It's been a good week for David this week. We had a fight in the car because he found a "Target" receipt, and was sounding out the letters. When he got to the "G", he said, "juh" instead of "guh", and it took a while before I could convince him that it was a hard G, like in "girl" ... I told him that some letters say more than one thing, the same way that "tissue" and "kleenex" describe the same object, which he seemed to accept. He wasn't able to put the sounds together to make the word, though. I've also taught him a letter combination, "ar", like, "car", which is different from "a" saying the same sound as "apple" and then the "r" saying "rrrr" all by itself. So he knows when he sees "ar" it makes its own sound. Later in the week I was wearing my "St. Louis" shirt, and I helped him sound out "St. Louis" and then he was able to put it together. And was thoroughly unimpressed with himself for having done it. I was, and gave him a high 5 for it...When I read to him, I try to get him to learn the "sight words," such as "the" or "a." He's slowly getting them.
David is a fan of the Barenaked Ladies, who put out a children's album called "Snacktime!" There are a few songs he really likes. One of these songs is called "7 8 9" which is a play on words: "six is afraid of seven, cause seven ate nine." I even overheard David singing this song to himself one day, including the way the notes dip into the lower register when the singer says "seven ate nine." He also likes the "Eraser" song, because I'll finger spell the word as they sing it, because they draw out the word "eeeeeee-rrr-aaa-sss-er..." Another song he likes is "Popcorn" because it's just pop pop pop, ad infinitum until the end of the song. Kinda like popcorn popping.
The park, and the other park. Today we went to the green park, and went on the big slide. He absolutely insists that he's a "big boy." I mention this because he always wants me to talk into the slide (the slide is a big tube), and I usually say, "the little boy is going up the steps" and he corrects me, every time! I say some other stuff, into the slide...he loves that. We went to the park a lot this week. But today we went to two different parks. He says, "Let's go home" from the green park. But on our way home, he realizes where he is and has me go the other park, too. He almost was able to give me directions. At this other park, though, I watched him socialize, as there were many more kids there. He was about the youngest kid, which made it difficult for him. There was a little girl he wanted to have play with him, but she wouldn't, and he started to cry, saying, "She's running away from me!" So I tell him to ask her to play with him, and does, and she says "no," which made him cry again. So I told him that he's not at the park to play with her, and to ask someone else to play with him. He did do this. At first, it was a pair of older boys (6 and 7, I think is what their mothers said), and he just kind of imitated what they were doing, and following them around. He had fun for a while, until he figured out that they weren't really interacting with him, not directly anyway. So I steered him to a couple of smaller kids, and again coached him on asking, "can you play?" This worked! So he played with another little boy (who was very similar to David in looks, to the degree that the little girl who had rejected him earlier asked if they were twins) for a while, going up and down the slide, until the other boy got tired of the slide. David asked this other boy to play with him again, because the boy had walked away, and they went back to slide again for a little while, until the little boy walked away again, and this time said "no" to David. David didn't handle this rejection very well, because he cried again. I told him that you can't expect people to play with you all the time as long as you want. He seemed to accept this.
Another detail that I think is worth sharing is about another little family. A couple of weeks ago we had been to this park, and there's a woman pregnant, and has two other boys that are pretty rambunctious and rough. One of the two is about David's age, or maybe a bit younger, but he's still pretty rough. They were going up and down the slide, but David almost got pushed off the ladder a couple of times by this other little boy. I intervened as I usually do when there's a lack of supervision by anyone else, and David is in some kind possibility of getting hurt. Well, this week, when we were there, this woman was actually coaching/teaching her children about how to play with the other kids, how not to be rude, how to cooperate, all kinds of stuff. I was very happy to see this. I'm sure it will be good for David, too, because I imagine we'll be seeing these people again, just by going to the park.
He's still figuring out finger spelling, because as he is trying to spell something out, like zoo, I'll see his fingers making the letters as he says them out loud. At various other points, he'll just randomly ask me what "this letter" is, and he shows me with his hand. At one point we were doing something and his hand made a letter X by mistake, which he saw, and pointed out to me. He doesn't know all the letters by themselves, yet. He knows them by sequence, but it's not the same.
He can do the computer now, too...he knows which icon to push to look at pictures, and he typically will pull up pictures of his mom. Yeah, he knows how to do that. I don't think I taught him this directly, but he's figured it out on his own...
Last thing for this week: he's begun to tell me he has dreams. What I don't know is if this is true. He told me about a picnic, and something in his dream that was white, or it was white in his dream. I wasn't able to follow all the details, and I'm skeptical of this, though. I have no idea when a person is aware of their dreams, or if David's old enough to know what a dream is, much less be able to tell me about it. It's worth reporting, though.
So that's a pretty good week. I'm hoping your week includes some dreams, and some learning.
Rusty
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Miscellanea
David is so cute. I'll kiss him, and quickly enough that it sounds like eating, and he says, "Don't eat me, daddy, I'm not food."
On the way to and from New Orleans, he would occasionally hold up his hand and show me a sign language letter. One time he made an X by mistake, and saw it. "Look, daddy, an X!"
He's telling me that he dreams. I haven't figured out what he's dreaming about, though this time he told me about going on a picnic, and that it was white in his dream. No idea what that's about.
He thought the parades were loud. Too loud. "That's enough. Let's go home. I want to go to the green park." He ate a whole kids hamburger and apples from a Happy Meal on the way. I took him w/ me to lunch to visit a friend in Pensacola, and he ate a ham sandwich, and was generally good. I allowed him to wander around the table, since we were the only ones in the restaurant.
David is a delight to travel with. He kept me entertained, slept for 3 hours, threw lots of beads around the car on the way back...He's a good conversationalist. He loved listening to the Barenaked Ladies "Snacktime!" CD...His favorite songs: "Eraser" and "Popcorn"...I'm a fan of "The Ninjas" and "7 8 9" which I have heard David sing at one time or another...he keeps his little matchbox car with him...He asks to see pictures of his mom on my computer sometimes. He was good about asking to go potty. He'd tell me, and could wait until we got to the next exit on the road to go. No emergency stops, no trouble.
He couldn't remember Adina's name. He kept calling her "your friend." But he knew her boyfriend's name, Eric. I thought that was hilarious. Adina found some humor in it, too. I ended up correcting him a lot: "What's her name?"
On the way to and from New Orleans, he would occasionally hold up his hand and show me a sign language letter. One time he made an X by mistake, and saw it. "Look, daddy, an X!"
He's telling me that he dreams. I haven't figured out what he's dreaming about, though this time he told me about going on a picnic, and that it was white in his dream. No idea what that's about.
He thought the parades were loud. Too loud. "That's enough. Let's go home. I want to go to the green park." He ate a whole kids hamburger and apples from a Happy Meal on the way. I took him w/ me to lunch to visit a friend in Pensacola, and he ate a ham sandwich, and was generally good. I allowed him to wander around the table, since we were the only ones in the restaurant.
David is a delight to travel with. He kept me entertained, slept for 3 hours, threw lots of beads around the car on the way back...He's a good conversationalist. He loved listening to the Barenaked Ladies "Snacktime!" CD...His favorite songs: "Eraser" and "Popcorn"...I'm a fan of "The Ninjas" and "7 8 9" which I have heard David sing at one time or another...he keeps his little matchbox car with him...He asks to see pictures of his mom on my computer sometimes. He was good about asking to go potty. He'd tell me, and could wait until we got to the next exit on the road to go. No emergency stops, no trouble.
He couldn't remember Adina's name. He kept calling her "your friend." But he knew her boyfriend's name, Eric. I thought that was hilarious. Adina found some humor in it, too. I ended up correcting him a lot: "What's her name?"
Friday, February 20, 2009
David Weekly, #49
So it was Valentine's Day this week, and David got some candy and a card from his mom. The funny thing about the candy is that he says he can't eat it because he has to wait to be in Missouri to eat it. He also got some candy from a friend of mine. She and her husband brought a bunch of clothes for David that no longer fit her son, and they almost all fit David! It's great! And he loved the clothes, because they all had all of his favorite characters: Scooby Doo, Lightning McQueen, Spiderman, Batman...They're winter clothes, too, since the shirts are long sleeves, and he got some pants, as well as shorts, and short sleeve shirts...We went over to my friend's apartment, and her son played with David (her son is 7), and David just laughed, and played, and really had a ball.
He knows he has blue eyes. "Look, daddy, I'm looking with my BLUE eyes!"
We were at the store one day, and David very naturally wanted to pick up everything he saw, and I told him, "Touch with your eyes" as a way to get him not to touch with his hands. Instead, he just puts his face up to the thing he wants to touch, and gets his eye as close to it as he can and says, "I'm doing what you said!" I'm not sure sure if he is at the point where he can be sarcastic in his literal interpretation of what I asked him to do, but even though it probably wasn't meant to be that way... I found it to be hilarious!
I've been teaching him his address, just in case. It's funny though, because I say, "What's your address?" And he says just the number and street. Then I say, "What city?" He replies, "I don't know!!.. (pause) Tampa!" When I get to the state part he tells me that his mommy lives in Missouri. And say, "What state do you live in?" "Forida" is his answer.
He had a terrible coughing fit on Saturday. It was a rough night for him, but he made it through. I think it's part of what the doctor said about "getting ahead of the allergies, and I hadn't gotten that far ahead."
David now asks "Why?" questions. As in, "Why do I have to go to bed now?" Sometimes he accepts the explanation, and sometimes he doesn't. He's also able to answer some "Why?" questions, which is nice.
As always, I'm sure there's more that I haven't written, and I apologize in advance for the things I'm unable to remember, or write down so that I can share them with you.
Rusty
He knows he has blue eyes. "Look, daddy, I'm looking with my BLUE eyes!"
We were at the store one day, and David very naturally wanted to pick up everything he saw, and I told him, "Touch with your eyes" as a way to get him not to touch with his hands. Instead, he just puts his face up to the thing he wants to touch, and gets his eye as close to it as he can and says, "I'm doing what you said!" I'm not sure sure if he is at the point where he can be sarcastic in his literal interpretation of what I asked him to do, but even though it probably wasn't meant to be that way... I found it to be hilarious!
I've been teaching him his address, just in case. It's funny though, because I say, "What's your address?" And he says just the number and street. Then I say, "What city?" He replies, "I don't know!!.. (pause) Tampa!" When I get to the state part he tells me that his mommy lives in Missouri. And say, "What state do you live in?" "Forida" is his answer.
He had a terrible coughing fit on Saturday. It was a rough night for him, but he made it through. I think it's part of what the doctor said about "getting ahead of the allergies, and I hadn't gotten that far ahead."
David now asks "Why?" questions. As in, "Why do I have to go to bed now?" Sometimes he accepts the explanation, and sometimes he doesn't. He's also able to answer some "Why?" questions, which is nice.
As always, I'm sure there's more that I haven't written, and I apologize in advance for the things I'm unable to remember, or write down so that I can share them with you.
Rusty
Friday, February 13, 2009
David Weekly, #48
David has a paper towel tube that he calls his telescope. He loves to look through it to tell me what he sees.
He also put together something that I didn't even hear the first couple of times he said it. Tom's Diner, by Suzanne Vega, is one of my favorite songs, and I sing it to David, usually when he's not feeling well, and only because it's one of the few songs I know all the way through. But it played on a CD, and he says, "It's the song about the man!" Several things about this: I never told him what this song was about. He knew it was about a man. He decoded the song, and was able to see the character in the song.
I'm teaching David to read: we're beginning to sound out words, and I'm trying to teach him letter combinations as well, because he is more and more often spelling words, and asking me what that word says...so I taught him the word "the" and he does "read" to a degree, because the other day we were in the book store and he "read" me "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" almost word for word, really loudly, almost announcing the text. There was one part he didn't know, but he pointed exactly at the text he didn't know and asked me what it said. I told him, and he continued on. He also knows that little hearts mean "love." He sees them because it's Valentine's day, and so points them out and says, "Lwove."
David says that his mommy and sissy go to girl scouts because it's perfect for girls, and he stays with Tait. What triggered this thought? I haven't a clue. He's also begun to ask to go see his mom...We're hoping that he can go see her in mid-March, but nothing's been determined yet.
And his address! I'm teaching him his address, and he's learning. He has the number down, and he's getting better with name of the street. As the week wore on, he figured it out. I ask him what's his address, and he can say the number and street, but then I ask him, "What city?" His reply: "I don't knoooowwww" It's very cute. I told him "Tampa" and he says "That makes me a little bit mad!" I asked him about that, and didn't get much of an answer.
David had two appointments this week. First appointment was the dentist, who says that David's teeth are perfect! He did very well with getting his teeth cleaned, and got a reward, in the form of a balloon, and a bouncy ball. Second appointment was Friday morning, with the pediatrician. He brought his ball. The Dr says he's got allergies, and told me some physical things to look for, and a course of treatment, in that he's going to get zyrtec every day, and a prescription for nasonex...She also said his lungs were clear, so no asthma today. He's 41 inches tall, in the 90th percentile (!), and 38 pounds, which I'm not sure how he fits in there, in percentile terms, for weight. He's pretty much gotten over his cold, though he did have a bad, dry cough, that he had to get taken care of...poor kid.
On the language front, he's gotten casual with his speech. "David, do you want something to eat?" "Sure," he says. Not yes, or yeah, but "sure." I told him that tissues have more than one name, like, they're also called "Kleenex." So he says "My nose is bwinking. May I have a tissue-kweenex? I said it right!" That's him congratulating himself for asking the right way at the end there, since I do my best to get him to say "May I" instead of "I want" and then expecting to get something. If he says "I want" I just respond, "It's good to know what you want." If he says "May I" then I do what he's asking, for the most part, anyway. He's also getting still more fluent in what he says. He's more spontaneous in his descriptions of things, and more and more willing to describe things to me. This means that his narrative is getting better as well, in that it's more lengthy, and more descriptive. We're having conversations now, which is nice.
Lately he's decided to watch School House Rock! and is willing to really watch all of it. He especially loves "Tyranosaurus Debt", mainly because of the t-rex in the cartoon. I don't think he really has any care about what the subject is, as long as he can see the dinosaur!
Another funny thing he did was to redo the tracks for his train set, and then brings me in when he's done and says, "Ta-Da!" I like his sense of presentation.
Have a good week...
Rusty
He also put together something that I didn't even hear the first couple of times he said it. Tom's Diner, by Suzanne Vega, is one of my favorite songs, and I sing it to David, usually when he's not feeling well, and only because it's one of the few songs I know all the way through. But it played on a CD, and he says, "It's the song about the man!" Several things about this: I never told him what this song was about. He knew it was about a man. He decoded the song, and was able to see the character in the song.
I'm teaching David to read: we're beginning to sound out words, and I'm trying to teach him letter combinations as well, because he is more and more often spelling words, and asking me what that word says...so I taught him the word "the" and he does "read" to a degree, because the other day we were in the book store and he "read" me "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" almost word for word, really loudly, almost announcing the text. There was one part he didn't know, but he pointed exactly at the text he didn't know and asked me what it said. I told him, and he continued on. He also knows that little hearts mean "love." He sees them because it's Valentine's day, and so points them out and says, "Lwove."
David says that his mommy and sissy go to girl scouts because it's perfect for girls, and he stays with Tait. What triggered this thought? I haven't a clue. He's also begun to ask to go see his mom...We're hoping that he can go see her in mid-March, but nothing's been determined yet.
And his address! I'm teaching him his address, and he's learning. He has the number down, and he's getting better with name of the street. As the week wore on, he figured it out. I ask him what's his address, and he can say the number and street, but then I ask him, "What city?" His reply: "I don't knoooowwww" It's very cute. I told him "Tampa" and he says "That makes me a little bit mad!" I asked him about that, and didn't get much of an answer.
David had two appointments this week. First appointment was the dentist, who says that David's teeth are perfect! He did very well with getting his teeth cleaned, and got a reward, in the form of a balloon, and a bouncy ball. Second appointment was Friday morning, with the pediatrician. He brought his ball. The Dr says he's got allergies, and told me some physical things to look for, and a course of treatment, in that he's going to get zyrtec every day, and a prescription for nasonex...She also said his lungs were clear, so no asthma today. He's 41 inches tall, in the 90th percentile (!), and 38 pounds, which I'm not sure how he fits in there, in percentile terms, for weight. He's pretty much gotten over his cold, though he did have a bad, dry cough, that he had to get taken care of...poor kid.
On the language front, he's gotten casual with his speech. "David, do you want something to eat?" "Sure," he says. Not yes, or yeah, but "sure." I told him that tissues have more than one name, like, they're also called "Kleenex." So he says "My nose is bwinking. May I have a tissue-kweenex? I said it right!" That's him congratulating himself for asking the right way at the end there, since I do my best to get him to say "May I" instead of "I want" and then expecting to get something. If he says "I want" I just respond, "It's good to know what you want." If he says "May I" then I do what he's asking, for the most part, anyway. He's also getting still more fluent in what he says. He's more spontaneous in his descriptions of things, and more and more willing to describe things to me. This means that his narrative is getting better as well, in that it's more lengthy, and more descriptive. We're having conversations now, which is nice.
Lately he's decided to watch School House Rock! and is willing to really watch all of it. He especially loves "Tyranosaurus Debt", mainly because of the t-rex in the cartoon. I don't think he really has any care about what the subject is, as long as he can see the dinosaur!
Another funny thing he did was to redo the tracks for his train set, and then brings me in when he's done and says, "Ta-Da!" I like his sense of presentation.
Have a good week...
Rusty
Friday, February 6, 2009
Sign Language
So I'm teaching David how spell, and sound out words. When I spell things for him, I finger spell them, too. He's getting the hang of it, which is nice. He's beginning to do it on his own, too.
Tonight he came to me, while I was watching TV, and sat on my lap, got comfy, and then fell asleep in my arms. What a wonderful thing that is.
Tonight he came to me, while I was watching TV, and sat on my lap, got comfy, and then fell asleep in my arms. What a wonderful thing that is.
David Weekly, #47
On Super Bowl Sunday, David woke up with a cough. A terrible cough. Which got worse as the day went by. We went to my mom's in the morning for a little while, where David's cough got so bad that he actually threw up. After recovering a bit from this, he just got up and walked out of mimi's house and straight to the car without even saying good bye to mimi or anything! He even opened up the door and sat himself in the car. He was ready to go! So we got home, and by about 4 PM I had him lay down for a nap, with the vaporizer on, and the door closed. His coughing finally was under control. I had given him Zyrtec, cough medicine, the nebulizer, and chest rub...but the vaporizer was what saved the day. And then he slept for 8 hours! At about 11:30 he woke up, and was fully awake...he totally missed the Super Bowl, though. He clearly needed the sleep. He went back to sleep a little while later, and slept through the rest of the night. Monday morning the cough was mostly gone, except for an occasional **cough**, but it was more of a "productive" type cough, which was 100 times better than the dry cough he'd had the day before. I'm happy to report that even though he's fully over it, David reports that he's "a little bit sick" when I ask him how he feels.
I'm finding that as he gets older, the pace of David's changes seems to be slowing down a bit. This means that it's more difficult to find things to comment on, since daily life is more about routine, than having something new happening all the time. So I may begin to focus on larger themes, rather than individual, single events, for each week. I'm not sure how that's going to work, but we'll see how it goes.
I'd like to hear some feedback from you, about anything that you read, or anything that I can relay to David, since he's got a better idea of the world around him. He talks about different (and somewhat random) things relating to Missouri, but so far I have not been keeping track. He sounds like he's trying to incorporate the two different households into one in his mind, and yet make a distinction between the two. Actually, it's very difficult to keep track of his Missouri references, because they happen so often, and out of context. He said something today about his sissy, and mommy, and Tait. I wish I could remember what it was.
David now can go potty completely by himself, with no help from anyone...he does need help wiping, so I've got to make sure that happens...
We went to the zoo, like usual, but this time he did two new things: first, there was the back-tracking. We normally have a path that we follow, and it's always the same. This time when we went through the aquarium part, David saw the manatees. Now, there's two big windows were you can see the manatees in the water, and they are floor to ceiling. There's some benches to sit on so you can watch, and behind the benches are displays that talk about the manatee, and the other sea life in the aquarium. So we were at the second set of benches, and David wanted more information about the manatee, so he went looking for the display, but it wasn't behind the benches we were at, so he backtracked back to the other display. This is unusual since he never goes backwards, only forwards, basically in one direction. He also went to see the birds as the first thing we did in park, but he wanted the birds to be the last thing, too. So that's a new part of our itinerary through the zoo.
I think I mentioned this before, but David is having me spell all the words he sees, or he is spelling them for himself. Sometimes he's spelling them backwards, which confuses me, because I don't recognize the order of the letters. While we were at the zoo, he saw a man-hole cover, with the word "storm" written on it. And he says the letters, then asks me what the word is, and I tell him "storm." And immediate recognition crosses through his expression, in an epiphany: "Storm! Like a rainstorm!" he yells; he's so excited. And then he tells me about the itsy-bitsy spider, and the waterspout, complete with hand motions. And speaking of spiders, he has me looking around the house for spiders, but I have no idea why. He has me turn off all the lights, and then we get out the flashlight and look all around the house. He even makes me "creep" around with him, like cartoon characters that are sneaking quietly so that whatever-it-is doesn't find them, or hear them.
And it was very cold again this week, on two different nights, but we managed to stay warm. I hope you're keeping warm on these cold days and nights.
Rusty
I'm finding that as he gets older, the pace of David's changes seems to be slowing down a bit. This means that it's more difficult to find things to comment on, since daily life is more about routine, than having something new happening all the time. So I may begin to focus on larger themes, rather than individual, single events, for each week. I'm not sure how that's going to work, but we'll see how it goes.
I'd like to hear some feedback from you, about anything that you read, or anything that I can relay to David, since he's got a better idea of the world around him. He talks about different (and somewhat random) things relating to Missouri, but so far I have not been keeping track. He sounds like he's trying to incorporate the two different households into one in his mind, and yet make a distinction between the two. Actually, it's very difficult to keep track of his Missouri references, because they happen so often, and out of context. He said something today about his sissy, and mommy, and Tait. I wish I could remember what it was.
David now can go potty completely by himself, with no help from anyone...he does need help wiping, so I've got to make sure that happens...
We went to the zoo, like usual, but this time he did two new things: first, there was the back-tracking. We normally have a path that we follow, and it's always the same. This time when we went through the aquarium part, David saw the manatees. Now, there's two big windows were you can see the manatees in the water, and they are floor to ceiling. There's some benches to sit on so you can watch, and behind the benches are displays that talk about the manatee, and the other sea life in the aquarium. So we were at the second set of benches, and David wanted more information about the manatee, so he went looking for the display, but it wasn't behind the benches we were at, so he backtracked back to the other display. This is unusual since he never goes backwards, only forwards, basically in one direction. He also went to see the birds as the first thing we did in park, but he wanted the birds to be the last thing, too. So that's a new part of our itinerary through the zoo.
I think I mentioned this before, but David is having me spell all the words he sees, or he is spelling them for himself. Sometimes he's spelling them backwards, which confuses me, because I don't recognize the order of the letters. While we were at the zoo, he saw a man-hole cover, with the word "storm" written on it. And he says the letters, then asks me what the word is, and I tell him "storm." And immediate recognition crosses through his expression, in an epiphany: "Storm! Like a rainstorm!" he yells; he's so excited. And then he tells me about the itsy-bitsy spider, and the waterspout, complete with hand motions. And speaking of spiders, he has me looking around the house for spiders, but I have no idea why. He has me turn off all the lights, and then we get out the flashlight and look all around the house. He even makes me "creep" around with him, like cartoon characters that are sneaking quietly so that whatever-it-is doesn't find them, or hear them.
And it was very cold again this week, on two different nights, but we managed to stay warm. I hope you're keeping warm on these cold days and nights.
Rusty
A beautiful moment
Naps are precious, aren't they? I'm sleepy myself, today. Not sure why. I went to bed at a decent hour, but David woke me up with a cute smile, so I couldn't be mad at him. I love those days when I wake up and there he is, just trading glances with me, smiling, furrowing eyebrows...playing with our facial expressions. It means it will be a great day. And today has been.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
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