and I didn't have a chance to say anything to him. The cashier was more amused than anything. I want David to be color blind, but not insensitive to color at the same time. So this was a lesson in that.

Playing the "Blue's Clues" game, David tells me he's going to write his sissy's name. I ask him, "What is your sissy's name?" His reply? "Sissy." I ask him who Colleen is. He says, "Colween is my sister. She lives far away. Like my mom." The reason all of this came up is because I tell him he's going to see his mommy this week, on Saturday. He gets excited, "What today is it?" I tell him, "Tuesday." Then he walks off, counting off the days until Saturday. Every day he asks what today it is. I tell him it's one day closer to Saturday, and whatever the day is. And we go through the days of the week again, just to be sure. He says he wants to see her, because he misses her a lot. We're flying out on Saturday, to arrive at the St Louis Airport at 12:30 CST. He's going for Thanksgiving, and will be staying for 2 weeks, until Saturday, December 5.

Friday we went to the doctor's office for his second H1N1 shot. (And he's 42.5 inches.) He wanted to watch the needle go in his leg. He asked the nurse if she's going to poke him. She fibbed and said she's going to give him medicine, which, while technically true, didn't answer his question. He's been anticipating this shot. "That shot hurts," he says. Of course he cried, for a few minutes. But then it was over. It's been a condition of doing good things, like getting more dinosaur tattoos, particularly the stegasaurus tattoo. In addition, I bought him new shoes, since he's been saying that his shoes are too small. When we went to the shoe store, we found out that his feet haven't grown, that his shoes still fit. I bought him the next half size up anyway, and he wears them now. And they glow in the dark!

Lastly, David's hair is getting long. I ask him about getting it cut, and he says he wants his hair to be like his friend "Puriel" (I have no idea how to spell this child's name), who is black, and has his hair cut very close to his scalp. He says that he and Puriel are the same. This is very different from John Robert, who is the boy that David fights with, every day without fail. I've really had some discussions with the people at Gabriel's Glen about this, and what it boils down to is this: David and John Robert behave like brothers, in that they really like each other, until they fight like cats and dogs. I've told David to stay away from him, and when he does, it's okay, no problems. I've also discussed this with my sister Rachel, who works with children David's age, and she says that this happens from time to time, where there happen to be a pair of (usually) boys who will love each other and then tangle. And there's really very little you can do about it, short of pulling one or both of them out of the class/playground/whatever, so they don't interact at all. I talk to David about it, too, and work with him at home. It seems that it's going to be a slow process, because his fighting with anybody like this is totally unacceptable.

Have a great week, and Happy Thanksgiving. :-)

David Weekly, #75

David drew a picture of me. He was coloring on some blank paper, and asked if he could draw a picture of me. I said ok, and he looks at me very seriously for a minute, then draws me. Lots of circles...I've scanned and attached this "art" to this email...

David gets a 2.5 ml dropper of Xyzal every day. It's a 24 hour dose. The name for the dropper? A "squisher" or a "squoosher". Maybe that's the part of the bulb that you squeeze? Anyway, he has two, one has a yellow bulb and the other has a blue bulb. David says he wants a red squoosher, too. Everything red for that kid! He also was asking me why he has to take the sour medicine at night, and the other one in the morning. My answer? "The doctor told us to do it that way." It does seem to be working...

And about his hitting: He told me again that he doesn't want to go to school. I ask him why, and he says it's because he can't stop himself from hitting his friends. This is through some difficult, tortured conversation on his part. It sounded like anyone who's ever tried to stop doing anything, but can't somehow. I talked to the people at Gabrielle's Glen about it, to try to come up with some strategies. One thing we came up with was simple: David keeps his hands at his sides. It worked for one day. I'd like input on what other things can be done/said to keep him from hitting. Any time we come up with something new, it works for a while...but then he reverts. I spoke with the director of the daycare, and she is not overly concerned. All the kids do this from time to time, she says. And David plays very rough, as well.

So here are some pictures from Halloween. David was very uncooperative about it, which made taking pictures difficult, so I only took a very few. David's favorite Halloween candy is lollipops. I also took a few other pictures of him, since his grandma Kenney requested that I send her some.

On the way home from daycare, David asked me for 10 fingers. "I want 10 fingers, daddy..." I ask him why he wants 10 fingers. He says so that he can be like everybody else. I ask him why he wants to be like everybody else...and his response is basically, "so he'll fit in." I refrain from trying to sell him platitudes like, "It'll make you a better person." Instead, I just told him that he is the way he is...just how he was built. So ask for advice from anyone that wishes to offer it. Right now he says he has 7 fingers, one for each day of the week. ... What prompted this? He wasn't able to hold two maracas, because his left hand isn't strong enough with only the two fingers.

Remember how last week (or two weeks ago?) how David said he's Charlie Brown, then Linus? Well, now he's just about every character he sees on TV that he likes. So he's Pocoyo, or one of the dinosaurs on Dinosaur Train...

David loves his "tattoos" of dinosaurs, too. He has them on, and they come off slowly, and I have to put more on him.

Thursday night turned out to be a party. I had David, of course, and then Jared and Avery came over. Then Jesse, and her sister Julia (Julie), and her two kids. They had such a blast! David really likes Julie's kids, as they are more David's age, and size. Avery enjoyed being the Leader of Everybody, playing Hide n Seek...when the cousins got together, Avery took on the teacher role and was beginning to teach David how to read, since she figured out that he knows his letters and numbers, but then she found out that he can read a little bit, too.

I "read" him the book "Mice Squeak, We Speak", by intentionally getting the words wrong, and he corrects me. So he reads it. If I try to just get him to read it by himself, he won't, saying it's too hard, or he doesn't know that word, usually with lots of whining. He tells me still what letters he's working on. This week, it's the letter J. He also makes sure to show me the acorn, or pumpkin, or apple, or whatever it is on various boards around the classroom with his name on them. I don't know what they represent, but he sure does love having his name up there.

Last of all, David asks from time to time when he's going to see his mother. I tell him how many weeks. It satisfies him to hear how long. Last week, I told him two weeks. This week, as of Saturday, October 14, it'll be 7 days. Have a good week!

David Weekly, #74

David is mad at me. I won't give him another birthday. I ask him why he wants another birthday. "So I can turn 5," he says. I ask him what's so great about being 5, and he says, "So I won't get sick anymore." I don't understand this response, because he's never sick. He had a couple of illnesses when he was a baby, but nothing in the last two years at least. He asks me at various points to give him a birthday. I just tell him he gets one every year, and that it takes time to get his birthday. He's said a few other things about why he wants to get old, but I haven't been able to make sense out of them, since it doesn't sound like anything at all, just gibberish. Or he won't say.

Ok, so David was very cute and sweet the other morning. Because of the time change, we had some extra time, since we both woke up "early" according to the new time, and had finished our morning routine. He was having me "find" a toy that he would "hide" saying it was vanished! ("Does that mean the same as disappeared?") He would hide it, and then take me around to each room and say, "Is it there? No..." until we'd get to the room, then he would "find" it for me. It was really a lot of fun.

It's been a typical week, not a lot going on. David will be watching TV, and I'll be in the kitchen on my computer, and he comes up to me, gives me a big hug (usually he's pretty happy about something), and then goes back to whatever it was he was doing. He frequently just has the TV on, and is playing by himself. He just comes over, gets a recharge, and goes back. It's pretty sweet on his part.

One liners:

A friend of mine broke her foot. David sees her on her crutches and says, "Be careful and make sure you don't break your o'er foot!"

Getting the mail, I get a big envelope, and a small one. David gives me the big one: "When you're big, you get the big one. I get the small one because I'm little!"

Sorry I'm late this week. Hope your week is a good one.

David Weekly, #73, Halloween Edition

I think David just likes noise in the morning. On a typical morning, he will have the TV on, and then play the Blue's Clues game, and occasionally turn on some toy that makes noise. All going on at the same time.

On Monday I as I'm picking him up from daycare/preschool, I "catch him in the act." What was he doing? Standing on a bench singing the ABC's for everyone, about 30+ kids. All were quiet while he sang. It was very impressive. I was so proud of him! He had a funny half-smile on his face, and was not looking at anyone as he went. He made it all the way through.

Tuesday night, we're going to the grocery store, and David sees the rain. He says, "It looks like a shower!" I've also discovered that if he wears Crock-type shoes (my mom bought them for him, along with some stuff for Halloween), without any straps for the heels, it slows him way down. He can't run, or run away, and he walks at a much more pedestrian pace. And is less excitable!

He tells me what he did in dancing every Tuesday, though it's sometimes out of context. "If I spin and spin and step I become a hippo!" He does tell me he put on his tap shoes when I pick him, though.

So we're watching "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown", and he says he's Charlie Brown, and then says he's a blockhead, because that's how they insult each other on that show. I tell him he's no such thing! Besides, I tell him, he's Linus, because of the blanket thing. So now he's Linus, and in the next one, "You're (not) Elected Charlie Brown" he's Linus, because he wins the election, and that makes David the winner. David likes to win anything and everything, and never lose. He complains bitterly that he didn't win at whatever competition there is at school. I tell him over and over (and over and over) that he doesn't always have to win to have fun, but he's convinced otherwise.

Thursday night I go to pick up David from Rachel's house. Avery has a costume where she fits her legs into the costume, but it looks like she's riding an ostrich. Ollie the Ostrich. When Avery is in this costume, David doesn't see Avery anymore, he sees Ollie. Avery becomes the ostrich, and David no longer reacts to Avery like she's his cousin. She (the ostrich) made a face at him, and David got really scared! She can't really run in that costume, which is a good thing for David, but he was still genuinely afraid! When Avery put the costume away, David asks Avery where Ollie is...when she's got the costume on, Avery is gone, and vice-versa. It was quite a thing to see!

And a typical conversation when in the car: "Are your lights on? Did you lock the door? (to the house) Turn on the blinking fing! (when making a turn) We're going fast! You have to beat that other car, daddy!"

Friday, David got the first of two H1N1 flu vaccine shots. The other will be on November 21. He did not like it, of course. He only cried for a minute, which was good. I got my own H1N1 shot just to show David that it didn't hurt. He said, "You got blood." He said this because a little drop of blood came out after the injection. David said that his shot hurts. He said that his daddy didn't cry to the clerk at the doctor's office, but that he did. He also gave me one of his stickers because I got my own flu shot. We had a discussion about being brave, and I told him that he could cry and still be brave.

At school he went on a field trip to the local high school for a celebration, in his costume. When I picked him up, he said, "I went to a high school..." He got lots of candy...He also got a card in the mail from Cinnamon, telling him "Happy Halloween!" And some stickers, of course.

I saved this Weekly for Halloween night, since it didn't seem to make sense to wait a week to talk about it. David has been watching "The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" non-stop, on DVD. Then for Trick-or-Treat, we went out with Jesse and her 6 week old daughter before sunset. He was not very good about getting pictures of himself taken. David complained. "It's supposed to be dark out!" It's hard to have him out in the dark with an all black costume, but there we were in the day light instead. After dark I had him with a couple of glowsticks attached to his outfit, so that worked out. It's hard to determine who's giving out candy when the lights aren't on yet, because it's still light out. David ended up being Batman, by the way. The thing is, though, he has the Batman mask, which was extremely sweaty for him, so we ended up taking it off. He also refused to say "Trick or Treat" or "Thank you" for the candy. After about 10 houses, David had had enough. "I have enough candy, daddy!" and "I want to go HOME!" "I don't need anymore candy." All of this was surprising and disappointing to me, because I had expected him to be more excited about all of this. Eventually, I convinced him to go out again, because it had gotten dark by that point. I also convinced him that I'm the one in need of the candy. It worked out because the boy across the street, Adan, wanted to go with us. He's 9, but had never been Trick or Treating before. So the three of us set out. David decided he didn't want to be scared. And he was telling everyone that I really needed the candy. David was really happy when we got home again with that much more candy. He liked the eyeballs, but told me that they wouldn't fit me. Lastly, we had to have insect repellent on, since we were getting attacked by mosquitos!

I hope your Halloween was fun.

David Weekly, #72

In a left over detail from a couple of weeks ago, I keep forgetting to put that David took his first ride on a roller coaster! At the zoo, there's a kiddie coaster. David thought it was pretty scary. I sat next to him the whole time, making sure he was ok. Avery and Jared loved it!

"So David, how was your day?" "Bad." Me: "Why?" "Because I hit (so-and-so) on the cheek." "Did you get in trouble?" David: "No." "Why did you hit her?" David: "I don't know!" Of course, I tell him not to hit, that it's not allowed, etc... I talked to Ms Mary (the director) about this, and she says it's really nothing to worry about, because it's when he's with the bigger, after-school kids that he gets into trouble. She says he's at a transition point between being a bigger kid and a not bigger kid, so she'll make sure he stays with the littler kids so he won't have this kind of problem.

Saturday, he played in the park some while I practiced softball. We also saw "Where the Wild Things Are." He was a bit bored of it at points, and got especially scared when Max was throwing a temper tantrum before running off. I was surprised by that. Didn't expect a kid throwing a tantrum would be scary to another kid. David really was involved at that point. Some of the time he was bored he would play with the seat that goes up by itself, which he thought was funny. He spent a good part of the movie in my lap. The monsters were by turns scary and fun.

David went to the Rattle Snake Festival on Sunday, and had a blast! He played a lot with Cayenne, went on all the inflatable "toys" or "obstacle courses", and refused to eat anything, no matter what it was, except for the cotton candy. He finally ate a cheeseburger that evening when we went to dinner w/ Cinnamon and her daughter. At dinner, he was singing a song about vowels, mostly under his breath, not really singing it to be heard, as much as just playing his own music. David sings lots of songs to himself, either outloud or under his breath, where he's the only person really hearing it.

On Wednesday David and I went to a store to find him a costume. Even though he vacillates between Batman, a Wild Fing, and a dinosaur, he will end up being batman. The funny thing is, he saw the dinosaur costumes, but they were for babies and toddlers, neither of which David is anymore. So he says, "Those are for babies..." not with any of the usual derision that most older preschoolers show for littler kids; instead, his attitude was just along the lines of "not appropriate for me." I asked which Wild Thing he wants to be, and he says "Max." But there are no Max costumes anywhere, and there's not enough time for the people I know to make a costume for him, so that's why Batman. Rachel really helped in this respect, putting together something for him, and having the Batman mask available really helps...

Thursday I was at my sister's house to pick up the boy, and I told him I got a flu shot. I even showed him the band-aid over where the shot in my arm was. He was most impressed by this. "Oooooooo" he says. "Did it hurt?" he asked, with much concern. And now his voice quieter: "Did you cry?" I told him that it did hurt (it didn't, not really), and that I didn't cry. Friday morning he asked to see the shot again, and asked me about it. I said, "Well, you can't even tell where they gave the shot." I showed my arm again, and he put two fingers to try to feel it.

On a "cold" morning, David asked me for his jacket while he ate his cereal. I put him off for a minute. Then I notice he's not eating, so I say, "Eat your cereal!" His reply: "You have to get my jacket first..." very monotone, matter of fact. The kid's a bargainer. I'm in trouble.

Friday night we went to the Haunted Trail at Hillsborough River State Park. David was very scared. I held him through the whole trail. He used his little pen light that he got from the allergy doc 6 months ago as a "weapon" to protect himself from the scary bugaboos that presented themselves along the trail, by shining the light on them. So even though he was scared, I'd say he was brave. They also had a more well lit, more kid-friendly area where we watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" on a big screen TV. There is a part where Sally is expressing her love Linus (with the little hearts everywhere when she swoons), and I told David that one day, he'll have his own Sally...and his reply: "Aww Mannnnn!"

It's been a good week.

David Weekly, #71

David got a package in the mail from his mommy, which included stickers, a Pez candy dispenser (with Pez candies, of course!), some straws with skulls on them, and some pencils with spiders and webs and spooks. A very Halloween-y set of stuff. Perfect for a great holiday. Except that, in spite of the fact that the caledar says "Fall" on it, it's still summer. And gets dark a little bit earlier. We had about 2 days' worth of Fall, which means that the low at night is below 70 degrees...but now we're back to summer again.

A curious new development has taken place: David is now calling his buddy his blanket. At least, to everyone but me. I noticed this the other day when he was asking Cinnamon for his blanket. I wondered why he didn't call it his buddy, because he still says "buddy" to me when asking for it. Not sure of why this change, but there it is...

David would like everyone to know that he is fast. He is constantly demonstrating this to me. "Did you see how fast I went?" "I'm so fast!"

So I was telling my friend James about the "Pismo Beach" thing, and he sent me a link to the Looney Tunes cartoon where Bugs Bunny says his line. I showed it to David, who, of course, wanted to watch all of the different cartoons. He really liked them alot. One, two, three problems, though: they're violent! In spite of the fact that it's cartoon violence, I can see how there might be objections to his sort of thing. So David will not be seeing a lot of the Looney Tunes.

David likes to type. He particularly likes to type into my chat program, and usually in the last window of whomever I was talking to. I went to take a shower one morning, and came back to find this:
DAVID
7:21 AM
CVBNMASDFGHJKLQWERTYUIO
7:24 AM
ROCKETSHIP
7:26 AM
THITVHHVYVVHYGDGCCBGVGCXZACHBFGHFHEEDUIWUWWUUBXBVSXGXVVGVGXGXVXG

I'm most surprised to see the word "rocketship" spelled out. Rocketship is from Word World, but I had no idea he could spell it. He often asks me how to spell words, but never rocketship...

David and I were racing his cars...He kept saying something about "frozen fish." I asked him about it, as in, "Where did you hear this?" And he doesn't know, of course. It's how he would say he won, I think...

As we were reading a book for bed time, the book was showing the different seasons. David knows "fall" or "spring," but summer? What season is it? Point at the picture... "Spring." "Fall." "Hot."

So that's another week with the boy. If there's something you'd like to see, let me know and I'll try to add it. Have a great week!

David Weekly, #70

David got to spend Saturday night at Rachel's. He really likes going over there. I stayed there, too, since in the morning we went to the zoo, with Avery and Jared, of course. David got to be the "Tour Guide" which to him meant, "run everywhere, and see if they can keep up." Because we've been there so many times, he has on the one hand lost interest in the animals, but on the other hand, wants to see specific ones, like the elephants. As we were leaving the zoo, Mimi (my mom) promised the kids a gift if they were good. David got "stick rocks" which are polished magnetite. He loves those things!

David loves to read. He's getting books off the shelf now, on his own, and looking through them on his own, and reading the words he knows. When we're leaving from school, he tells me that "we're working on our letter P's today" or whatever the letter is, though he still tells me his lunch only consists of peaches.

Thursday night Avery and Jared came over, and David was in some kind of fighting mood, since all he would do most of the night was attack Jared. I don't know what could cause this. Every time I would turn my back, David was trying to do something to Jared. So Thursday night, he spent lots of time in Time Out.

Friday night, David got to spend the evening with Jesse's baby. When she cries, David tries to figure out what she's crying about. "I fink she wants to be held." Or, "I fink she's hungry." He doesn't quite understand what the crying is, but at the same time is concerned, and wants to make it better somehow.

Otherwise, there's not a whole lot going on.

David Weekly, #69

David and I went to his first movie in a movie theater. The movie was "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs." David was able to follow the movie along, got some of the jokes, got bored at one point, and towards the end he got scared to the point that I covered his eyes, but that only lasted a minute or two. Overall, he really liked the movie. At one point he saw a part where everything was a mess. He said, "Everything is ruined!" Smart lad, that. He brought his "buddy" with him, for comfort, and because in my experience, movie theaters get cold. David knows what the "Wild Things Are." We were watching movie previews, which he really liked, and the movie trailer for this movie came on. I was surprised he knows about "The Wild Things", because that's one book we don't have. (Guess I'm going to the book store to get it!) But he was saying that he wants to be one of them, complete with horns. He sure does make me laugh.

I've also decided to enroll him in the dance class offered through Gabrielle's Glen. We went to buy him some tap shoes...and when he tried them on, he did not like how slippery they are! They don't have rubber grips like regular shoes of course, so David didn't want to even walk on them. I put him on the platform they had and had him tap his feet to get a better understanding of how they would feel, and sound. He liked that. When he went in, the lady asked him why he was there, and he said "to get tap shoes," but almost under his breath. He was pretty happy he got them, though.

I forgot to put in last week's note that David had a pretty bad allergy attack, where he was vomiting mucus, and doing a lot of coughing. I had had him at Rachel's house, and I picked him up at about 9. I got him home, gave him his "night time medicine" (which is "sour" as he says, and this is distinguished from his "morning time medicine" - the Xyzal, which has no flavor, apparently), and a nebulizer. He fell asleep about 20 minutes later. Don't have any idea what caused this fit. Nothing unusual about Rachel's house...he's been there for hours and hours before with no ill effects...so maybe it was a one time thing?

And David loves his "Blue's Clues" game on the computer. The object of the game is find all three of Blue's clues, but so far, he's only found one. And he has to click on just about everything in Steve's house to figure out what the clues are. There's puzzles and some other stuff he can do as he goes about Steve's house looking for clues. The music gets stuck in my head, and he often leaves the game running, with the music in the background just playing and playing...

Monday night, after having spent a couple of hours at Avery and Jared's house, David hears some music on the radio that reminds him of "at the Missouri"...and he plaintively says he wishes he could be in two places at the same time, in Florida, and at the Missouri.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. David enjoys playing with Josh at the playground where I'm playing softball. There are plenty of adults around who keep up w/ the kids, so supervision is not an issue. There was an incident though, where a little girl found a softball, that David wanted. Eventually I gave him a different one, and it satisfied him. Then Josh decided he wanted a ball, too, and was trying to take it from David. So David followed my example and got Josh his own ball. It was so cute. This was on Wednesday night. We got McDonald's for dinner, and had a quiet meal together at the big table...

Friday night Jared spent the night so Rachel could participate in the 5K Breast Cancer Walk with Avery on Saturday morning. We played outside for a while, with David's car that he can ride on down the street. The thing is, he wants to "win" all the time. Be the first to reach whatever destination we might have, either at the end of the street, or back at the house. Jared and I would let him in front of us, and David would complain that we were getting too close or whatever, and he would cry, and stop walking. So I told him that he has to keep moving if he thinks he's in a race and wants to win, even if we're catching up. He didn't quite get this, although he did try it out, so maybe he did. I'm not totally sure. For dinner we had "Supreme" pizza, with onions and peppers and mushrooms on it. Not a problem for David. He liked it. Jared? Not so much. We watched some videos on youtube, such as the one with Carl Sagan being made to "sing" electronically. You can see the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CldF6osKig. I really think the Carl Sagan video is beautiful, and I encourage you to watch it. Jared was trying learn the lyrics for it, which I loved (David had me play it over and over). And of course, David and Jared would fight over the space in front of the computer, but they were peaceful about it, too. The video reminds me of the Cosmos series from when I was a kid, and I hope David will get that same influence to be fascinated by the world around him. He already shows the capacity for being able to learn, and grow. And he sure knows how to ask "Why?" all the time. I remember being that way when I was a kid. I hope that I have the patience to answer his questions. He wants to know everything.

We also watched a few other kid friendly things, like Sponge Bob. Then we turned out attentions to "Monsters vs. Aliens," which just came out on DVD. What surprised me is that it was a little bit too much for David. It was extremely mild, yet there I was again covering his eyes once or twice. He got through the movie ok. He wants to stand in front of the TV, so I would ask him to come sit back on the couch with us. That child cannot sit still very well. But it was good he was into the movie.

And finally, Jared and David went to bed. Jared wanted to sleep on the couch, but David wanted to make sure Jared had a good place to sleep, so he took him into Colleen's old room and showed him the futon, and said, "But you're my cousin!" The implication being that his cousin deserved better than the couch that Jared wanted to sleep on. Jared ended up on the couch. I love David's sense of hospitality.

Last thing, unrelated to all the rest. When we get somewhere, I say, "Here we are, Pismo beach and all the clams we can eat!" (This is from Bugs Bunny, after he pops out of the ground, before he finds out he's in the desert) David corrects me: "Food. All the food we can eat." And I say, "but the quote is 'clams.'" He insists on "clams" being wrong, and "food" being correct. I told him that clams are food...but he didn't buy it. He doesn't care if they're food. So we have a running "argument" about that now. He's so funny.

David Weekly, #68

More adultness from David: Saturday evening, after my playing softball, and his having made a friend who was his age there, he says, "Whew! It's been a long day." Saturday morning, though, David was extremely clingy. I don't know what makes that happen...he and I went to breakfast, then to a garage sale, and all he wanted to do was have me hold him!

Back to me playing softball: David would heckle me when I was out on field! He would see someone hit the ball (we were doing batting practice), and watching behind the fence he says, "Whoa!! He hit the ball far!" Or, "You better catch the ball, daddy!" He really made an impression on the other adults that were there (mostly people from work). They thought he was a riot.

When David runs, he says he went "Super duper duper duper duperduper DUPER fast!!" (this has variable amounts of "duper", depending on exactly how super duper fast he went. Other athletic activities he enjoys: swinging himself between two objects like they're parallel bars, and running in the house back and forth with his car, and saying how super fast he went.

David is going to do the dance thing at Gabrielle's Glen. I asked him if he like dancing and he said he got to jump around like a bunny. I told him, "That's dancing!" He got a very thoughtful look on his face. We have to buy him tap shoes. He gets 30 min/week of instruction, and it lasts the school year.

David's ice-breaker lately: how many fingers do you have? I have 7! I discovered this as we were playing softball, and I overhear his conversation. "Do you have 10 fingers like da--y?" (David misses the middle sounds in some words.)

Friday night...David held a contest with me over who could our respective Dora book fastest.

Lastly, David likes to ask "why?" for fundamental things like, "Why am I growing?" or, "Why is this paper pink?" Things that I can't easily answer, which leaves me with this response: "Just because it is..."

And so it goes...see you next week!

David Weekly, #67

David's babysitter Jesse (who used to watch him every Saturday for me while I worked) has given birth to a beautiful baby girl, Angelina Mackenzie. I'm unsure of the spelling...but today we went for a visit. David wasn't overly interested in the sleeping baby. Maybe when she's a bit older and can move around a bit...

After a little bit of prompting from Amanda, I figured out why David didn't want to go to school. It's because he was being a bully, and kids were fighting back, hitting him in retaliation for him hitting them. I told him to stop doing that, and he said ok, he would...and he's better now. No problems with going to school at all. As part of going to school, David wants to bring his Diego bag, his "pack-pack," but at first I said no, since there's nothing to bring to school in it! So we talked to Ms. Naomi about it, and she said it just helps them feel like they're going to school. We put David's "buddy" in the pack-pack now, and he puts the Diego bag on his shoulders every day to go to school. He's getting to be a big boy!

David can read. He just doesn't know it yet. The other day in the car, he found a birthday card, and I asked him spell the words so I could tell him what they said, and instead he was sounding them out. So he knows the sounds, basic ones at least, but isn't quite able to put them together. It's just a matter of confidence now, and speeding up the sounds together to make words. I figure he'll get there in another month or two.

But he can read.

We practice reading in the books we read each night. I have David pick out a word or two in each bit of text. Sometimes he will, and other times he is unwilling. Since I don't want to make it a chore, I do what I can to make it fun for him.

Recently overheard: "I smell pizza!"

David had another wonderful night with his cousins on Tuesday night. They were taking turns riding his "car" down the driveway into the street (with me standing guard in the street, of course, to keep them from getting "squished" by cars, as David says). When it was Avery or Jared's turn, David would run down the driveway in front of them screaming at the top of his lungs. He had the best time just being as loud as possible. And he did a great job sharing, and taking turns. I was very proud of him. On Thursday night he went over to his cousins' house. He really loves to spend time with them. I do have to remind him, though, that he cannot just take whatever he sees Jared playing with. Some days that message gets through better than other days. This was a better day.

Rachel is impressed by the "grown up" language David uses, like, "You're killing me!" when he thinks something is funny. There's other things he says that are like that, very grown up sounding, very figurative language. David's sense of things is wonderful. He's very funny but doesn't realize it. He says things, and I laugh, and he wonders why I'm laughing. It's hard to think to write down those things when he says them...

And about the video games: he talks to himself (or someone) when he's playing them, or thinking about them out loud. He has begun to sing a little bit with Blue's Clues, and I may have said this before, but I watch him clap along or do whatever it is Steve says...like rest, clap - clap, rest, clap, rest...

Have a good week.

David Weekly, #66

So I'm going to meet my sister somewhere. I'm on the phone with her in the car, and David overhears this conversation, and says, "Step on it, so we can beat her there!"

David has reached the age where there is now the question of Authority. David was telling me something about farts (also the age of potty humor, oh boy!). I asked him where he heard that, and he said, "Tyler." I'm like, "but that's not right!" David's reply? "But Tyler said it!" So daddy is not right, but David's 4 year old school companion is...

This week has been better for David when it comes to going to school. He is less clingy, but at the same time, he hates going. He says, "Do I have to go today?" And of course I answer, "Yes." And he gets upset. He tries to make a deal with me not to go, but there's just no deal good enough. I tell him he can't stay home by himself. He says ok. He came home from school with some papers, and when asked how he feels, he says, "Happy, because I play with my cousins and with my toys."

David's also discovered another dinosaur video game, but it's a bit more age appropriate, and is specifically educational, and it features the "Land Before Time" dinosaurs. And he would play it all night if I let him.

The other day we were at the park, and there's platform that has 4 different slides. On one side of the platform, it has 3 steps up, and the other side has 2. I never noticed this before, but David says for me to go on the 3 step side and he'll go on the two step side. It's amazing how he can just "know" that kind of detail. But he does. David loves the swings, too. But I'm not allowed to push him too high. He especially likes it if I spin him in it.

And he likes to spell words with his hands, but only when he decides to do it. I can't prompt him or ask him to do it. No idea why...Speaking of spelling, as I read books to David at night, I'm getting him to recognize words based on their sounds, or where they are in the sentence, or from a list of the 100 sight words that I have in my head, except I don't know all 100, but easy ones like "the" or "I" or "a" ... and other words that are repeated over and over, like in the Gingerbread man book, it says the word "rest" at the end. So David is learning how to read. We went to the grocery store, and he wanted the chocolate chip cookie dough. Then he pointed it out very specifically. I asked him how he knew, and he points to the word "chocolate," saying, "That's how I know."

So David is becoming a reader, and growing (he asks why he's growing, and I just tell him because it's what he's supposed to do). His week got better, so I hope yours did, too.

Have a great next week.

David Weekly, #65

Another week has gone by...

Now that I'm on my regular schedule, this is a typical day: Wake up at 7 AM or so, take a shower. Some days, David will come in the bathroom and lay on the floor, waking up; other days he won't wake up until I get him, or I'll find him playing quietly. Lately he's almost completely figured out how to use the VCR, pushing the "triangle" (for play) or the "square" (for stop/eject), and even the rewind button. The rewind button doesn't have a name. Once in a while, he forgets to stop the tape first, and rewinds it first. This causes great upset on his part. So I have to remind him to stop it first, then rewind it. That usually makes him happy. He watches the same Blue's Clues shows over and over, but now at least he has a greater variety since Cinnamon gave us 3 more tapes. He also knows how to tell if the tape needs to be rewound or not.

So anyway, I get dressed and then he gets dressed and he always wants cereal for breakfast: Lucky Charms. He watches Blue's Clues, and forgets to take bites, but I remind him (a lot! "Take a bite, David!") He asks me every day if he's going to school, and I tell him that he is, and he gets upset. Not totally sure why he gets upset, when he didn't used to before...maybe it's the every day nature of it? He wears read every day. He has 5 or 6 red shirts, and they make the rotation for the week. It's hard to get him to wear anything else. This morning (Saturday) he got himself completely dressed before I even got out of bed! It's very important that he wear the Cars underwear (to him, at least), but this morning he put them on backwards. After he dressed himself this morning he asked me if we're going to school and I told him no, which made him happy. He got a big smile and gave me a big hug. Every morning he gets his 2.5 ml of his Xyzal (allergy medication). Every night he gets his aderax (not sure of the spelling here) before bed. He does not like it, because it's sour. 6 ml of that each night.

We then go to school (5 days a week). He puts his "buddy" in his cubbie, and some days he clings to me, and other days he goes off and plays. I'm doing my best to keep a steady routine for him, which I know makes it easier because that way there's no surprises. I pick him up between 5:15 and 5:30, and we go home, have dinner, and play outside. I give him a bath, brush his teeth, put lotion on him, read to him a few stories, and sing to him, say our little prayer (now I lay me down to sleep -- and then go through the list of people that love him, his mommy and sissy are always first on that list), and he then lays in bed for a while, not sleeping. Usually he'll get out of bed, ask to go potty, then he goes to sleep. This is by 8:30 - 9:00.

The other day when I went to pick him up, he was all hot and sweaty. He sees me, and the first thing he says is, "Let's go home so I can take a bath!"

He loves playing Nanosaur. Any kind of drumming sound, or sound of movement (such as the sound of a little bit of gatorade in the bottle) is "music" to him. He'll make the sound, then tell me he's "making music."

On Tuesday, David and I went to the store to buy his school supplies: glue, colored pencils, crayons, construction paper, and a bunch of other stuff. I stopped to get some shampoo for myself, and David saw the bubble bath. In the form of Lighting McQueen. The wheels even roll, so it'll actually be a great toy even when it's empty. So I hope that the marketing guy/woman got a great pay raise for that, because I was absolutely bowled over by David making the case for me to get that for him. In the checkout line, David saw a lollipop that he wanted, and reached out of the cart to get one even after I had told him no. He was very upset! "But I want it!!!" he cried. Poor kid.

Wednesday night Cinnamon came over to have dinner with us, which was nice. David likes having her around, but because of the school year being in full swing, we don't see her as much.

Thursday night Jared and Avery spent the night with us, which was great! David had a lot of fun trying to wrestle with Jared, and I told David (much to his distress) that he's not allowed to try to take or play with everything that Jared has or plays with. They played hide and seek, and when they weren't doing that, Jared showed a lot of restraint with David trying to ... whatever it is David was doing (climbing all over Jared?) ... and Jared would just gently remove David from his body. Jared was often just sitting watching TV, and David was causing him a problem. Sometimes I'd let Jared handle it, and other times I'd put David in time out. At bed time, Avery and Jared both read books to David, which was great, and really sweet. David loved it as much as they did. Jared slept in Colleen's old room, and Avery slept on the top bunk. It was, overall, a wonderful evening. In the morning I took everyone to school. Friday night David was asking to get them from their school again...

On Friday, David got his flu shot. I level with him about that kind of thing. I told him we're going to the doctor's for the shot. He says, "I don't want to go, because they'll hurt me!" I tell him that yes, it will hurt, but it keeps him from getting really super sick. He was very unhappy, of course, but interestingly, he says, "Only one shot." I said, "Yes, only one." This made him feel better somehow, maybe because he had some kind of control. We then went to the zoo. David recovers from his shot remarkably quickly, usually within minutes. He gets a Cars sticker, and after the shot we went to the zoo, which we haven't been to in a while. We saw the koalas, which is a new exhibit they have. We did all the normal things at the zoo, like see the elephants, and the manatees.

Finally, David sounds out words now. He says, "P - P - P play" or today, he said, "Sh - sh - that's the "h" sound." I corrected this, and said, "Sh - sh is the s-h sound..." He interrupts me, "Like sh-sh-shark?" He's so smart.

Hope you've had a good week.

David Weekly, #64

So David had his birthday party on Saturday, at Dinosaur World. He absolutely loved it. The weather, though, was a different story: it rained, and at times, it rained hard! But David did not care. He enjoyed the rain, it kept the day cooler than it would have otherwise been, and it made for an adventure. David's kid sized guests were Shawn and Sebastian (Jesse's nephews), and Avery and Jared, and Cinnamon's daughter Cayenne. He really liked all the dinosaurs that we were able to see, but got scared at one point or another, of the dinosaurs themselves or the areas that they were they were in.

So he got for his birthday Bakugon toys, which is a big deal. Rachel noticed that he was saying "I got one just like you, Jared!" He was so excited about getting this toy, but we're not sure if he's happy about the toy itself, or if he's happy because it's one like Jared has. He also got a remote control race car, and some more Hot Wheels, tracks for the cars to race on, a magna-doodle, some Moon Sand, a DVD, a book, and a cute outfit. He was more excited about the clothes than I expected.

---

I wrote the above the week that David went off with his mother, which was the Sunday before his actual birthday, as we celebrated it early. I haven't written anything since. Not totally sure why not. But we'll try to continue with the weeklies.

--

David misses his mommy. He asks when he's going to see her next, and I tell him about 12 weeks. He says, the next day, "is it 11 weeks yet?" The transitions for him are hard.

I notice lately that he seems to "forget" that he has two hands. He seems less willing to do things that require both hands, such as get himself dressed. He can do it by himself, but he doesn't really want to. Another example of him not wanting to use his left hand for things is when I ask to hold his hand as we cross the street, or we're going to the store, and I need to physically keep track of him. He will more often offer me his right hand, even if it's otherwise very inconvenient, such as he's on my right side, and his right hand is already being used to hold things, and his left hand is free. He just tries to switch everything over to the other side so I can hold his right hand.

I've also discovered that he has a barrier to getting started on something, but once you get him over that, he is willing to continue, such as eating foods I know he likes.

I have started a new schedule at my job, where I work 9 - 5. David is now at Gabrielle's Glen, where Colleen went, full time. He's doing VPK (Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten) from 8:30 - 11:30, then just regular day care after that. The other day he asks me in the car if he's nasty. I asked him what he meant by that, and he told me that Ms Naomi (his VPK teacher) told him that he was nasty. I asked her about it the next day, and she told me that he had been spitting on other children, and that that was nasty. So, it turned out that he misinterpreted what she said. In fact, it turned into me telling him not to spit on people at school, or anywhere else. He later told me, "I didn't spit on anybody today, daddy!"

Since David's been home, we've gone to the allergy doctor, who gave me more tips on handling his allergies, and which I have been following more faithfully this time. He gets Xyzal in the morning every day, and at night, he gets something called "Adorax." He also had his well-child visit at Dr. Sams, his pediatrician. He had 4 shots (after which he said of the woman who gave him the shot, "She hurt me!") He's 42 pounds, or inches, or both. His numbers are still very close to each other, so I get confused about which is which. He's in the 75th percentile for either height or weight. Dr. Sams asked him his full name (which he knows), his colors (which he knows - even in French), his letters for his eye test (although he couldn't see all of the numbers on the 20/20 line with his left eye, but he did at least see enough of them to pass the test), asked him to write his name (which he can, just badly), did a hearing test (he passed, but the machine wasn't working very well). David's going to get a regular flu shot on September 4, and the H1N1 shot as soon as it's available. The only problem is that it takes at least two different shots, over the space of 3 weeks, to gain full immunity to this variety of the flu. So more shots for the boy. He recovered amazingly well to the shots he got at the well care visit.

Lots of other things have been happening. While he was away, I got him new bunk beds...my neighbor was getting rid of the one she had, and asked if I wanted it. So I got it. It's perfect for David. He sleeps in the lower bunk, which is a full sized mattress, and has red sheets. The metal that makes up the frame is all red, too. David loves red. It's almost to the point where he won't wear anything but a red shirt, and whatever shorts are available. He also insists on the "Cars" underwear.

Miscellaneous facts:
David asks to go to the library. He loves that place. And so we go.

Cinnamon gave me an old computer that she no longer has a use for, and it has a game on it called "Nanosaur," which is a game where you have to collect dinosaur eggs and not get killed by the T-Rexes which are everywhere. David loves this game! He's figured out how to move around, and how to get the powerups that are found throughout the game. He asks for my help sometimes, but otherwise, he loves it!

I ask him about school, "David, how was school today?" His reply: "I don't know!" I think I'm going to find out another way to ask him. Any suggestions you have would be great! But he is in VPK now, which started on August 24. From one perspective, it doesn't seem that much more of a big deal than it ever was. Gabrielle's Glen teaches the kids in VPK fashion anyway, even from the time they can walk! So he's going to do well there, I think.

Last Wednesday night, Jared and Avery spent the night with us. That was some night full of activity! David basically wants everything that Jared has, which is hard to deal with. Avery slept on the top bunk, David on the lower one (his normal sleeping spot), and Jared on the couch. It was a pretty good night. David and Avery ate at the big table with me. We had chicken and stuffing and green beans. Jared refused the green beans, so David made a bit of show out of eating them, because David likes most kinds of food.

I've purchased a book called "1 - 2 - 3 Magic" to try to get a handle on David's behavior, because of his whining, which I do not want to continue. I decided on this book over others because I had discovered that David responded when I would count him before. I didn't know (and still don't, really) who is the person that counts him. But I thought I'd use it to my/his advantange, so that he and I could have a more peaceful relationship. And it is helping. He doesn't whine soooo much, and it's easier to get him to do things, like eat his dinner with much less fuss.

David asked me to close his door when I was watching TV the other day. I was surprised he wanted to go to sleep, not stay awake!

Lastly, he's got a chocolate fixation, much like his sissy. He asks for chocolate milk all the time now. He wants to get the stool so he can get the chocolate syrup out of the fridge, and I get the milk (it's too heavy for him). Then I stir the chocolate into the milk, and he drinks it right up!

So that's the highlights of the last month.

Hope it's been a good one for you. I'll try to go back to the weekly format going forward. Wish me luck!

David's Birthday party

So David had his birthday party on Saturday, at Dinosaur World. He absolutely loved it. The weather, though, was a different story: it rained, and at times, it rained hard! But David did not care. He enjoyed the rain, it kept the day cooler than it would have otherwise been, and it made for an adventure. David's kid sized guests were Shawn and Sebastian (Jesse's nephews), and Avery and Jared, and Cinnamon's daughter Cayenne. He really liked all the dinosaurs that we were able to see, but got scared at one point or another, of the dinosaurs themselves or the areas that they were they were in.

So he got for his birthday Bakugon toys, which is a big deal. Rachel noticed that he was saying "I got one just like you, Jared!" He was so excited about getting this toy, but we're not sure if he's happy about the toy itself, or if he's happy because it's one like Jared has. He also got a remote control race car, and some more Hot Wheels, tracks for the cars to race on, a magna-doodle, some Moon Sand, a DVD, a book, and a cute outfit. He was more excited about the clothes than I expected.

David Weekly, #63

David loves to bug his cousins. He pokes them, wants their stuff...but only when they have it, or are trying to use it or play with it. I know this is something most kids his age do, but it's still worth remarking on. Shows (I hope) some growth and development on his part.

David's into measuring things. He'll take the tape measure and open it as much as his arm span, and tell me that a certain item is 54 long, or whatever. He just makes up the number. He can count to 100 w/ some help. What he does is count up to about 39 but then resets somewhere along the line, so I just prompt him for each "tens" spot, 40, 50, 60, etc. I forget where we were walking, but he was going through the numbers, just counting away.

Have I mentioned that he's smart? He wants to wait for the ice cream truck, which is nowhere in sight, or earshot. I told him we'll hear it when it gets close, so he doesn't have to wait in the heat. He asked me what the heat is, and I told him. He then says, "Well, I'll wait in the shade then."

Spending more time at Cinnamon's condo, David has been (mis)informed that Santa Claus lives here, in this group of 6 beach condos. What had happened is that the man that runs the place is certainly big and jolly, and is growing out his very white beard so he can play Santa Claus at Christmas for his grandkids. Every so often, he checks in with me, "Does Santa Claus live here?" I just say yes, it's his summer home.

David's birthday party is Saturday, at Dinosaur world. He says he is so excited! He's also happy that there's going to be lots of dinosaurs, but he was telling me that he wants to make sure they can't get him. I reassured him that he'll be just fine. He asked me for red cake for his party. And speaking of red, I'm beginning to notice that the only shirts he wants to wear anymore are all red! I was going through his laundry the other day, and that's when it hit me: red shirt, red shirt, red shirt w/ a lizard on it (the 'lizard shirt') and so on. This kid is going to take on the world!

Once again, I'm seeing that this weekly update is short. He had his last day at Dot's, and when he comes back he will be somewhere new for daycare/night care. Our routine will have changed. And he begins VPK at the end of August. It's been a good summer so far, with us spending time at the beach, time at my sister's (his cousins') house, time with Mimi, and now, time with his mom. Cinnamon takes very good care of him, to the degree that after they interact, he tells me how much he misses his mommy. I tell him that no one can replace her, that his mommy will always be his mommy. He seemed to be comforted by that. He leaves on Sunday morning, bright and early, at 9 AM is the flight. He wants time to go that much more quickly, wanting his party to be Friday so he can go see his mom Saturday...

Rusty

David Weekly, #62

David has a pen light that he got from the allergy doctor, and he loves it! He wants to see places that are dark. A frequent target of this pen light is my mouth. It's dark in there! Another thing he likes to do is go into a room and then ask to turn off all the lights.

David also is enjoying the mousetrap game. He just likes the contraption part of it, where he makes all the pieces work in their proper sequence.

Cinnamon got a place at the beach, so David and I went to the beach, too. The three of us went for a walk along the shore, with David running ahead the way he does. I ran to catch up with him, and we saw a kid who had a stack of sand dollars. This kid was maybe 11 or 12. He showed us the sand dollars, then threw them back in the water. As we walked on a little further, David went up to a random woman on the beach and asked her for a dollar...after admonishing him ("David! You can't ask people for money like that!"), I realized he meant...sand, dollar. :-) So he'd only gotten part of what those things were.

At Rachel's house he realized that one of her bathrooms has a Sponge Bob theme, so he tells me he's going to go potty in the Sponge Bob bathroom...

And David's favorite color is red. He knows my favorite color, and Cinnamon's. When we were at the beach the other day, he was telling me he had to get the beach toys that were our various favorite colors. "Look, I got the bucket that's your favorite color!"

A bigger thing to note is that I see his independence growing. Mainly, he wants to sleep with his clothes on, instead of jammies. It's a much bigger deal to him than I expected.

Lastly, he's asking how many more weeks until he can go see his mommy again...It's only a week now. It seems less urgent to him this time.

Rusty

David Weekly, #61

David came back to Tampa last week, on Thursday. It's official: he can talk. He is fully articulate, able to express himself fully, with complete expression. Tonight after I put him to bed he asked me if I can leave a light on for him, since his night light burned out. It's amazing how your perception of a person can change in three weeks, or how much that person can change in those same three weeks.

David misses his mom. He is able to fully articulate that, now, as well. He tells me in various ways, and at various times, that he misses her, or that he wants to see her. Amanda tells me that she has internet at home, so I'm hoping that the two of them can interact over the webcam after he comes back again in August.

Another thing this week is that David and I have been spending some time as his cousins' house, going swimming, and just being there to hang out. It's the first week of summer, so I figured it was a good time for them to spend some time together. He's had a lot of fun interacting with Jared and Avery. He especially likes to annoy them. It took a day or two of that until they developed a rhythm of figuring out how to get along, which they did. Avery enjoys showing David the Webkins thing online, and he loves to watch. They also play some simple video games online.

It's been a busy week, yet it seems that not a lot has happened. Dot (David's primary babysitter) has announced that as of July 1 she is closing up shop, and not in the daycare business any longer. This means of course that I'll be seeking out a new babysitter for the boy.

I really think that's it for this week.

Rusty

David Weekly, #60

I told David that he's going to see his mother next week, and it's been hard on him. He really wants to see her. He's desparately trying to figure out what "a week" means, and learn the days of the week so he can figure out when he's going to see his mom. He also cries every time I tell him he's not going to see her today. And this is a couple of times a day, when he asks. Monday night/Tuesday morning he asked me at 2 AM if he's going to see her. He'll be going to see her Sunday night, when I drop him off w/ Matt and Virginia, and they're leaving Monday morning, early. David says he'd rather fly, than drive. I know we'll do that next time, just have to figure out the exact timing on that. Have to wait for my vacation time to be approved, since I'm thinking June 30/July 1 would be ideal for sending him up there.

Saturday we went to Mimi's, and hung out there for a while. While there, I mentioned that I have a new work schedule (which is only slightly different than the current one), and that I no longer will be working on Saturdays. So I told my mom that I plan on using Saturdays to enroll David in some kind of dance class, because he likes it so much. When he heard me say this, he told me he wanted to dance! So we played some disco music that my mom has, and ran around and he danced, and had a good ol' time, movin' to the music. Later on I asked him if he wanted to learn how to dance, and he said yes, though I'm concerned he would have said yes if I had asked him if he wanted to eat snakes or something.

A couple of funny bits about his language: he says "I may have found ..." whatever he's looking for, or if he just happens upon something interesting..."I may have found the remote!" One of the ways he protests something is to say "La La LA! " So if I say, "you need to clean up," he'll say, "La La La!" And then get sent to Time Out since he's not doing what I asked.

Cinnamon (my girlfriend) gave David the "Hungry Hungry Hippos" game and he makes me play it with him, but he also put the balls in the wells in different combinations, and makes me count them. Sometimes it's 3, 3, 5, 4, or 1, 5, 5, 4...or whatever he can think up. Thursday morning he put the balls on the carpet in a sort of line, and he asked me what animal it was. I said, "Snake!" and he says, "No! It's something else!" I could not figure it out, so he tells me it was a "Catepillar!" We got the game on Sunday afternoon, then went to Rachel's house, so he could play with his cousins. They had a grand and wonderful time. When we got home, David actually volunteered to take a bath! I couldn't believe it. I was so surprised.

Last week, we got the DVD for the movie Cars. We've been watching it non-stop since then, too. Interestingly, he found the story book of the movie, so as the movie plays, he has me read the appropriate section of the book to him...

And here's a couple of other tid-bits:

We were playing on Thursday afternoon, and as he was running around, he would say "I have to use my awesome powers!" to do whatever. He's so funny.

At another point, he turned off the TV, and said, "I need to tell you something. Then, "I'm sorry." I don't know for what, though. It was amazingly sincere, too. I'm puzzling over it, because it came out of the blue the way it did, and because I don't know why he said it.

David also knows how to work my web cam, so he has begun to take pictures of himself...What I like about these pictures is that he has to go up to the computer, push the button (in my case, it's the track-pad), and it counts down from 3 before the picture snaps, by which time he's back at the refrigerator door, in a pose. Each of these poses is after he follows this process, yet they look like they were done in a quick series, rather than 15 - 30 seconds apart, with lots of back and forth in-between. I'm in the background, just off camera, doing the dishes. I wasn't fully aware that he was doing this, either.

Friday we went to the park, then did some shopping with a friend of mine, Tracy and her husband, at the bookstore. He was so excited to show her how he could jump! As tall as the trees, he says. He is spending the night with his cousins tonight, since Jesse (his regular Saturday sitter), is going to Disney World w/ her sister for their birthday. My new schedule begins in June.

So that's another exciting week!

Rusty

David Weekly, #59

It's been windy for the past couple of days/weeks, and David's been bugging me that he wants to fly a kite, so on Saturday, we flew the kite. The thing is, it was really windy that day. Jesse and Shawn (her nephew, he's about a year younger than David) came with us to the park, to do the kite flying thing. Unfortunatly, the kite actually flew away because I let David hold it, and the string ran all the way out, and it was gone! Did I mention that the wind was really strong? When we were on our way to the park, David was trying to read "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" to Shawn. It's good that Jesse has Shawn on most of the Saturdays she keeps David. It works out for all three of them.

Tuesday night/Wednesday morning...I get to Dot's at the usual time, 11:20 PM, to pick up the boy. He's asleep. Dot tells me that he woke up before I got there screaming for his daddy... For me, in the middle of the night, he wakes up, screaming for gold juice (orange juice). I gave him some water instead. I was surprised by the intensity of this request of his, because he really wanted it! This is new behavior...not sure what brought it on, or why...in the morning, he tells me he had a dream about his mommy and sissy and daddy and school. I wasn't able to get a lot of details out of him.

Wednesday we went to the park, after school. He ingratiated himself with some kids who were playing with sidewalk chalk, and had a blast playing with them, and drawing on the sidewalk. It's amazing how people are generous to a small child. Even more amazing is that he was offered an apple, which I told him it was okay to accept, from another small child, maybe a year older than him. He also met this child at the playground.

Thursday was our trip to the allergist, and I told the allergist that everything is great. I'll be getting a prescription for the Xyzal, and sending some up to Amanda for when David goes up there. The doctor says that Zyrtec is a less concentrated form of the Xyzal. And that he can take it every day, and it won't hurt anything. I don't need to give it to him here. At least, not anymore. But I'm sure he'll need it up there in MO.

David refers to where his mom and sissy live as "The Missouri." "Daddy, mommy and sissy live at the Missouri."

Friday morning, I had to go to work. I usually have Fridays off, but I had traded schedules with someone at my job. The reason that this is important is that I had to take David back to Dot's, which he was not happy about. Breaking of the routine, for sure. He says he'd rather go to "school" (his preschool) than Dot's, even though there are other children there.

Friday night we went the Pier 60 park, which is at Pier 60, at Clearwater Beach, at the end of State Road 60, at the Gulf of Mexico, at the beach! David and I went with my girlfriend, and her two kids. We had a wonderful time. David loved playing in the sand. At the park is some playground equipment, which he loved playing on. We did some other stuff, too, like play in the water (without getting too wet), and wandered around on the Pier itself, looking at the vendors' stuff for sale, and even went to the end of Pier after the sun had set. David was not at all interested in the sunset, but he was already so excited and happy! He didn't want to leave of course. On the way home he never did fall asleep. He was wired. He also found a large, circular shaped leaf that he kept, and used it as an excuse to get close to the water. We were at the beach, after all. So it was a good excuse. If not for him, we would have stayed away from the water. It was important to him that he get the leaf wet, to wash it off. We lost the leaf somewhere along the line, though the intention had been to keep it.

David's beginning to ask for specific things now. First, it's important to note that he thinks that there are stores for individual things, like the milk store, or the underwear store. In some cases, this is true, such as the shoe store. In other cases, the milk store is the 7 - 11. He was able to recognize the grocery store truck, too, which I liked. Smart kid! He says, "That's the gro-she store truck, right?"

He woke up the other morning, at about 5 AM, asking to go to the potty. It turned out to be a stressful event, since I thought he might be constipated, but it was the reverse! He was worried about staining his underwear, and was adamant that I put on clean ones after he was done. Very insistent. After he got his clean underwear (insert Bill Cosby joke about clean underwear), he was able to go back to sleep.

Lastly, David will be going to see Amanda on May 11. I'll have to work out the details with Matt and Viriginia, as they are the ones who will be bringing him up there, and returning him on June 4. He'll be going back to Missouri at the very beginning of July (either the 1st or the 2nd), and staying the whole month of July. Mark your calendars!

Have a good week.

Rusty

David Weekly, #58

This has been a very fast moving week. Doesn't seem like a whole lot happened.

Last Saturday we went to Mimi's (my mom), and played with Avery and Jared for a couple of hours. Sunday we went to Nature's Classroom, an outdoor educational facility for all the 6th grade students in Hillborough County. The thing is, they opened to the public (for the first time ever, I think), probably for Earth Day. So David and I went with Mimi and Jared and Avery. It was a lot of fun. There's a board walk that we went on, saw some deer, walked through a cypress dome, and did a few other activities. Notably, David had an encounter with an alligator. Of course, this reptile was small, about 18 inches long, and was well controlled by a handler, and a small cage. He didn't want to touch it even when he was told he could...but he did eventually touch its tail. We spent the rest of Sunday just playing at home, throwing around a ball.

We went to the green park on Thursday, and he wanted to go on the boardwalk there, which runs along the river. On this boardwalk, many of the planks are engraved with people's names, which celebrate their births, or their lives, or an anniversary, so he's looking for W's in the names he sees on the planks, and sees the name WILL, spelling it out loud. He interprets the second letter as an L until he gets to the next letter, and then updates the interpretation as "I" instead...very good that he did that. He is asking me to spell all kinds of things now.

Another thing that was funny about going the park is this statement: "Daddy, we have a problem," he says to me very seriously. "There aren't any kids here." For him, having kids at the park is important.

David likes to stand still, like statue. He poses, usually in a very unnatural pose, and says, "Look, I'm a statue." The pose is frequently him standing, with one hand over his eye, and the other hand up, palm facing outward. Sometimes he'll stand on one leg. I have no idea where this comes from, but it's pretty funny.

Friday we went to a very different park than he's used to: a nature preserve. We went to the Brooker Creek Preserve, and walked along the boardwalk there. We saw two different armadillos in the brush. Those things are loud, so easy to find when they make noise. David was amazed at how quiet it was out there. I explained that this is not a play park, but a nature park. They also have a learning center that shows the watershed for that area, and lots of different things showing the water cycle and such, most of this is too advanced for him, but he had fun making things light up, and walking/running around the center, sitting the chairs that overlook some of the preserve. And then we had lunch at McDonald's. He did very well, sitting still eating his hamburger, drinking his milk...stealing a couple of my chicken nuggets.

Last thing: David's beginning to read things, and he doesn't even realize he's doing it. Granted, it's by sight that he knows what he's seeing, rather than the traditional knowing what each letter or combination of letters says to make up the word, but it's getting to that point. He will often make up what a certain set of words says. Interestingly, he gets the meaning of it right a good portion of the time. He knows there's meaning behind not just the words, but also in their context.

Hope you have a good week.

Rusty

People that are important to David

I have thought about writing this for a while, but it's difficult because it's where my private life intersects with David's, and I'm not really wanting to publish this for the world, but I'm doing it anyway...

So, people that are important are: Jesse, my next door neighbor who watches him every Saturday. My mom, because she's my mom. My sister, Rachel, and her two kids, Avery and Jared. Cinnamon, because she's my girlfriend, and we spend time together. David really likes her. Veronica, who is very good with him, and watches him, and takes him on occasional shopping trips to buy him things for himself, and even makes sure that he "does things for me" like get me a shirt, or buy me a birthday card. Miss Tawanda at Gabrielle's Glen, his preschool, and she's his teacher. Dot, his main baby sitter, who he is not a fan of. He does not like going over there, and every day asks if he is, and I tell him he is, and he tells me he doesn't want to go. I'm sure there are peers of his that are important, but he doesn't say their names very often. I do know that when I bring him to the preschool, all the kids in his class say his name. I think that's very cool.

David Weekly, #57

David had a good Easter, and got lots of candy from the Easter Bunny, including a new outfit and a photo w/ the EB. It's very cute! He went looking for eggs while shouting "Egg Hunt! Egg Hunt!" And unlike last year, didn't complain about the smaller number of eggs he got, compared to Avery and Jared, his two cousins. The eggs were the plastic variety, with chocolates and jelly beans in them. David likes to throw the empty plastic eggs around...they're light, easy to throw, and don't break anything...but he does not like hard boiled eggs. I find this out because I gave him one to eat that night, and he takes a bite and then spits it all out all over everywhere. Coloring the eggs was okay.

Saturday night he colored eggs with his cousins, and that was fun. He got in some quality time w/ Mimi (my mother), and it was constructive. He also has begun to play fight with Jared, and it's working out better and better. Jared is understanding how much of an advantage he has against David when they play, but he's learning how to temper that a little bit, which is a better thing for David. They now play more fairly, and both have more fun.

Tuesday morning he got upset because it got darker outside because of the weather. Normally, the day gets lighter and brighter, so when it started going the other way, he was not happy! He knew it was still morning time, but the darkness of the clouds really threw him off. We had a pretty severe storm, but did not lose power. We lost power a week or two ago, for about an hour during the day. So when the rain and wind really hit, he was worried about us not having power. David's not a fan of not having power. Of course, neither am I, but we played outside on the day w/ no power, and he barely noticed. Otherwise, it rained a good portion of Tuesday, so we stayed inside, or went outside under the carport, and watched the rain. David, being a 3 year old, tempts fate by wanting to go in the rain. I say no, of course. It's lightning! So we had to go in.

The other day, were hanging out, listening to some music, and I'm drumming on him, because we're listening to a song with a good beat. He doesn't like it that much, so he tells me to stop, but I don't. Not right away, at least. He says, "Are you a buddy?" (that's the name he has for his blanket) I say, "No.' And he says, "Then I'm not a drum." That kid cracks me up!

David has some Mardi Gras beads that he was telling me he wants to turn into a snake. So he throws them to the end of the driveway and tells me, "Look, daddy, a snake!"

A tidbit for you: David is now signed up for VPK - Voluntary Pre Kindergarten. He'll be starting in the fall, at Gabrielle's Glen. My sister Rachel is trying to get me to put him in Montessori, but I'm not sure if I should do that. One obstacle for me is the cost. I haven't really discussed it w/ Amanda, either. So we'll see what happens.

Among David's concerns: Word World. He's been asking me for a couple of weeks to get a new Word World DVD, so I finally got one for him. Not sure how many there are, but he's got 4 now. He loves those DVDs! And his watching of them over and over is teaching him the words, and the sounds that go with them. Lately he spells p - l - a - y and tells me it says "play". :-) He's also concerned with where I park my car at his school. It's got to be in certain spot. If it's not, I'm greeted with complaints, and a disappointed tone in his voice: "You're supposed to park it there..." If I park in the right spot, I get, "Yay!" from him...

David today asked me to go to the grocery store. I said, "What are you wanting to get?" He says, "I don't know, we'll find out when we get there!" And then when we're in the store, he says he wants me to get oatmeal. I say, "When's the last time you ate oatmeal?" His reply: "I like oatmeal."

Thursday at the park we were playing with the frisbee. Another little boy who's 5 comes up to play, and David attempts to show this other child how to throw the frisbee. It was quite funny. "Like dis!" he'd say, then fling!

David says, "Pretty please!" When he wants something really bad. He also tells me he has to do his exercises sometimes, but what he does is odd: he takes the rake and holds it over his head, then lets it fall to the ground, and does this over and over again. He does other things that he calls his "exercises", but this particular thing I thought was notable.

Today, on Friday, I took him to an outdoor concert at Lowry Park (this is the same place as the zoo) with a friend of mine, and her daughter. We had fun. He wasn't so interested in the music as he was the bubbles. But we did get a chance to play, and enjoy the atmosphere, and hang out. Earlier in the day we went to another park, where he met a boy about his age, and this child had some cars, from the movie Cars. And David actually shared them very well with this other boy! It was amazing! They would go back and forth rolling the cars down the slide. I was very happy with this.

So that's another week...I hope you share things well, too.

Rusty

David Weekly, #56

took David to his daycare this morning, and he tells a little girl there that he has a skinned knee, after she tells him that she has some kind of sore, or wound on her leg from something that happened over the weekend. Later on, after i go to pick him up, he tells me that a boy in his class hurt himself somehow, and how David "take care of him". He asks me, "are you happy?" That he took care of that other boy. "Yes, very much!" I said.

At the park today, David was telling the kids to "move your butt!" when they were in his way going down the slide. And they were complaining about what he was saying! These kids must have been at least 10 or 11 years old, and they were complaining. I thought it was funny. I was telling them, "Well, you better move your butt, then." The problem is that they were going down the slide, only about a halfway, and he was wanting to go down all the way, like you're supposed to. He was actually being pretty good about them being older kids. They just didn't know how to handle a smaller kid like David telling them what to do. I yelled at one kid for being difficult, because he really was objecting to David, and I said, "He's a really nice kid, and if you're nice, so's he; but you're not being nice." That solved it. These kids are from some kind of camp over Spring Break, so they were all over the place. I think he did well.

David can blow bubbles on his own now. Once he discovered this, he took the bubbles from me and was blowing them all over the place! He especially wanted to blow them under the car, which I thought was pretty funny.

We went to the bumpy slide park, and played with some of the other kids who were off for Spring Break. Whenever we go to this park, David says he doesn't like it when there's no other kids there. He's so good at making friends!

Today, David figured out the concept of "Opportunity Cost" but in a small way: he said we could see the small fish, and the big fish, but not if we played on the play equipment they have at the zoo. I've told him that on various occasions. "We can't do everything." He now seems to get it, because it was part of his planning for the next time we go the zoo. Yeah, he's planning his trips now, out loud.

A language note: he calls the gutter the "side-road", which is where I'm supposed to walk if there's no cars. This is when we go to Dot's. He calls the handle of his big-car a "push"...and he made up another term for something, but I can't remember what, that was a simple compound word, and had a regular word that we normally use. It's good he can invent words when he needs to, but other times if he doesn't have the word, he just skips it. And of course, we still have "gold juice" aka, orange juice.

Friday night we played and played and played, he and I, and the neighbor boy across the street, who is 7. For a while, they threw paper airplanes. Then the other boy, Adan, got a football to throw around with me. David of course, got jealous. I told Adan that we have to include David. David, for his part, didn't want to take turns. He wanted every turn for himself. And would cry every time Adan or I would throw the ball to each other, rather than to David.

Lastly, I think for his allergies, I've settled on the Xyzal, since it does the job, and no side effects. Our next appt w/ the allergist is still 20 days away, but who's counting.

Have a good week!

Rusty