David Weekly, V3 - 16

Friday night (April 30), David and I went to the beach with Cinnamon, to see the sunset, and meet some of her friends. David had a blast! Enjoyed running around....got cold in the wind, though. This was the beach at Siesta Key where we spent some time last summer. David fell asleep in the car on the way down there. When we did finally get there, he woke up, and I carried him to the water. At that point the sun was just hitting the water, and the wind picked up, which made for a very cold boy. So I put him in a pit, and gave him my shirt to keep warm. The pit was about a foot down that someone had dug earlier in the day, and then also built up a bit, too. It made for a great wind break. After it got dark, we all hung out in the parking lot, and then went to a restaurant to eat. David was a very well behaved boy. I was very proud of him.

Saturday we went to the zoo. It took more of my day than I planned. The reason is that normally we go there and almost literally run around the zoo, and that takes about an hour, but not this time. He got the idea that we should go to the zoo because he has a zoo book which is just pictures with labels and he thought it would be good to compare the book to the zoo so we took it with us. So at the zoo, every time we'd come up to a new animal, we'd look it up in the book. And he would sit down on the ground or whatever was available, and figure out where it was, and what it was, and I would ask him to compare/contrast the animals in the book with the real life ones. So he would point out the differences, and similarities.

I've never had such a good time with him at the zoo. He was delightful, not demanding or whiney or clingy, and the book gave him something to do. He also displayed his smarts. By the rhinos and zebras there is a giraffe skull in a glass case. David pointed it out and said it was a giraffe skull. I asked him how he knew it was a giraffe skull and he says, "Because it says it." I ask him where, and points out the words that are on the case, plain as day.

The zoo was a very successful trip. He used various skills in the book, and with the book: searching for something, reading, comparing/contrasting.

Sunday, we went to church in the morning, and I heard David later singing one of the songs from the church: "Holy Holy Holy" because that's all they say in the song, over and over. He was very good when he went with the other children. We went home, then a bit later in the afternoon we went to an art festival, and of course, they had the bounce houses and a giant slide. So I let him go on those things, since he'd been so good all weekend. After that, we went to visit with my friend Tracy, her husband, and son. We went swimming. I put water wings on David and we splashed and swam around the pool. He got in the water with me, but was very afraid to let go! Of course, I never did, but I was able show him that he can support himself in the water, and spent some time teaching him how to kick his legs. I'm sure we'll be doing more of that this summer.

His record for school this week: check marks on Monday and Tuesday, X on Wednesday, check Thursday, X for Friday. Wednesday when he got the X, he cried for quite some time after getting home. He said, "I'm not going to eat those cookies until tomorrow when I've had a good day." I've told him that he is in charge of himself, and that he can control his own behavior. I think his main problem is simply lack of structured time. Or rather, during free time, he can't just sit still, or interact very well with others. He needs something to do. But he gets along with Jared and Avery when he's with them, and the time is unstructured. This kid is a tough nut to crack.

Meanwhile:

David tells me things like, "2 + 1 = 3". Unfortunately, he also says, "1 + 2 = 12" because putting the one and two together makes the twelve...

David says "Hydroxizine" and "Xyzal". He sings to himself in the car, and never forgets to brush his teeth. He can do it all by himself now! In fact, he's taking charge of more things of his own. He won't let me feed him anymore, and he's dressing himself. It still takes him forever to eat breakfast in the morning, though.

Silly Bandz: This is the first fad that I am reporting that David is involved in. Have you seen these? They're rubber bands in different shapes, like dinosaurs (David's favorite), and other animals or shapes. Jared had a bunch on his arm, and he and Avery were trading them back and forth, and David wanted in on this game. He then tells me that the dinosaur shape is Brachyasaurus!

Me: "David, did you have any nightmares last night?" His reply: "No, it was all about good dreams last night." I ask him this because at 5 AM he asks if he can sleep in my bed. It would seem for no good reason...Later on (the next day or two) he tells me with great sincerity about the nighmare he had with the zombies and such...very much like the week before.

I gave David a loquat (Japanese Plum), and he loved it! He's really intrigued by the large seeds of the fruit, too.

We're having another "argument." First, there are Dimetrodons, and there are Spinosauruses. Both of these two have giant "fans" on their backs, like a big crest with long bones that emanate from their backs, sharp teeth, claws, and are carnivors. Dimetrodons seem to have 4 legs, and the 4 legs are all the same size, and the creature walks on all 4 of them. Spinosauruses, on the other hand, are therapods (bipedal, and David pronounces it "ferapod"), and have shorter front legs that are almost hands. When confronted with these two different but very same looking creatures, he said they were both spinosauruses. I had to point out what makes them different. And thus began the "argument", with him trying to prove to me that they're the same, or trying at least to figure out how they aren't, because they look so similar. The way I'm writing about this is as if they're lizards out on the front porch, but these are dinosaurs, and lived a very long time ago. The dimetrodon is a toy figure, and the spinosaurus is in a book.

I ask David if he wants to tell anyone anything, since I'm writitng about him, and he says to tell his grandma and grandpa (the ones with the stairs - where you go down in the room where you play and where you sleep - that would be the the Kenneys) that he had good days at school, with check-marks. And he also says that he has a "radio with a little singing button" that plays songs. It's a Disney toy, which looks like a radio, and has little cartridges that play music from the various Disney movies, one cartridge per movie.

About David's sexual development: he noticed, as he was having a bath, that his two testicles, "look like boobs," he says. I said, no, those are testicles, and they're not what he said at all. And that they don't look like that anyway. They're part of how babies are made. He seemed to accept this, and went on playing with the toys in the bath, and telling me something else unrelated. The next day he said he didn't want babies to grow inside of him. I said that they won't, because he's a small child himself, and that boys don't ever have babies growing inside of them. I said that girls do, and he chimed in that only grownups do. I told him that's right.

Finally, he got to spend Friday night (May 7) at Rachel's house, with his cousins.

So this is quite a week!