Rusty has been so busy with work and school that he hasn’t had a chance to write one of these for a while. I (Cinnamon – the girlfriend) decided to try to remember some of things he has told me in conversations so that there will be the record for David I know Rusty wants.
We’ll start with something recent. David woke up on his own and instead of waking Rusty up, he decided to get ready for school on his own. He got dressed and started making his lunch. From what I understand he did a pretty good job on it too. Very impressive for a 5 year old (then again, David is a very impressive boy).
This is just one of the ways that David is exerting his independence. Not too long ago he told his dad that he wanted to start riding the bus to school. Rusty explained to him that meant getting ready earlier and eating breakfast at school, but David really wanted to do it. So now David takes the bus to school in the morning. A good side effect of this is that he met some other kids around his age on his bus/bus stop from the neighborhood that he can play with. Up to this point they didn’t really know any of the other kids his age to play with, just a few older ones and that can be very frustrating for David. The little boy who lives across the street likes to play with David and Rusty, but isn’t at the age where he knows how to play with a 5 year old, but he tries.
David is doing really well with Tae Kwon Do after school. He has received his yellow belt and seems to take the instruction seriously. David had been doing a great job in school, not getting many behavior marks, but then when he came back from visiting his mother over spring break he started having a problem controlling himself again. Rusty decided the best course of action was to have the instructors at TKD look at his behavior notes from school and discipline him there. David was very, very unhappy with this idea. Rusty gave him one more chance to improve, but when the next day David still was having problems, Rusty did what he said he would. David may not have been happy, but whatever they do at TDK, it works. He may not be perfect (but what kid is) but the improvement was quick.
Speaking of Spring break – as I said, David got to go visit his mom and “sissy”. He really loves to visit his sissy. He says she defends him when people ask him about his hand. “He was born that way.” We think he really appreciates someone else saying it so he doesn’t have to keep doing it.
His mother also made an astute observation that David was using his “buddy” as a glove. He wraps it around his hand so it can’t be seen. Now a decision has to be made on if and when to take his buddy away. Rusty limits when he is allowed to take it out now. He allows David to bring it in the car, but won’t let him bring it in when we go places. Most of the time David is fine, he only seems to want it when he gets upset or bored.
David has also become a master of sorts at video games. He now has favorites on the Wii, the iTouch and the computer. I swear the boy knows how to operate my Wii better than I do. He likes driving games, but likes to switch off to other things sometimes. He plays a game on the iTouch where he solves puzzles that are associated with dinosaurs – which he loves. He’s good and loves to show off how well he does. He wants me to watch him play and when he gets through a level he tells me “I wasn’t even trying”.
Speaking of dinosaurs, Rusty, David, Mimi, Cayenne (my daughter) and I went to Animal Kingdom. They have a good size Dino area that David enjoyed. He could have (and wanted to) stay there the whole day. Rusty explained that we have to take turns getting to do things and he just accepted it – no fights- he understood. When he wanted to do things he would ask when his turn was and then wait patiently. It helped that he did seem to enjoy everything we did. We saw the Finding Nemo and Lion King shows and he was just mesmerized. He enjoyed seeing the animals (both in person and in a movie in the conservation area). The only time he really had any issues was when it rained and he wanted to not get wet. Even then he wasn’t having a fit or anything like he has in the past.
That seems like enough for now. I will end on a different note: Rusty has been working very hard in school. Last semester was a bear. I’m surprised he has any of his beautiful hair left the way he was pulling it out. He did a great job though and got excellent grades to show for it. So, even though he would love to be keeping up with these better – he’s doing what he can to make life better for him and David.
