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?"