David Weekly, V3 - 29

David loves dinosaus. He can tell you all about them, with surprising detail. He also loves stickers. He put a bunch of dinosaur stickers on his arms and said "I'm all stickered up!" Later on, however, he found, to his chagrin, that stickers don't stay on his skin very well...but it's these particular dinosaur stickers that aren't particularly sticky. But he loves his dinosaur sticker book, and it's a real challenge for him to take the stickers off one page, and then put them on the appropriate page...The stickers are in groups, and they say what page to put them on, and then what he has to do is match the sillhouette with the sticker he's got. I'm frequently called over to help.

Someone suggested that I write the David Weekly TO David as an adult looking back, instead of his mom, so I'm going to try that in this post.

Dear David,

You have a tendency to want to shout in my ear, to make sure I hear you. You're such a cutie, but you hate it when I give you too many kisses. It's hard in the mornings for you, to wake up, because you have no desire to go to sleep at night when it's bed time. We read books most nights, and we go through the Highlights Magazine for 5 year olds (High 5 is what it's called). The nights we don't read, it's because it's too late, and you're usually asleep anyway. I was so proud of you the other night, for being able to point out the words I wasn't reading. Now, either you could read them, or you've heard me say that enough that you just know what they are. The cool thing though is that you could point to where the words are on the page. Nice job. You've also let me know not to "over praise" you. So I'm just supposed to tell you, "Good Job!" and leave it at that, and not make a bigger deal about things.

So we went to lunch w/ Mimi today (Sunday), and she told you ahead of time that you need to sit still at the table. She said later that you behaved well (even if you were driving me a bit crazy). While at the restaurant, we watched football on TV, and you were able to describe a "sack" in football. "It's when the other team attacks, and knocks the other guy down," is what what you said. Mimi was impressed that you were able to so well describe a major football play, after only having told you once. So we went to the water park in Zephyrhills. Then after that, we went back to Mimi's and played in her pool, and made a whirlpool. That was a lot of fun.

Saturday you got to meet my aunt Bette. You did not know what to make of this, and it was far too much for you to deal with. You were saying over and over that you didn't want to look at her, or for her to see you or look at you...you warmed up after a little while, but getting there was rough. I told you that I have an aunt just the same way as you.

Another thing we did on Saturday is buy you books as your reward for doing well at school, with all Greens for your behavior at school. The books were all about Dinosaurs. You rejected books about stories, and went straight, hard-core non-fiction. We got a very detailed book about dinosaurs that is still appropriate for your age, and got a "Dinosaur train" book. I bought you Peter Pan (a Little Golden Book, not the Disney one), because I still want to share some adventures with you, since little boys need to exercise their imaginations. I told you that your imagination is important, since the first dinosaur bones that were found required imagination to put together. You didn't like that, and are having a hard time with it.

We went to Burger King on Friday night for dinner, also as part of your reward. But we had gotten a girl toy from the kid's meal, so we had to stop back by on Saturday and get the boy version, which made you happy. We went to a garage sale and you asked a lady who had Munchkins on her table if you could have one, and she said yes. So we went to another garage sale and complained (loudly) that they didn't have any donuts. So the guy there went into his house and got you a small chocolate milk (which was very generous of him). When you were done with the chocolate milk, you asked where the trash was! I was so proud of you. Made me feel like I've done something right in raising you.

Your swim lesson went great on Monday. And you did something while you were at the lesson that impressed me, and was exactly what I've been asking you to do: walk away. Another little boy in your swim class was touching you, wanting to play with the goggles you had on, and you kept telling him to stop touching you. And then, of your own accord, you moved out of his reach, and kept using your words: "Don't touch me!" He continued to do this, and you kept moving away and using your words. And you were well supervised enough that the swim teacher stopped him before it caused a much bigger problem. On the way home, you were telling me that "I think" means "maybe." I had trouble disputing that. At the very least, it means "I'm not sure" and you're not committing to that thought. You also told me that you got a green at school...

Wisdom from you: "kids need to have parents, so they don't go out on the street and maybe get killed".

Tuesday you got to spend with Avery and Jared...and you had a good time, like always.

Wednesday and Thursday, though, you had some major "explosions" as I call them, at Learning Space. You've been getting Green at Kindergarten, but when you have these problems at Learning Space I don't know how to reward you, and still give you the message that your behavior at daycare is unacceptable. We had a major discussion on Wednesday, about you vs your brain, for causing the behavior issues, and I just said you have to own your behavior, that if you get angry, you can just be angry, that you're allowed this emotion, but you also have to own your feelings, and what you do with your body. We made some progress on this front, because at least you quit saying it wasn't your fault. You owned it. By the way, what you did was specific: you were getting picked on by kids at daycare, and then naturally wanted to strike back at them. The problem is that even after being told not to, you went back to go hit them anyway, then you wanted to hit Ms. Nadine and Jesse! I think on Thursday you had less difficulty, but still, far too much! I asked you if you wanted to switch daycares, so I enrolled you in the school's after-school program. We'll see how you do there. Hopefully that will be a more controlled atmosphere. I'm very sad to make this change, but it's for what I believe is your best interest. You need structure, and hopefully you'll get that. I do also regret that you won't be doing dance this year, but I may still work on getting you involved in that somehow. We'll see what happens.

Last thing for this week: You're done w/ swimming lessons! You got a certificate and a ribbon, and a promotion. So I enrolled you in another swimming class. You're able to swim a little bit, and I know you'll get better! I love you, David...See you next week...

Your dad.