Show and tell

We took a morning to go to the local Show today. At first we were a little bit hesitant, knowing that Bright Eyes has not reacted well to fairs and museums and things like this in the past, but we decided to head out anyway.

He absolutely LOVED the rides. This child has no fear. Pictured here is the first ride, during which he yelled out to anyone who would listen, "I'm excited about this. This is really exciting!"

If he was excited then, it was nothing compared to the roller coaster he took on next with his big sister. I could hardly watch the ride for fear of nausea. Apparently he yelled "Stop!" a few times, but when he got off he was breathless... and happy! Later I asked him what he enjoyed the most, and he said, "The roller coaster."

He was anxious and uptight and fairly loud and bossy because of all the excitement, but we were able to take it as over-the-top nervous energy from the stimulation, rather than treat it as bossiness. He did calm down in the end, and we ended up having to leave not because of his needs, but because his big sister was feeling sick... from the ride!

Pool bunny

Bright Eyes spent the entire day in my Poppa's pool today. We had a family Christmas party on. All he wanted to do was swim.

He experimented with being thrown, jumping in, and being pushed. He jumped so hard that his floaties (water wings) actually split!

It made for a very happy day for him. And I think he'll sleep extremely well tonight.

Run run

Playing duck duck goose at his brother's birthday party last week.

But on a good day...

... this is more what you get. Here he is with his new skates on. Notice he's holding on pretty tight! I've just got myself a pair so we should be able to put them on together.

Storytime

Here's a conversation we had today. It's a first to have him tell a story.

Bright Eyes: "Salty likes to tell stories. [That bit is a script.] Bright Eyes is a boy likes to tell stories too. I like to tell stories."

Me: "Really? Can you tell me a story?"

Bright Eyes: "This is a story about Mum. Mum likes go for a walk. One day she walked Bright Eyes. [mumble mumble, his brow furrowed as if concentrating.] Mouses. Then walked on the path. That's the end of the story."

And yes, he told a true story. It was the story of our walk to school in the morning. We had gone for a walk, and pretended to be mice to ease the tension he was feeling about not going in the car. First we walked on the grass, then on the path.

I love my children

What a great day. I really enjoyed the children today. They were a pleasure and a joy to be with.

Some of the highlights:

Problem solving. The picture shows Bright Eyes getting a solution to his problem of being thirsty next to a bubbler that was just too tall for him. I thought that was pretty good. That's his sister walking up by the way. She likes to get into photos...

Bright Eyes and his sister in the pool. It was too cold for me so I sat and watched as they jumped in together and had a ball. Bright Eyes referenced her, waited for her to jump and sought out her face for the emotional response after the jump. He invited her (not bossed her) to join him, and copied what she did as well.

A complicated game of cubby-houses. I rearranged the lounge room so there is a great space behind the sofa - perfect for a cubby house. It's out of view too, so I don't worry too much about the mess. The three of them set up beds, problem solved when the baby wanted all the beds to himself, and played happily in the morning, not even missing their normal TV time.

Bed time. Bright Eyes and his sister go to bed together in our room. They read and play for a while until it gets dark. Tonight when I went to calm them down and say goodnight, the two of them were tucked up together pretending to be twins, looking as cozy as could be.

Original speech. I can tell when Bright Eyes is using his own words compared to a script (even when I am unaware of the script) because he gets his parts of speech slightly wrong. I find it cute, and I'm encouraged by it because it shows he's processing and trying things out. Today, I put a hot pancake pan under the tap and it did that big sizzle steam thing. He was standing nearby and reeled back, saying "I'm afraiding of the hot!"

RDI therapy time. We played a game today which worked really successfully. We had a bounce on the mattress on the floor, then fell over together and looked at a card from a simple 'charades' game. It gave an object or a simple action so we talked about it, and then acted it out for a minute or so. A couple of times he didn't want to do the action (skipping and fishing) so we chose another card which he preferred.

Then we did an up in the air game, landing wildly on the mattress. "I'm a boy, and I'm broken" he said. He would crash, and then say "I'm broken" so I would be a doctor and fix up legs and arms, ears and nose. He took a turn to fix me up when I got broken.

Finally, I let him use the Thomas trains he brought in with him and we played an interactive pretend game, chuffing around together and talking to the Fat Controller here and there. It wasn't a script he was following, although there were elements of the stories he knew in the play, but a genuine shared experience.

Carols chaos

Our town enjoys its annual Carols by the Lake, organised by the Lions Club. The way they attract a crowd is to invite every single group of children in the town that can sing a song or do a dance, and then watch their parents and grandparents roll up.

Bright Eyes' preschool and his sister's school choir were both asked to perform a couple of numbers, so I took all the children along to enjoy the concert.

The preschool was on first, and Bright Eyes was a star... sort of. Their first mistake was to put him near a microphone. He knows what they are, and he knows how to use them, so he spent the entire time making noises and saying 'Ssssh' into it. At one point he spontaneously introduced the next song, and he did all the 'Oys' at the right time, really loudly into the microphone at the end of the song lines.

The crowd thought he was hilarious. His sister thought he was embarrassing. I was torn between the two feelings. He was cute, sure, but I wished he could have even tried to sing along and do what everyone else was doing.

The honest truth? I think he was working the crowd! He knew they were laughing at him, and he liked the response and was angling for more.

(In the end, the excursion was a bit of a disaster. There were way too many flies and they were sticking to all of us, and Bright Eyes and his baby brother were getting more and more upset, so we left as soon as his sister's choir sang. I won't be taking them out alone again on a summer evening again for a while.)

Duck duck goose

Bright Eyes just loves to play duck duck goose*.

Today he and his sister and dad were playing a version of the game, but using different words. I think his sister began it by saying 'Muffin, muffin....eat!' and then (ahem) 'toilet, toilet.... flush'.

Bright Eyes got creative and added his own words: 'broom, broom, sweep', 'Veggitales, veggitales.... eat it' and 'Shane, Shane... David**'.

I'm sure that counts for something in RDI-objective-land... I'll just have to find out what.


*That's the game where a child runs around the circle of sitting children, tapping each on the head and saying 'duck' until he chooses one and says 'goose', whereupon the chosen child hops up and races around the circle trying to catch the first one. Geddit?

**Shane and David are the Umbilical Brothers, physical comedy geniuses and the stars of the brilliant new 'Upside Down Show' on ABC Kids TV. Bright Eyes just LOVES it.*

People and chocolate

When I arrived at preschool to pick him up today, Bright Eyes was happily sitting in a huge bin in the sandpit. He was up to his armpits in sand, with another little boy busy filling up the bin to completely cover him. The two of them were delighted with their progress together.

"Mum. Look at me. I'm in it. He's doing it," sang out Bright Eyes. We had a great laugh. (I wasn't laughing quite so much when I poured a cupful of sand out of his shoes later...)

He had a great social day today. I was delighted to see that lots of children said goodbye affectionately to him today. And I've noticed a couple of other good interactions with children in the last week.

We were in a playground this week and he saw a little boy about two and a half years old. I saw him look at the boy, point to my husband and say “My dad”. Then he pointed to me and said, “mum”. It was as if he was saying, “Hey, those are my parents.”

On another topic entirely...

In order to be less rushed in the morning, we are getting up ½ hr earlier so we all have more time to do what we need to. We also have time to do what I’m calling “Chocolate family jobs”.

So far, it’s just been unpacking the dishwasher. All five of us go to do it. Then afterwards, we all have a family hug together and get a small piece of chocolate.

Four out of five days Bright Eyes has not liked it but I got a little dump truck involved and put dishes in the back of the truck and zoomed it to him across the kitchen. Yesterday, he got up from breakfast saying, "Let's do chocolate jobs!!" and worked really hard.

Rock stars

Bright Eyes and his big sister were in a band today. She organised it all of course including the fabulous fire headdress, and took the lead guitar role for herself, but Bright Eyes was pretty happy being the drummer. They let the baby play the piano. Everyone had 'shades' and they were all very cool.