David Weekly, V3 - 14

David got back on Saturday afternoon...Amanda and I had a great talk about David at the Missouri for a week. (I have to admit that sometimes it's difficult for me to write the David Weekly. This is one of those times. That's why I'm late.)

She gave some great information. She discovered that part of David's issues at school/daycare is that he whines a lot! This whining causes him problems not with teachers, or adults, but the kids he interacts with. Amanda said that he alienated the kids at the daycare up there, partly also because of his reaction to their questions about his hand. His reaction was less than friendly. He generally has a slight lack of social skills. At more than one point, it seems that he will walk away from a conversation he's having with another kid mid-sentence. Another issue was his allergies up there. They were quite well handled though, with the prescription medicines that David has. Amanda told me a lot more, but my brain is limited...

When it was time to go, David really cried a lot. But he eventually fell asleeep in the back of the car on the way home...Later in the day Saturday after he got back, little things would set him off, in a much bigger way than normal. He would have very minor things make him cry for a lot, and not just that, but longer, and a lot harder than normal.

Also on Saturday, when we were playing with our light sabers, he immediately trumped me with the following: "If you have a crab hand, you're the good guy." He fell asleep on his own around 6 PM, and slept all the way through the night.

Since David decided he didn't want to go to the movie Saturday, I took him Sunday instead. We saw "How to Train your Dragon," which was a pretty good movie. David didn't wish to stay seated for the whole thing, and I had to keep reminding him not to leave my side. At a couple of points, he would hide his face, or declare that he was done with the movie, since it was too long. He was able to get through the slow parts, and could handle the action pretty well. Overall, he enjoyed it. Even better was that the Happy Meals at McDonald's have the different dragons from the movie. So he now has 2 dragons, and will likely be getting more.

At Amanda's prompting, David's got new blue shoes, which he loves. He shows them to everyone: "Look at my new shoes!" he says.

Back at school, David had a good Monday, but after that, things started going down hill: Ms Nadine says that he has good mornings, but the afternoons aren't so good. He's back to hitting and such, which we had conquered, but it may be the stress of the transition. I had tried to divide up the day into a check mark and an X, but that doesn't have the impact on him, because he only points out the check mark and ignores the X. So I told him that he has to have a completely good day in order to earn a check mark, and that we're not going to split the day up anymore.

On Thursday night, David got to meet a new babysitter, who is the daughter of a coworker. She's got certification in CPR, and works with kids. Her name is Taylor, and she's going to keep him at various points, since Jesse seems to be less and less available.

Lastly, David is able to read Green Eggs and Ham by himself, except for a few words. He still wants me to read to him, which I'm happy to do, but this is where I teach him about "hard work." I want him to get used to the feeling of struggling and accomplishing something. I also have to balance that with making reading fun by me reading to him...any suggestions on getting him to read but it being fun and and me helping him would be appreciated, and likely implemented.