What A Week!

We've given an old cell phone to Andrew. It doesn't work (but he used to think a calculator was a phone so this is an upgrade)  Lately he picks it up and pretends to answer it saying, "Hello? Amanda. ....  Thank you."   I guess he's heard me answer my phone too much "This is Amanda" and saying "Thank you" at the end of my calls.

Last Sunday at the farm, before we left Adam took his yellow backhoe into the field to feed the cows hay. I remember pointing at the tractor as it was coming back and telling Andrew to look. I must have told him what Adam was doing because ever since he's been showing me his yellow toy backhoe and asking "Feed the cows? feed the cows hay?" and has also started to add "Feed the cickins? Feed the chickens?"  (he gets the word right the second time)

Day #2 at Mothers Day Out: He wouldn't eat more than maybe two bites of his turkey and cheese quesadilla. Didn't drink a lot. When she put him on the potty he cried so she took him off and just changed his diaper instead. He made a paper teddy bear, and painted some fall leaves that got strung together and did some coloring.  When I showed up to take him home, he got super excited and started jumping up and down - and then all of a sudden fell to the floor and burst into tears. He didn't want to show me his artwork or anything.. I guess he realized I was there to take him home and he didn't want to leave.  I told him he could go play for just a few minutes and he cheered up and went to play with their Thomas train set.  I gave him a few minutes and he was fine leaving after that.  The teacher told me that Andrew LOVES music. He enjoyed playing the toy clarinets and the drums. She said when he was on the drums she'd say "okay, lets play softly and quietly" and he'd play softly for a second and then yell "Go!!" and start beating the drums really loudly, hard, and fast.  Silly boy.
  Once home, I realized he had a fever and he wasn't really feeling well. He didn't sleep well either.
He's been so emotional all week, from the fall no doubt. He's been defiant but needy, aggressive but then sorry sometimes, would just burst into tears all of a sudden over the smallest thing. I'm sure he has been just as confused as I have. My heart has been aching all week as I've prayed for wisdom and patience in handling him.

Sunday November 6th... this is the first day he seems like his normal self again. There were just a couple of brief periods where he was emotional, but overall - it was a pleasant day and he did really well. So, we decided we could take him to Kingdom Hall.  We also prepared an answer for him from the Watchtower. On paragraph 12, the answer was "Faith."  A word he already knows and can read!
Ted pulled out the rockband microphone to practice with. Andrew said it perfectly once, and then the rest of the time it was him shouting "FAAAAAAIIIIIIITh" really loudly.  We weren't sure what to expect.  We were the first ones at the hall, so decided to practice again. We sat him in a chair, I sat next to him, and daddy held the microphone out. He yelled it excitedly a couple of times, and then said it perfectly and calmly.  So again, we weren't sure what to expect. 
Andrew was SOOOO good through the public talk and the beginning of the Watchtower study. We were on paragraph 11 when he started to lose it. He was getting antsy, wanted down, didn't want his books, etc. (Just one more paragraph til his answer!) So I told him, just wait a little bit longer, and said if you give your answer in the microphone, I'll give you some raisins. That got him excited.  
The paragraph was read, the conductor asked the question, Andrew waved his arm - and was overlooked. So we waited and then raised his arm again, and he waved his hand.  They say his name and the microphone comes, "Raisins!" ... "No, say Faith!" ... "Faif"  .. and Ted and I just laugh.

Oh, and when Ted was brushing Andrew's teeth to get ready for the meeting - he discovered Andrew has new teeth! Sure enough - two new teeth have come through and one about to surface. Well no wonder he wasn't feeling well and not eating the other day! What a traumatic week this has been for him - concussion, teething, and first days of being in a mothers day out program! A lot for my little boy. Although it'd have been a breeze without the concussion - he's a rock star when he's his normal self.  But it hit me Sunday night that Andrew has been trying to TELL me that his teeth were hurting him all week!  He was coming to me with a finger in his mouth and saying "ouch." I thought he had bitten his tongue or the inside of his cheek each time since he'd been eating.  It just didn't occur to me that he was teething! Poor munchkin.

Monday - well, yesterday was nice but Andrew is being aggressive and touchy again this morning. I know it can take two weeks or longer to recover from a concussion. Sunday was a nice break and gave me a glimmer of hope that my boy will recover sooner than later. *sigh*