David Weekly, #44 New Year's Edition

David is home. Amanda drove him to Atlanta, where Matt and Virginia picked him up, all on Saturday. I picked him up halfway between Matt and Virginia's house and mine on Sunday around noon. Matt said David was so excited! He saw me and hugged me and would not let go. We took a tour after that, going first to my mom's house, then to my sister's, so everyone could welcome him back.

I'm sure David had a good Christmas, but I don't really know what he got, because none of it came home with him, and he's not really able to tell me. The main things he got from Santa down here were a Thomas the Train set with wooden tracks, and a bell. The bell is from the Polar Express. Whenever I would ask David what he wants for Christmas, he would tell me he wanted a bell, because that's the first present of Christmas, and it's directly from Santa Clause. He will play with the train quietly for an hour if I let him. He won't even let my checking in on him disturb his play. He loves that thing! I'm going to have buy more tracks...

He is so much more articulate than when he left. It's always the case that when he's here, I watch his development, and I notice and record what I can, but it's another thing entirely when I skipped three and a half weeks of that change. It makes the change that much more impressive. Some notes about his language: Interjections! He now says, "Oh MAN!" when something goes wrong. We went to the grocery store and now he calls it "orange juice", instead of "gold juice."

Here are some observations about him:

Sunday night we read two books, and he went to sleep with no problem. He woke up about 90 minutes later...or not really "woke up" but started to cry...I asked him if he missed his mom, and he said yes...I tried to call her, but no answer. He insisted that I stay with him in his room while he fell asleep again. I probably spent an hour in there holding his hand, trying to tell him he'd be okay. He did fall asleep, and then later on I notice he's in my bed! So it's back to that: keeping him in his own bed.

I took him to "school" on Monday, and there was a bit of separation anxiety when I dropped him off. But he got over it. When I picked him up, he didn't want to leave! Going to Dot's was no problem. In between the one and the other, we took down all the Christmas decorations, undecorated the tree, vacuumed. He kept saying, "Christmas is over." David helped me find all the Christmas stuff that I might have missed. He's a pretty sharp observer!

An observation of my own about him being back is that he doesn't want to do the sign language letters, nor speak, or have me speak to him, in French. So I'll be back to working on that with him. I had gotten a video of a basic French language teaching, with words and the objects that go with them, along w/ colors and a few other things. And he was watching it intently, and practicing saying the words and expressions. He did not like it when I would say the stuff...but that's okay. I was very happy that he was learning it! This means I'll have to invest in some kind of video thing to keep teaching him. He seemed to be learning it. He really did.

David is potty trained! Kudos to Amanda for finishing the job! He volunteers to go the potty, rather than waiting for me or anyone else to remind him. Just gotta figure out the wiping his butt part. I'm still responsible for that. Maybe when he's a bit older he can do it himself. Any tips from anyone reading this are appreciated.

And his hair is so short! Amanda warned me it would be, but I didn't realize how short she meant...wow...

The rest of the week went pretty well. Lately he's wanting to go see Jesse when he gets home from somewhere, and her truck is there, next door. We've gone over there about twice in the 5 or 6 times we've come home and she's home, so as not be intrusive.

Something else I've noticed about his behavior is that he screams more, more loudly, is quicker to anger, and is more likely to hit or kick if something doesn't go his way. I don't know what that could be...maybe just a transition from one place to another?

Today was the first full day off with him that I've had since he came back. So we went to the zoo, and had a grand time! And came home, and then later on in the day went to the store. We played a lot. I threw him on the bed, with the Batman soundtrack going in the background...I don't know why he associates that kind of rough play w/ that movie soundtrack, but he does. Maybe I did it by accident once, and he's not let it go. I know that he likes classical music, because when it's on in the car, he likes to listen...he gets mad if I try to change it.

January is named after the Roman god Janus, who had two faces: one looking forward, and the other looking back. This January, I've been looking back over the last year, thinking about all the changes that David has gone through, and that I've gone through, how we've changed... and now I'm looking forward to 2009, to figure out how to do things better for him, and I can't wait to see him grow and develop more. Hopefully this year I'll be able to get him into some kind of a dance class, and I'll work with him more on the language(s), too. I hope that you are looking at the New Year with hope and optimism, and that you can take something positive out of the one just gone by...

Rusty