David did better at the recital than he did at the dress rehearsal. He was such a good performer! I will send pictures and video on disk when he goes back up there in July. There's a production company that professionally makes video of the kids dancing, so I'll make a copy or two and send those as well. On Tuesday (the day he was sick), he was asking about dancing practice: he wanted to be there for that. I told him that for the summer, there's no dancing. When he comes back from the Missouri, I'll see what I can do to make sure he's dancing again, and I'm thinking also of putting him in a sport, like soccer.
David loves going to Jesse's church...
David got a dinosaur egg from Cracker Barrel. The way it works is is that you set it in water for 24 - 48 hours, and it sssssssllllllllooooooowly hatches. David got really excited when it made the slightest change, which also means he was really keeping his eye on it. It hatched after two days, and then we took it out of its shell, because it was supposed to grow more.
Sunday, Mimi came over to our house for Father's Day, and David got out the book "There's a Wocket in my Pocket" (by Dr. Seuss) and read it to Mimi. There were a few words he doesn't know still, but he did a great job anyway. Most importantly, he did this completely of his own volition. He notes, too, that the book has a lot of rhyming words.
Monday was a bad day for David: he bit another child, and it would seem that it was for no other reason than the other child looked at David the wrong way. So, in addition to getting an X on the calendar, and no treat, I also took away TV, and have him go into Time Out when he got home. I don't know what to say or do to prevent this behavior, or what drives it.
Tuesday, David brought "There's a Wocket in my Pocket" to school, to show Ms. Tiffany that it has a lot of rhyming words. After about 2 seconds of showing it to her, David sat on the floor, and began to read the book aloud, with no one in particular to read it to, and a group of kids gathered around him to watch him read it! It was quite an amazing thing. And he read the book (mostly). He was very proud of himself for this. And so am I. Unfortunately, this is offset by his behavior: he spit on another child. Ms. Yolanda (another new teacher) and I discussed this a little bit, and it seems that David does not deal with rejection very well.
Wednesday was a good day for David (finally!). He got chocolate chip cookies for his reward.
Random detail: when Mimi was at our house, she called for me from the other room, and David came to me to say "Daddy, your mom wants you in the other room." It was interesting to see him figure out how to say that, and to take himself out of the relationship equation, as if it's not Mimi, or that I'm not his dad...
Friday morning, another trip to the doctor revealed that he still has nodules of some kind on his throat, so we swabbed it again and are having it sent to the lab for testing. He finished his medicine like a champ, but was happy when he didn't have to take it anymore. I asked the doctor about how often he gets sick, and she said he's one of the healthier children in her practice.
So another week has gone by...
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
David Weekly, V3 - 22
I forgot to mention that David got a medal for his dancing. He was very proud of it.
I also forgot to talk about his behavior from the calendar perspective: Thursday (June 10), he got neither a check mark, nor an X. It was an ambiguous day for him. David didn't like that. It's a big blank. He isn't sure what to do about that, because he had a bad day, in that he was very handsy and aggressive, but at the same time, did go to Time Out the way he was supposed to, and didn't challenge the teacher. As a result of this, I wasn't sure what to put, but it did get us to tightening the standards of what's expected to get a check mark. Friday, no one could think of anything, so that means, we hope, that he had a good day - his behavior didn't stand out.
Sunday morning, I had David help me with making blueberry muffins. He really likes doing that.
David went to Jared's birthday party, and had a blast. He was finally big enough to keep up with Jared and his friends. That made him very happy. David was, in fact, very well behaved at the party, all the way around.
After the party, we were hanging out at Rachel's house. David, when told by Avery, "Working through the pain," repeated after her, "Working in the paint." Avery thought that was sooo funny. Another thing David said was that we have to make sure to get Jared a birthday card for his birthday to make sure he "won't ever have another birthday again." So the implications of not getting a birthday card for Jared are dire: if we don't, he'll never have another birthday again!
Tuesday morning, David woke up with another fever. Another trip to the doctor revealed that we needed Augmentin, since the 10 days' worth of Amoxycillin didn't do the trick, apparently. Everyone (not just the doctor) asked me if I gave him the full course, and I said I did, since it's easy to just add another medicine to our daily routine of Xyzal in the morning, and Hydroxizine at night. So we stayed home Tuesday, and David took a nice long 3 hour nap in the middle of the day, didn't eat a whole lot, asked to have his temperature taken a lot, drank lots of gold-juice (orange juice), played a little bit on the computer, watched lots of kids' shows on TV...he wasn't as bad as last time he got sick, which was good. I allowed him to "keep" his fever since it never got higher than 101, and he wasn't too uncomfortable. It went away on its own by Wednesday morning, after two full doses (7.5 mL) of medicine, which David does not like.
David says: "Hello to all his friends from Florida to everywhere else, and I'm a little shy and I sometimes I am not and somebody hits me and I tell the teacher, and the little boy with a pointy head, he has a different head than us, and then he knocked down a whole big entire builiding w/ legos and I helped him build another one. And we had fun but he made another one then I went in Time Out and I stayed in Time Out until I played a game like hand and foot...you put each hand and foot on each color. And then Tremon did it, ... His name is Tremon, and when he left I got it and I did and then we were done."
- So it would seem he played Twister, and does and does not get along with another boy who has some serious hair going on. The staying in Time Out issue he's referring to is one of our big challenges: staying in Time Out when he's told. He gets so worked up about whatever it is (one of my big frustrations is I don't know what triggers this anger, no matter how many times I ask. David doesn't know - or isn't telling - and the teachers aren't so interested, or they are too used to kids fighting, but whatever it is, they just want it to stop) that he doesn't stop to calm down, and has to get in the last hit, no matter what.
Except for him being sick, this has been a pretty uneventful week. He was looking forward to more dancing, but since it's summer, no dancing. He also asks me all the time what various numbers added together are. "What's 2+2, daddy?" And so on.
David's birthday is coming up in 9 days. Things I think he would like: puzzles, dinosaur anything, more books, bakugon stuff, hot wheel cars, more stuff for him color with, clothes...this is the only child I've ever seen be very happy with getting clothes as a gift. He seems more content with not wearing red so much, by the way. And we're having his party at Dinosaur World again. David is very excited.
I also forgot to talk about his behavior from the calendar perspective: Thursday (June 10), he got neither a check mark, nor an X. It was an ambiguous day for him. David didn't like that. It's a big blank. He isn't sure what to do about that, because he had a bad day, in that he was very handsy and aggressive, but at the same time, did go to Time Out the way he was supposed to, and didn't challenge the teacher. As a result of this, I wasn't sure what to put, but it did get us to tightening the standards of what's expected to get a check mark. Friday, no one could think of anything, so that means, we hope, that he had a good day - his behavior didn't stand out.
Sunday morning, I had David help me with making blueberry muffins. He really likes doing that.
David went to Jared's birthday party, and had a blast. He was finally big enough to keep up with Jared and his friends. That made him very happy. David was, in fact, very well behaved at the party, all the way around.
After the party, we were hanging out at Rachel's house. David, when told by Avery, "Working through the pain," repeated after her, "Working in the paint." Avery thought that was sooo funny. Another thing David said was that we have to make sure to get Jared a birthday card for his birthday to make sure he "won't ever have another birthday again." So the implications of not getting a birthday card for Jared are dire: if we don't, he'll never have another birthday again!
Tuesday morning, David woke up with another fever. Another trip to the doctor revealed that we needed Augmentin, since the 10 days' worth of Amoxycillin didn't do the trick, apparently. Everyone (not just the doctor) asked me if I gave him the full course, and I said I did, since it's easy to just add another medicine to our daily routine of Xyzal in the morning, and Hydroxizine at night. So we stayed home Tuesday, and David took a nice long 3 hour nap in the middle of the day, didn't eat a whole lot, asked to have his temperature taken a lot, drank lots of gold-juice (orange juice), played a little bit on the computer, watched lots of kids' shows on TV...he wasn't as bad as last time he got sick, which was good. I allowed him to "keep" his fever since it never got higher than 101, and he wasn't too uncomfortable. It went away on its own by Wednesday morning, after two full doses (7.5 mL) of medicine, which David does not like.
David says: "Hello to all his friends from Florida to everywhere else, and I'm a little shy and I sometimes I am not and somebody hits me and I tell the teacher, and the little boy with a pointy head, he has a different head than us, and then he knocked down a whole big entire builiding w/ legos and I helped him build another one. And we had fun but he made another one then I went in Time Out and I stayed in Time Out until I played a game like hand and foot...you put each hand and foot on each color. And then Tremon did it, ... His name is Tremon, and when he left I got it and I did and then we were done."
- So it would seem he played Twister, and does and does not get along with another boy who has some serious hair going on. The staying in Time Out issue he's referring to is one of our big challenges: staying in Time Out when he's told. He gets so worked up about whatever it is (one of my big frustrations is I don't know what triggers this anger, no matter how many times I ask. David doesn't know - or isn't telling - and the teachers aren't so interested, or they are too used to kids fighting, but whatever it is, they just want it to stop) that he doesn't stop to calm down, and has to get in the last hit, no matter what.
Except for him being sick, this has been a pretty uneventful week. He was looking forward to more dancing, but since it's summer, no dancing. He also asks me all the time what various numbers added together are. "What's 2+2, daddy?" And so on.
David's birthday is coming up in 9 days. Things I think he would like: puzzles, dinosaur anything, more books, bakugon stuff, hot wheel cars, more stuff for him color with, clothes...this is the only child I've ever seen be very happy with getting clothes as a gift. He seems more content with not wearing red so much, by the way. And we're having his party at Dinosaur World again. David is very excited.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
David Weekly, V3 - 21
David found his harmonica, and was playing "songs" on it. Normally, most kids that get a harmonica play with it by making some sounds, and then they're done, off to other things. But not David. He really played it for a while. Made me get my bamboo flute out and we played together...you're probably glad you missed the cacophony, but David watched me, and imitated some of my movements, like me licking my lips (which he imitated by licking his own lips), and saying "I taught myself this song", because that's what I had said about playing (I played do-ra-mi). He will pick it up and play it from time to time now, and uses the music as part of the stories he tells me about things at school, or whatever else is on his mind.
Lots of tidbits this week:
When David was sick last week, he was feeling hopeless: "I'll never get better" and he describes his being sick as "seasick."
David doesn't get the idea of "tall" vs "long"...so everything is a certain amount of tall...
Saturday morning, we went to the dojo to watch the karate class. I think we're going to wait for another year maybe for him to go to karate, because David wasn't totally getting it. It wasn't karate the way he was thinking, I think, because it was a class, with lots of practice and drills, and even the instructor was a little leary of having someone so young as the boy there. I did feel that it was a good choice, because it was truly defensive teaching, and based on character, and doing the right thing. There really was a lot of karate going on, it just didn't have the flash that I think he was expecting. He often got bored, and wanted to play, rather than watch. We watched the class in the background, and did a few of the exercises along with the class. David actually liked that part. He just requires more time and attention, and maybe a more age appropriate group. I'm still figuring it out. We may explore some other schools to see if there's something more suitable for him.
Went to the beach on Saturday evening. At one point I told David we have to start walking back toward our stuff, since the waves had carried us down the beach. On our way back, David said in a funny voice: "The waves are saying, 'Rusty and David, go this way...'" I about fell over laughing. What a great sense of humor this boy has!
Tuesday night, saw another kid down the street playing. He's Tyler, age 6. We went down to introduce ourselves, and hopefully these two boys can play some more in the future. David and Tyler didn't really interact as much as appreciate the fact that they were in the same playing area.
For David's behavior: I was told by Ms Tiffany that David's been acting out lately, but she hasn't been able to tell me about his behavior (because I get there after she leaves), so we will get a calendar at school for his behavior, too.
David's concept of a big number is 29. It's comparable to 1,000,000. He says something like, "I can count to 29, it's a big number, like a million!" ...When making other types of comparisons, he talks about "our land"...
David reacts to the TV more, when something is going "wrong", such as Curious George on TV doing the wrong thing, David sees this and will hide, or shout, or groan loudly, or go into the other room until the conflict has passed, which is usually a few seconds.
David has decided he like Jesse's baby after all, and entertains her in various ways, to make her laugh. He gets a kick out of it. Anna and Jesse came to our house and spent some time having dinner with us, and watching a movie. David really liked having them over.
David can climb and jump over the 3 foot fence in our yard, and stay upright!
David has a game we play: "I love you, daddy," he says. My job is to say, "I love you, too!" If I don't say it right, David repeats his line.
In discussing David's difficulty in falling asleep at bed time, he told me that the voices tell him to stay awake. Then he tells me that it's the animals in his body: the charlie horse, and the butterflies. He gets the animals from the Operation game. He says that the animals sleep all day and play at night, and that's what keeps him awake. I had a conversation with butterflies in his stomach, and the charlie horse in his leg, that they need to let him sleep, but then I thought of an even better one: tell the animals (or other voices that keep him awake) that he can see them in his dreams, and that it will be more fun there.
Friday night, David had his dance recital dress rehearsal, and was all dressed up in his cute little outfit! I'll sent pictures up there with him, along with some video that I took. Saturday June 12 is his recital. David did absolutely great! And he was very good because he sat and watched all the other dancers before it was his turn.
So that's a week...
Lots of tidbits this week:
When David was sick last week, he was feeling hopeless: "I'll never get better" and he describes his being sick as "seasick."
David doesn't get the idea of "tall" vs "long"...so everything is a certain amount of tall...
Saturday morning, we went to the dojo to watch the karate class. I think we're going to wait for another year maybe for him to go to karate, because David wasn't totally getting it. It wasn't karate the way he was thinking, I think, because it was a class, with lots of practice and drills, and even the instructor was a little leary of having someone so young as the boy there. I did feel that it was a good choice, because it was truly defensive teaching, and based on character, and doing the right thing. There really was a lot of karate going on, it just didn't have the flash that I think he was expecting. He often got bored, and wanted to play, rather than watch. We watched the class in the background, and did a few of the exercises along with the class. David actually liked that part. He just requires more time and attention, and maybe a more age appropriate group. I'm still figuring it out. We may explore some other schools to see if there's something more suitable for him.
Went to the beach on Saturday evening. At one point I told David we have to start walking back toward our stuff, since the waves had carried us down the beach. On our way back, David said in a funny voice: "The waves are saying, 'Rusty and David, go this way...'" I about fell over laughing. What a great sense of humor this boy has!
Tuesday night, saw another kid down the street playing. He's Tyler, age 6. We went down to introduce ourselves, and hopefully these two boys can play some more in the future. David and Tyler didn't really interact as much as appreciate the fact that they were in the same playing area.
For David's behavior: I was told by Ms Tiffany that David's been acting out lately, but she hasn't been able to tell me about his behavior (because I get there after she leaves), so we will get a calendar at school for his behavior, too.
David's concept of a big number is 29. It's comparable to 1,000,000. He says something like, "I can count to 29, it's a big number, like a million!" ...When making other types of comparisons, he talks about "our land"...
David reacts to the TV more, when something is going "wrong", such as Curious George on TV doing the wrong thing, David sees this and will hide, or shout, or groan loudly, or go into the other room until the conflict has passed, which is usually a few seconds.
David has decided he like Jesse's baby after all, and entertains her in various ways, to make her laugh. He gets a kick out of it. Anna and Jesse came to our house and spent some time having dinner with us, and watching a movie. David really liked having them over.
David can climb and jump over the 3 foot fence in our yard, and stay upright!
David has a game we play: "I love you, daddy," he says. My job is to say, "I love you, too!" If I don't say it right, David repeats his line.
In discussing David's difficulty in falling asleep at bed time, he told me that the voices tell him to stay awake. Then he tells me that it's the animals in his body: the charlie horse, and the butterflies. He gets the animals from the Operation game. He says that the animals sleep all day and play at night, and that's what keeps him awake. I had a conversation with butterflies in his stomach, and the charlie horse in his leg, that they need to let him sleep, but then I thought of an even better one: tell the animals (or other voices that keep him awake) that he can see them in his dreams, and that it will be more fun there.
Friday night, David had his dance recital dress rehearsal, and was all dressed up in his cute little outfit! I'll sent pictures up there with him, along with some video that I took. Saturday June 12 is his recital. David did absolutely great! And he was very good because he sat and watched all the other dancers before it was his turn.
So that's a week...
Friday, June 4, 2010
David Weekly, V3 - 20
Saturday before Memorial Day, David had a great time at the party we went to. Lots of people, lots of fun. He said several times, at the top of his voice for all to hear: "This party is awesome!" or "This is great!" Everyone got a big kick out of that. People would tell me how smart David is. David had lots of fun swimming in the pool "by himself"...this consisted of having a special floatie vest (the people whose pool it was allowed David to use it) and clinging to the side of the pool. There were lots of adults around, but I stayed close to the pool and kept an eye on him. He said something quite clever at one point, and I asked him how he knew that, and said, "I just thought about it." I hate that I can't remember what it was he said.
I think I mentioned last week that David really likes "Ultraman", and now he wants to fight me all the time. I figure I'll channel this desire into something which might be a better choice: karate. On our way to the party, we tried tk go by a place that practices the kind of karate that I would want David to learn, so he could see them in action, but they were closed, which surprised me. The type of karate I want him to learn is Goju-ryu, which is a hard/soft style of karate, and doesn't emphasize fighting so much as...the forms of fighting, which I find to be better than simply learning how to fight. We're going to try again this weekend to go and see if it's something he might want to do. He's a bit young yet, but I wouldn't start it until after he comes back from the Missouri, which means late summer/early fall.
Sunday, we went to Jesse's church, as part of the solution to David's "needs a friend" issues. He really liked Sunday School a lot, and asked to go every week. I've asked Jesse to see if she can connect us with the boys at her Bible study and their parents to arrange for play dates. David really wants to have someone come to our house, and he wants to be able to go play with kids his own age. That's also the rationale for karate: it's an activity he might be interested in, and hopefully there's other kids, too, his age.
We spent Memorial Day at his Mimi's house, and had a lot of fun! Mimi set up her pool in the back, and David and I spent lots of time in her pool. Douglas came over, too, and David and he just played and played and played, and had so much fun! When it was time for Douglas to leave, David cried for a long time. He really likes Douglas, and gets along w/ him very well.
Random from David: he tells me we need a new house so that we can have 2 bathrooms.
David started the week with two check marks, but then he missed Thursday and Friday because of a fever...which turned out to be strep. Thursday, I just thought it was a 24 hour kind of bug. He climbed into my bed, and was very hot! I gave him children's Advil (not the recalled kind, either), which helped for a while, but the fever came back, and this made him be very unhappy, whiney, and clingy. So on Day 2 of him not getting better, I took him to the Doctor, who diagnosed strep (and was very happy about it, too, because it wasn't an undiagnosable virus.) He's on amoxycillin, which I got free from Publix...We went to get a new thermometer at the drug store, and David wanted to ask the pharmacist what kinds of fruit helps fevers. Of course, none does, but David decided he wanted fruit anyway. Because we were in Publix, we did a little grocery shopping. And got peaches, apples, an orange, blueberries, and a few other things. While we were going around,
David sitting in the cart, he made a discovery: 2 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 11, and so does 3 + 2 + 3 + 3 = 11. He was very excited about it. I complimented his intelligence ("You're so smart!") and he replied that he likes being smart.
His fever has finally come down, and he's had two doses of the anti-biotic, so he's back to his usual self. We'll be continuing his treatment for 9 more days.
I think I mentioned last week that David really likes "Ultraman", and now he wants to fight me all the time. I figure I'll channel this desire into something which might be a better choice: karate. On our way to the party, we tried tk go by a place that practices the kind of karate that I would want David to learn, so he could see them in action, but they were closed, which surprised me. The type of karate I want him to learn is Goju-ryu, which is a hard/soft style of karate, and doesn't emphasize fighting so much as...the forms of fighting, which I find to be better than simply learning how to fight. We're going to try again this weekend to go and see if it's something he might want to do. He's a bit young yet, but I wouldn't start it until after he comes back from the Missouri, which means late summer/early fall.
Sunday, we went to Jesse's church, as part of the solution to David's "needs a friend" issues. He really liked Sunday School a lot, and asked to go every week. I've asked Jesse to see if she can connect us with the boys at her Bible study and their parents to arrange for play dates. David really wants to have someone come to our house, and he wants to be able to go play with kids his own age. That's also the rationale for karate: it's an activity he might be interested in, and hopefully there's other kids, too, his age.
We spent Memorial Day at his Mimi's house, and had a lot of fun! Mimi set up her pool in the back, and David and I spent lots of time in her pool. Douglas came over, too, and David and he just played and played and played, and had so much fun! When it was time for Douglas to leave, David cried for a long time. He really likes Douglas, and gets along w/ him very well.
Random from David: he tells me we need a new house so that we can have 2 bathrooms.
David started the week with two check marks, but then he missed Thursday and Friday because of a fever...which turned out to be strep. Thursday, I just thought it was a 24 hour kind of bug. He climbed into my bed, and was very hot! I gave him children's Advil (not the recalled kind, either), which helped for a while, but the fever came back, and this made him be very unhappy, whiney, and clingy. So on Day 2 of him not getting better, I took him to the Doctor, who diagnosed strep (and was very happy about it, too, because it wasn't an undiagnosable virus.) He's on amoxycillin, which I got free from Publix...We went to get a new thermometer at the drug store, and David wanted to ask the pharmacist what kinds of fruit helps fevers. Of course, none does, but David decided he wanted fruit anyway. Because we were in Publix, we did a little grocery shopping. And got peaches, apples, an orange, blueberries, and a few other things. While we were going around,
David sitting in the cart, he made a discovery: 2 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 11, and so does 3 + 2 + 3 + 3 = 11. He was very excited about it. I complimented his intelligence ("You're so smart!") and he replied that he likes being smart.
His fever has finally come down, and he's had two doses of the anti-biotic, so he's back to his usual self. We'll be continuing his treatment for 9 more days.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
David Weekly, V3 - 19
David is lonely, I think. I can't exactly ask him if he's lonely, but I can tell that he needs playmates. He doesn't see Avery and Jared as much anymore, but does ask to play with them, and does want to play with other kids. I'm actively trying to expand my network of people who have kids so he can have friends that he can see on a regular basis. This is new territory for me, so we'll see how it goes. I've also asked him what other kinds of activiities he'd like to be involved it. Karate is one, which is my suggestion, and gymnastics is another. He likes dancing, so I'll keep him in that.
David has decided to watch Word World again, and is loving it all over again. I think he got bored with Diego, so switched back to that for a little while. It's interesting to see him interact with it now that he's a bit older, and has better reading skills than he did before. And speaking of reading skills...
Saturday (May 22), we went to buy more DVD's for David's reward, since he had all check marks for the week. I take him to the kids section, and he sees the Leap Frog DVD, and says, "I want the Math Circus!" It didn't even occur to me that he read it...I almost took it for granted. I was more impressed, and focused on, the fact that he wanted math rather than reading. It's elementary math, adding and subtracting. But he watched it over and over. The next big prize we'll shoot for is some good dinosaur (or other) books. I asked him when we went to the park, what the dinosaurs were that some kid had, just to see if he knew, and he said, "Karate-saurus" which I heard as "Chirosaurus" because he said it so fast. I was amazed. But then I asked how he knew, and he said, "I just made it up!"
I bought for myself an old TV Show on DVD called "UltraMan", which is a Japanese import that I watched when I was a kid. David really liked it, almost more than the DVD's he got for himself. It's basically a serial version of Japanese monster movies, where the hero turns into UltraMan and then fights the monsters who are trying to destroy Japan. David got really wrapped up in some of these shows, and would come and sit in my lap when the action got to be intense (according to his 4 year old mind). Overall he really liked it. I knew this because he would say "Ultra-Man!" over and over.
Sunday, we went to the beach for a little while to watch the sun set. We ended up in the water, and were skipping broken up pieces of sand-dollars that we'd find, since they're flat. David was calling them "flats," too. "Oh look daddy! A flat!" And he'd pick it up and throw it. Then he'd ask, "how many times did it skip?" He fell asleep in the car on the way over there, and we had about 45 minutes to play. I realized it seemed too short for him (of course, when a kid is playing, no matter when it ends it seems too short), so I promised him we'd go back for a longer time after school if he was good. He was good on Monday (check mark), and good on Tuesday (check mark), so we ate dinner, and had about 90 minutes to play. We met another little boy out at the beach. By the way, it was Indian Rocks Beach for Tuesday, and it was deserted! I didn't expect that. I wonder if the oil spill had anything to do with it. There were a few people here and there, but not a large number of people like I'm used to seeing. David loved playing with this child, and wanted to play "chase." The other boy is a couple of months younger, and wasn't so much into playing chase. So David would taunt him, mildly, just to get him to chase David. "na-na-boo-boo..." I think. It's a kids' taunt, but I'm not sure if that's the one. They would run between the water and the chair with our stuff on it. David was very happy!
On our way back from the beach, David sees Burger King, and wants me to stop so he can get something. I tell him we'll wait for the weekend. It was amazing how matter-of-fact he was about it. Very adult-like.
Wednesday, David went with Jesse to Jesse's Bible Study, and played very well with the kids that were there with their mom's. I asked Jesse to see if they would be willing to have their kids do a play date w/ David. I'm hopeful that they will, because David gets along very well with those kids, according to Jesse. I asked her about what she thinks is the difference between the kids at Bible Study and the kids at David's daycare, and she says it's because the kids at Learning Space aren't very nice to David. I have to wonder if David's not the "not nice" one, but then again, it may be a "boy" thing. It's very good that he can get along w/ the Bible Study kids, though. That gives me hope.
Thursday night we went to Avery and Jared's year end ceremony, and David was great until the (to a 4 year old mind) "boring" part, when they announce the awards. David was happy to be there for his cousins.
So I ask David what he wants to tell everyone:
"I had a good day today on Friday, 3 Fridays, and I had a good day here, here, here...Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and on 3 Friday checkmarks. I Love my daddy and my mommy and I have a sister, her name is Colleen. And she is very helpful and she's very delicate when I don't play with her, and she's not delicate and she's very happy when I do play with her and I love my sissy, and I like my cats up at the Missouri. And I want you to say I made a beautiful boat with a ladybug (he points to the picture he colored.) And I had a picture like that (he points to the one with his graduation cap and gown.) David likes some dinosaurs. And not T-Rexes."
He was watching me type as he was speaking, and made sure I typed the words he was saying. He was pointing at the calendar when he was telling me the first part. He's proud of his checkmarks. This week, he had 4. Wednesday was his bad day. It's amazing to me that he will go and put the check mark or the X, all on his own. I don't have to do a thing to get him to do it.
I asked Learning Space what David will be doing now that VPK is over, and they will be basically continuing w/ VPK work, because according to Ms. Nadine, "They'll lose everything they've learned..." if they don't keep doing it.
Reward for this week: Burger King! He'd been asking me to go at very inconvenient times, so I told him if he gets enough checkmarks, he can go there for dinner on Friday. I also told him that on the weekend he can go to McDonald's PlayPlace...He got enough checkmarks, so we had dinner at BK. David was very happy about this...
Lastly, I scheduled David for a Shriner's Appointment: October 5, 2010, at 2:15 PM. It's good for a checkup, and I need to ask for some help on addressing his desire to have 10 fingers like I do...for now, I just say it's the way it is...
David has decided to watch Word World again, and is loving it all over again. I think he got bored with Diego, so switched back to that for a little while. It's interesting to see him interact with it now that he's a bit older, and has better reading skills than he did before. And speaking of reading skills...
Saturday (May 22), we went to buy more DVD's for David's reward, since he had all check marks for the week. I take him to the kids section, and he sees the Leap Frog DVD, and says, "I want the Math Circus!" It didn't even occur to me that he read it...I almost took it for granted. I was more impressed, and focused on, the fact that he wanted math rather than reading. It's elementary math, adding and subtracting. But he watched it over and over. The next big prize we'll shoot for is some good dinosaur (or other) books. I asked him when we went to the park, what the dinosaurs were that some kid had, just to see if he knew, and he said, "Karate-saurus" which I heard as "Chirosaurus" because he said it so fast. I was amazed. But then I asked how he knew, and he said, "I just made it up!"
I bought for myself an old TV Show on DVD called "UltraMan", which is a Japanese import that I watched when I was a kid. David really liked it, almost more than the DVD's he got for himself. It's basically a serial version of Japanese monster movies, where the hero turns into UltraMan and then fights the monsters who are trying to destroy Japan. David got really wrapped up in some of these shows, and would come and sit in my lap when the action got to be intense (according to his 4 year old mind). Overall he really liked it. I knew this because he would say "Ultra-Man!" over and over.
Sunday, we went to the beach for a little while to watch the sun set. We ended up in the water, and were skipping broken up pieces of sand-dollars that we'd find, since they're flat. David was calling them "flats," too. "Oh look daddy! A flat!" And he'd pick it up and throw it. Then he'd ask, "how many times did it skip?" He fell asleep in the car on the way over there, and we had about 45 minutes to play. I realized it seemed too short for him (of course, when a kid is playing, no matter when it ends it seems too short), so I promised him we'd go back for a longer time after school if he was good. He was good on Monday (check mark), and good on Tuesday (check mark), so we ate dinner, and had about 90 minutes to play. We met another little boy out at the beach. By the way, it was Indian Rocks Beach for Tuesday, and it was deserted! I didn't expect that. I wonder if the oil spill had anything to do with it. There were a few people here and there, but not a large number of people like I'm used to seeing. David loved playing with this child, and wanted to play "chase." The other boy is a couple of months younger, and wasn't so much into playing chase. So David would taunt him, mildly, just to get him to chase David. "na-na-boo-boo..." I think. It's a kids' taunt, but I'm not sure if that's the one. They would run between the water and the chair with our stuff on it. David was very happy!
On our way back from the beach, David sees Burger King, and wants me to stop so he can get something. I tell him we'll wait for the weekend. It was amazing how matter-of-fact he was about it. Very adult-like.
Wednesday, David went with Jesse to Jesse's Bible Study, and played very well with the kids that were there with their mom's. I asked Jesse to see if they would be willing to have their kids do a play date w/ David. I'm hopeful that they will, because David gets along very well with those kids, according to Jesse. I asked her about what she thinks is the difference between the kids at Bible Study and the kids at David's daycare, and she says it's because the kids at Learning Space aren't very nice to David. I have to wonder if David's not the "not nice" one, but then again, it may be a "boy" thing. It's very good that he can get along w/ the Bible Study kids, though. That gives me hope.
Thursday night we went to Avery and Jared's year end ceremony, and David was great until the (to a 4 year old mind) "boring" part, when they announce the awards. David was happy to be there for his cousins.
So I ask David what he wants to tell everyone:
"I had a good day today on Friday, 3 Fridays, and I had a good day here, here, here...Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and on 3 Friday checkmarks. I Love my daddy and my mommy and I have a sister, her name is Colleen. And she is very helpful and she's very delicate when I don't play with her, and she's not delicate and she's very happy when I do play with her and I love my sissy, and I like my cats up at the Missouri. And I want you to say I made a beautiful boat with a ladybug (he points to the picture he colored.) And I had a picture like that (he points to the one with his graduation cap and gown.) David likes some dinosaurs. And not T-Rexes."
He was watching me type as he was speaking, and made sure I typed the words he was saying. He was pointing at the calendar when he was telling me the first part. He's proud of his checkmarks. This week, he had 4. Wednesday was his bad day. It's amazing to me that he will go and put the check mark or the X, all on his own. I don't have to do a thing to get him to do it.
I asked Learning Space what David will be doing now that VPK is over, and they will be basically continuing w/ VPK work, because according to Ms. Nadine, "They'll lose everything they've learned..." if they don't keep doing it.
Reward for this week: Burger King! He'd been asking me to go at very inconvenient times, so I told him if he gets enough checkmarks, he can go there for dinner on Friday. I also told him that on the weekend he can go to McDonald's PlayPlace...He got enough checkmarks, so we had dinner at BK. David was very happy about this...
Lastly, I scheduled David for a Shriner's Appointment: October 5, 2010, at 2:15 PM. It's good for a checkup, and I need to ask for some help on addressing his desire to have 10 fingers like I do...for now, I just say it's the way it is...
Friday, May 21, 2010
David Weekly, V3 - 18
This has been a great week for David.
Saturday, we went to the flea market, primarily to get some vegetables, and they do have a farmers' market there, but we didn't really seem to be able to find it, though they do have vendors of all sorts there...So I had David choose: and he picked corn, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I was very impressed. We went to Mimi's and he at the cucumber/tomato salad with some Italian dressing. We also set up the pool and went swimming! David made a lot of noise, and really thoroughly enjoyed himself.
We also went to the USF bookstore, as I was buying a book from there. We walked through the new Marshall Center (aka, the student union), and David decided he wanted to climb the stairs to see his way all the way up. It's quite big inside, and is at least 4 stories tall. How did we go up? By climbing the stairs. David just loved it. He's very much an explorer, and I try to let him do that when we can, when I have time...
The week for David was great! 5 checkmarks for the week. He will be collecting his prize over the weekend: new videos!d He did have an instance of "a little hitting" but not a big fight, or anything else. He really kept a good handle on his emotions. One of the things I told him is that Time Out is his opportunity to keep having a good day, rather than go all the way to a bad day, and get an X on the calendar. This seemed to make sense to him, since I did question him about his day: "Did you get a Time Out?" He would say, "Yes, and I stayed in it, too! Did I have a good day?" He is insistent that I ask the teacher if he had a good day or not, rather than me just taking his word for it. I like that he seeks out that independent opinion.
He really was wanting his cousins to stay with us on Tuesday night, after school, since he stayed at their house on Monday after school. He later found out that they couldn't, and was very sorely disappointed. So we had Jared to stay with us on Friday instead. David had spent all week looking forward to them coming over, but Avery ended up not being able to come over. David hardly noticed, and was quite happy to have Jared around to play, and have fun with.
Thursday was David's VPK graduation. He was great! He was the "reader" of the group. He read a book, after describing the front of the book, the back of the book and the spine of the book. It was short and had easy words for him, but he was very able to read it. I was so proud of him! I'll be posting the video at some point in the near future, of the whole ceremony. I'm not sure if you want to sit through the whole thing, but it'll be there, and you can probably speed through a lot of it.
Friday, David had a party at school, but I didn't realize it had a theme, and David didn't feel dressed appropriately, so I had to get him the proper attire: loud orange shorts, and equally loud shirt to go with the shorts. It looked like he was going the beach, because it was a luau!
It's been both an uneventful week, and a momentous occasion kind of week.
Hope you've had a good week, too.
Saturday, we went to the flea market, primarily to get some vegetables, and they do have a farmers' market there, but we didn't really seem to be able to find it, though they do have vendors of all sorts there...So I had David choose: and he picked corn, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I was very impressed. We went to Mimi's and he at the cucumber/tomato salad with some Italian dressing. We also set up the pool and went swimming! David made a lot of noise, and really thoroughly enjoyed himself.
We also went to the USF bookstore, as I was buying a book from there. We walked through the new Marshall Center (aka, the student union), and David decided he wanted to climb the stairs to see his way all the way up. It's quite big inside, and is at least 4 stories tall. How did we go up? By climbing the stairs. David just loved it. He's very much an explorer, and I try to let him do that when we can, when I have time...
The week for David was great! 5 checkmarks for the week. He will be collecting his prize over the weekend: new videos!d He did have an instance of "a little hitting" but not a big fight, or anything else. He really kept a good handle on his emotions. One of the things I told him is that Time Out is his opportunity to keep having a good day, rather than go all the way to a bad day, and get an X on the calendar. This seemed to make sense to him, since I did question him about his day: "Did you get a Time Out?" He would say, "Yes, and I stayed in it, too! Did I have a good day?" He is insistent that I ask the teacher if he had a good day or not, rather than me just taking his word for it. I like that he seeks out that independent opinion.
He really was wanting his cousins to stay with us on Tuesday night, after school, since he stayed at their house on Monday after school. He later found out that they couldn't, and was very sorely disappointed. So we had Jared to stay with us on Friday instead. David had spent all week looking forward to them coming over, but Avery ended up not being able to come over. David hardly noticed, and was quite happy to have Jared around to play, and have fun with.
Thursday was David's VPK graduation. He was great! He was the "reader" of the group. He read a book, after describing the front of the book, the back of the book and the spine of the book. It was short and had easy words for him, but he was very able to read it. I was so proud of him! I'll be posting the video at some point in the near future, of the whole ceremony. I'm not sure if you want to sit through the whole thing, but it'll be there, and you can probably speed through a lot of it.
Friday, David had a party at school, but I didn't realize it had a theme, and David didn't feel dressed appropriately, so I had to get him the proper attire: loud orange shorts, and equally loud shirt to go with the shorts. It looked like he was going the beach, because it was a luau!
It's been both an uneventful week, and a momentous occasion kind of week.
Hope you've had a good week, too.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
David Weekly, V3 - 17
Saturday morning, David got to play with his cousins. I got some more loquats for the kids. It was interesting to hear David call them "lo - quats", with the big pause between the syllables. He said it as often as he could come up with a reason to say it. And then later that day we went to my friend's birthday party. David had fun. We swam in the pool for a while, then David decided to run around the pool, saying he was running a marathon.
David got his costume for the dance recital this week. It's got a red cowboy hat, a sparkly red vest, black leggings, a black long sleeve undershirt, and shiny red bow-tie (it's got an elastic band to keep it on him). I'll be taking video of the whole thing (and the dance studio will also have video for sale). This is the first week of June, I believe.
Douglas (my "step-son" - long story there - he's 20 now) came over, and it was good to hear David sharing with Douglas his dinosaur books, almost in a mature manner. But then later, when it was time for me to spend my attention on Douglas (to help him with some homework), David would come to me just about every two minutes, with his arms wide open, for a hug! He suddenly became the most affectionate child! But what he didn't do was act out in a negative way. I was quite happy about that, and let him know.
Meanwhile, I made a mistake last week. I bought Cookie Crisp cereal for the boy. The days he had it for breakfast were usually very bad days at school. So I restricted it to the weekends. This does not make David happy at all. However, it has provided me an opportunity to teach several things: a) what you eat can impact your behavior b) there are better choices which can have benefits, such as a check mark for a good day, which can get you a bigger reward at the end of the week, and c) delayed gratification. By coincidence, we saw this same lesson in a cartoon in the Highlights Magazine that David gets each month. I also told him to enjoy the reward when it's time. I don't what him to become a drone who only works, and gets nothing for it. I do let him have the cookie cereal on Saturday and Sunday.
And speaking of rewards, David had check marks on Monday and Tuesday, then X's on Wednesday and Thursday, and Friday a check mark. He blames the bad days on things like, "The teachers wouldn't rub my back to help me fall asleep for my nap!" Sometimes, he has a bad day even though he had a good lunch and took a nap. What makes his bad days worse is that he won't go into time out easily, and sometimes he has to be sent to Jesse (who keeps the smaller children - our next door neighbor who also keeps him sometimes) so that he'll calm down. Ms. Nadine accepted some of the blame for his behavior, too, saying it's the end of the year and such. I also found out that Gabriel's Glen lost its "School Readiness" money, which I was told is a daycare's bread & butter, so that means a lot of new people are coming to David's school, and so David's not getting as much individualized attention, either. I personally don't think it's their fault as much as David's, since he's in charge of himself (even at 4 years old). I've told him that he has to sit in Time Out to allow himself to calm down. It's very difficult to have these conversations with him, because he interprets it as "being in trouble" when he's not. I try to talk about this with him when there's nothing else going on, which helps some, but it doesn't always help. Sometimes I just have to try to talk to him right when he's in the situation (like picking him up from school) - that when he's told to go in Time Out he needs to stay there, to calm down, so he can have a good day. He gets it when he's calm, but it's obviously hard for him when he's in the moment.
Lately, too, we go outside and play in the evenings. It's so nice outside in the evenings here. We throw the ball around, or take a walk. David plays by himself, and he plays fighting between two characters he invents. I'm usually doing something yard related. He's never outside by himself!
David's "graduation" from VPK is this Thursday, the 20th. I'll video that and post it or send it along somehow...
David wants to say: "Avery and Jared had a good answer but I can't answer it, it's wrong. I tell my Daddy it's called America flag, and there's some different. Asia, Europe flag...tomorrow on Saturday we're going to the farmer's market, and the book store." "And there's a Bakugon thing that opens when you put it on a card. Ms Tiffany gave me a paper that I could take home to finish coloring it, and then ... First, I color at school, then I color it at home. And then I could finish it every day, and then I can get done and show my daddy how pretty it is."
David got his costume for the dance recital this week. It's got a red cowboy hat, a sparkly red vest, black leggings, a black long sleeve undershirt, and shiny red bow-tie (it's got an elastic band to keep it on him). I'll be taking video of the whole thing (and the dance studio will also have video for sale). This is the first week of June, I believe.
Douglas (my "step-son" - long story there - he's 20 now) came over, and it was good to hear David sharing with Douglas his dinosaur books, almost in a mature manner. But then later, when it was time for me to spend my attention on Douglas (to help him with some homework), David would come to me just about every two minutes, with his arms wide open, for a hug! He suddenly became the most affectionate child! But what he didn't do was act out in a negative way. I was quite happy about that, and let him know.
Meanwhile, I made a mistake last week. I bought Cookie Crisp cereal for the boy. The days he had it for breakfast were usually very bad days at school. So I restricted it to the weekends. This does not make David happy at all. However, it has provided me an opportunity to teach several things: a) what you eat can impact your behavior b) there are better choices which can have benefits, such as a check mark for a good day, which can get you a bigger reward at the end of the week, and c) delayed gratification. By coincidence, we saw this same lesson in a cartoon in the Highlights Magazine that David gets each month. I also told him to enjoy the reward when it's time. I don't what him to become a drone who only works, and gets nothing for it. I do let him have the cookie cereal on Saturday and Sunday.
And speaking of rewards, David had check marks on Monday and Tuesday, then X's on Wednesday and Thursday, and Friday a check mark. He blames the bad days on things like, "The teachers wouldn't rub my back to help me fall asleep for my nap!" Sometimes, he has a bad day even though he had a good lunch and took a nap. What makes his bad days worse is that he won't go into time out easily, and sometimes he has to be sent to Jesse (who keeps the smaller children - our next door neighbor who also keeps him sometimes) so that he'll calm down. Ms. Nadine accepted some of the blame for his behavior, too, saying it's the end of the year and such. I also found out that Gabriel's Glen lost its "School Readiness" money, which I was told is a daycare's bread & butter, so that means a lot of new people are coming to David's school, and so David's not getting as much individualized attention, either. I personally don't think it's their fault as much as David's, since he's in charge of himself (even at 4 years old). I've told him that he has to sit in Time Out to allow himself to calm down. It's very difficult to have these conversations with him, because he interprets it as "being in trouble" when he's not. I try to talk about this with him when there's nothing else going on, which helps some, but it doesn't always help. Sometimes I just have to try to talk to him right when he's in the situation (like picking him up from school) - that when he's told to go in Time Out he needs to stay there, to calm down, so he can have a good day. He gets it when he's calm, but it's obviously hard for him when he's in the moment.
Lately, too, we go outside and play in the evenings. It's so nice outside in the evenings here. We throw the ball around, or take a walk. David plays by himself, and he plays fighting between two characters he invents. I'm usually doing something yard related. He's never outside by himself!
David's "graduation" from VPK is this Thursday, the 20th. I'll video that and post it or send it along somehow...
David wants to say: "Avery and Jared had a good answer but I can't answer it, it's wrong. I tell my Daddy it's called America flag, and there's some different. Asia, Europe flag...tomorrow on Saturday we're going to the farmer's market, and the book store." "And there's a Bakugon thing that opens when you put it on a card. Ms Tiffany gave me a paper that I could take home to finish coloring it, and then ... First, I color at school, then I color it at home. And then I could finish it every day, and then I can get done and show my daddy how pretty it is."
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