David Weekly, V3 - 34

David and I had the best time on Saturday! I let him sleep in, and then when he got up, we lazed around for a while...he'd been saying he wants to go the zoo, since we haven't been there in a while. But I had other plans! We went instead to the art festival, which is at the green park. We walked all around, saw different kinds of art. David was not interested in most of it, though. He did like the lady who was actually doing the painting of some scenes, and asking about the different brushes she uses, because he wanted her to use the big brush, but she told him she was doing the detail work with a smaller brush. And then we went to green park itself and went on the swings. Somehow, he managed to pinch himself on his arm. We went to find the First Aid, but there wasn't any, so we asked the police officer stationed there if he knew of anything. He said that he had some band-aids, and he gave us one. His arm didn't bleed at all, so that was a good thing.

Then, after the art festival and the green park, we went to a garage sale. I'm glad we did, because I was able to get a good bunch of books for about $5. David really likes the books we got. Dr. Seuss, and some others. After the garage sale, we went to the zoo. This time, though, we didn't really do our normal run-walk through the zoo. What did do is go to one of the aviaries, and then the "Australia" part, and got some lunch. David ate his hot dog and french fries. He played in the little play area for a while, and then we went to the goat petting area. He touched all the goats, then got a brush and brushed them, too. After that, David wanted to go back to the aviary we'd been to before, and then got the idea to run around the path. The way it's set up, it's a circle that you start at the entrance, then exit the circle through the exit. So we ran the path a couple of times. Then, David got the idea to have us run in opposite directions! He thought that was great! We did a lot of that, and for a while. But then it was time to go...so we went home, and he didn't fall asleep in the car on the way home, which surprised me. David was feeling pretty good, because he even let me have a turn with the TV, which he never does. Of course, I rarely want a turn with the TV, so that works out. Usually it's a major struggle to get him to let me watch something. Anyway. He likes to play "Jump into daddy's arms and get thrown on the couch." But that's fun, so we do that.

I also had him sit down to do his homework. Which he did! Then I had to go over it again with him, show him how to make his work neater. I told him about learning again, since he was so worried about it before. I'm doing my best to show him that learning is 1) Hard Work 2) practicing something you already know, but getting better at it 3) just plain and simple worth your time 4) not something you can only do in a classroom.

Another interesting thing is that David was telling me that he has to "respect Tae Kwondo" and that means respecting others. I'm feeling a bit better about the choice to put him in there. He is beginning to ingest those values that they are teaching. I'm not totally sure if that means his behavior is going to change, but at least he's got some value attached to what he's doing.

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Skip a week or two -- I talked to my friend James, about the fact that I'm not sending these out weekly anymore - he suggests that I maybe change this to the David Digest, and just when it gets a certain amount of detail, send it out. Not a bad idea. I went away for a week, and had David stay with Jesse, and my sister, and my mom. David missed me a lot, my mom said. Rachel told me that the Monday I was gone, David had a terrible coughing fit, and that they were up all night. The rest of the week passed without incident that I'm aware of. I got back last Saturday, before Thanksgiving, and David was very happy to see me.

One of the benefits and curses of Thanksgiving is that kids are out of school. As a result, David ended up spending Sunday night w/ Mimi, and Tuesday night as well. Tuesday night when I called to check on him, he was telling Mimi that he misses me. Mimi has been a saint to keep David extra time this week for me. He went to Tae Kwondo on Tuesday. Tuesday night and Wednesday he spent with Mimi, and Jared and Avery. Mimi told me that they played whiffle-ball, and that David was pretty good at hitting the balls! David had a good time. Wednesday night was with me. Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we went to Rachel's for turkey and dressing. Of course, David isn't very good at sitting at the table, sitting still, eating his food. Somewhere along the line, he went from eating everything, to eating not very much. He really enjoys playing with Avery and Jared a lot. At the table, he was singing a song that Rachel captured on video, of him singing what each animal says, and then saying it. "A lion goes roar, roar!" It was funny because then he sang about "a dinosaur goes roar, ROAR!!"

Lately, David "phonetically spells" words for me, by "syllable": 't - ur - tle', or 'D - a - vid' -- he pronounces words by sound, in a kind of spelling them out by sound way. He also will sit himself down to do his homework without me telling him to, which I see as a good sign. I'm finding that he can read, but only words that he knows, and that he doesn't know how to sound out unfamiliar words. I find this to be troubling, because it turns English into a language like Chinese - you just have to know the symbols as a unit, and not how they are pieced together. What counter-acts this is programs on PBS, like the Electric Company, which spends time explaining how to piece words together from smaller sound units.

He also likes to whisper things in my ear, rather than saying it out loud, even when it's not a secret. If anything, he doesn't seem to think of trying to tell me secrets.

We went for pictures the other day, and he behaved, mostly. It was a lot better than last time. If you would like some photos, just ask, and I'll send some. I only posted one on FB, but I have more. :-)

So there ya go, two weeks...

Rusty