Antics

Oh the joys I have in watching you grow everyday. You are a piece of work, truly, my little shit head and I mean that in the most loving way possible.

Tonight, I want to share some of your newest antics. Some of your moments where I have to stop and remind myself that you are such a little boy at times and where I also have to remind myself that your behaviors are very typical of other children at times and then at other times strong reminder of your personality and what I like to call a sense of humor.

Driving home from dinner last night I hear you playing with your iPad in the back seat. As usually, seeing if you can get more candy from me and asking to sing songs - you usually do not take "no" for an answer, you just keep asking. This time though you were also going into your toy screen. I heard you hit "Mr. Potato Head" and then start touching the buttons for the pieces such as "nose," "head, "mouth," "foot," et... Mind you, we have been working on your body parts since the day you came home and then all the sudden I hear this little "nossss" and "maatth" as you said it. And, as I turn around I see you labeling your own body parts as you touch them on the iPad and you look up at me and just smile like - "see, told you I could do!"

At dinner the other night I decided to make breakfast. I cooked up the pound of bacon and made eggs with cheese and to us, this is a gourmet meal. I even decided to sit and eat with you. As we were eating I said, "Isn't this good... mmm... mmm.." without hesitation you looked at me and said "wonderful mom!" My heart just sank, again, never taking advantage of the small things.

I received an email from the school a few weeks ago. (We have still been having our ups and downs with the school but that is a whole other post). The assistant principal emailed to inform me that you had urinated, on purpose, on a staff member when you did not want to use the restroom. As I know I should have been slightly upset with you for this one, I am thinking in the back of my head, really, she can't move out of the way from a six year old! When I came home and and asked you if you had done this you simply smiled, said "no" while laughing and ran into the other room - as you grow you will have to learn to at least try to keep a straight face if you are going to stretch the truth.

You have a new name for me. Since the day you came home you have had "momma" or "mommy" with no problems. Now though, for some reason, you are calling me "teacher." I swear to you, I have stay as far away from actually doing academics with you as possible as I want that to be the job of the therapists. But, for some reason, I am now "teacher." Even sitting in the bathtub tonight, when you were ready to come out you just kept smiling and saying "teacher" until I came in to see what you needed.

You are now officially getting completely out of bed in the morning and coming into my room. Unfortunately though this is at 430 or 500 in the morning. Almost like a "hey mom, you worked so hard on getting me to come out, now look at me!" I do miss my extra hour of sleep but I do laugh as you bounce and jump over me in bed.

You have learned the finer arts of getting yourself dressed in the morning and also finding your way downstairs. The other morning I thought I sent you to get dressed. I then did a few things in my bedroom, couldn't of been more then 2 minutes, and the stood in my doorway, just waiting for you to finish getting dressed so we could brush your teeth. After about 5 minutes of standing in the doorway I look in your room only to discover you were not there! You had gotten dressed in a matter of a minute and had already gone downstairs to start getting your breakfast. When I came down you stood at the bottom of the stairs and just laughed at me.

Your iPad broke over the weekend. Not sure what happened but the screen would not turn on. You still wouldn't let go of it though so you carried the broken iPad into the Apple store as mommy prayed they would be able to fix it. As soon as the nice guy at the tech bar took it to try to repair it you threw a holy hell of a tantrum, self-injurious behaviors and all. Well, I guess they felt sorry for us because they ended up trading out your iPad for a new one so we would not have to go through the trauma again. See, sometimes the tantrums can be helpful.

Today was a school holiday. We spent our day at the National Aqaurium in Baltimore. You LOVED it. At some points you were on your knees, right at the level of the fist in the bottom of the tank and I even heard you sing to one of them. You loved jumping from tank to tank and seeing the different ones swim around. Maybe we will try again with fish in the house if mommy can go without killing them this time.

On Friday we met with a private speech therapist about your use of the communication device. Ends up she thinks you need a higher tech device to continue to grow your language. You will be getting the Dynovax Maestro in about 6-8 weeks. I am very excited about this to see what doors will be opened up next. Ill be honest, I am not sure how much more personality you have hidden away but I am sure we are about to find out - it is a never ending adventure!

Love you baby
Mom
aka "Teacher"