Annelise had a dance expo Saturday night and due to expected inclement weather and our exhaustion, we didn't get to go. She got home really late and still had her make up on Sunday morning and it was really dark around her eyes. Andrew and I were playing Flippity Frogs at the table when she came in. He stood next to her asking her some questions. She made some expressions on her face like she was wondering why he was asking these things. He then backed away and said, "you look kind of creepy." We all got a good laugh.
Later Andrew told her, "If you use your imagination, you will be smart too!" She said, "I think you're smarter than me." He said, "Yeah, I think so."
After breakfast, Andrew decided to get the erasable crayons and do most of the pages in the workbook he likes that practices drawing lines and shapes and following paths. When he was done he said, "I need to show this to mom! She will be so proud of me!" I just love him!
At the meeting, he was very proudly drawing beautiful pictures. He drew a flower, a boat, played tic-tac-toe by himself. Then he drew a snake and wrote the word "snake" under it with no help at all.
When the talk was over, Brian Stockholm announced that we won't be here next Sunday, we will be in Cookeville. Andrew piped up really loudly, "We won't be here? We'll be in Cookeville?" Brian smiled at him and said, "yes, we will be in Cookeville for our Special Assembly Day."
He had his own Watchtower with his answer underlined. He looked like such a big boy. After his comment, he rolled up his watchtower like a telescope and looked around, then came and crawled into my lap. He curled up and fell asleep. As his body relaxed, his face fell further and further into my stomach so that for most of the lesson, I had to press down on my side and pull my belly away from his nose so he'd have a pocket of air to breathe! I was too afraid of waking him up if I tried to move him. At one point we noticed that his hands were in tight fists, so daddy reached over and tried to pry his fingers loose to relax - it was not an easy task. He slept through the song and prayer and I did shift him so he could breathe easier. Even after waking up, he chose to stay cuddled for a while. He asked me if we could go out to eat and I said I'd mention it to daddy. Then he heard Ann Arnold invite us to Amigos and he hopped off my lap to talk to her and made it very clear to us that he wanted to go to Amigos because he likes Ann. We opted for Frankie's Pizza and Grill (which made him grumpy for a bit) but we let him have a strawberry milkshake and he ordered a pineapple pizza and enjoyed being out.
Once home daddy announced that he was going to put mouse traps in the attic. That unleashed a barrage of questions from Andrew about "where is daddy going? why is he laying mouse traps? are they the same traps as in the house? is the attic under the house? is he going under the house? do we need to call a fire truck to use their ladder? ...." I finally got so overwhelmed because he was firing the questions so fast, I told him to go follow his daddy around and find out.
Tuesday he got to stay home because of icy roads closing most schools and they'd be coming home early for his IQ testing anyway. Daddy worked from home. While I was eating breakfast and studying, he asked me if I had any muscles he could color. So daddy printed off a human body showing the muscles. Andrew started coloring, "Is this the rectus femoris mom?" He even pronounced it correctly. Later daddy introduced him to "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" which he loved.
At 2:30 it was time to meet for his IQ testing at the elementary school. I met them there since I did have school and Andrew and I built with blocks for a few minutes. He told the psychologist "just 1-2 more minutes and then I'll be ready." He placed two more blocks and then marched over to her table and sat down ready to go! He sat for almost an entire hour to complete the testing. She was impressed that he sat that long. She really couldn't predict how he did on it and said there was really only one area that he seemed to not excel in - but was at least average if not above still. It was looking at a picture and recognizing what was missing from it. The problem is, he was picking out things that would expand the photo rather than find what was missing IN the photo. One was a photo of a girl writing on a chalk board, but she was missing the chalk in her hand. It was zoomed in to her waist up. So he was saying that she was missing legs, that the chalkboard was missing the border/frame around it... things like that. He never noticed that her hand didn't have something in it.
Once he was done he told Ms. Casey "we're going to eat at Logans after, you're welcome to join us." She thought that was really sweet of him. We did enjoy dinner at Logans - he loved the fact that he could crush the peanut shell and just throw it on the floor.
Tuesday night I was putting him to bed. He got settled and then reached up and grabbed my neck to squeeze. I giggled and then he giggled, I giggled more and he giggled more, then he giggled harder and I did to. He said, "WHAT are you laughing about?" I told him I was laughing at him and asked why he was laughing. He said, "I'm laughing at you laughing."
Then I asked who was saying the prayer. He said, "We have a pattern going. Daddy, me, you, daddy, me, you. It's your turn." I laughed and complied. Then during my prayer he speaks up, "and pray for those who do not have houses and only eat oatmeal." We've had a couple of conversations lately when he complains before he even tries something that he should be glad he has food to eat and a place to live because not everyone does. And the oatmeal I think came from when we were trying to tell him to be thankful he doesn't have to eat the same food for every meal every day like the Israelites did for a time and I likened the manna to having oatmeal every meal. Hey - it's a start.
Wednesday his new Lego set arrived (a day early). I didn't have a chance to go get a cake and balloons and make a big deal out of all the hard work he's accomplished lately. So I baked a gluten free chocolate cake mix I had in the pantry and melted chocolate chips on top of it for icing. When the boys walked in, Andrew was mad and tried to slam the door on daddy. He saw that I was making a cake and I told him I was making it for him: that we have been so proud of him and how kind he's been, cooperative, and working so hard on practicing violin, working with Ms Casey (testing) and even workbooks and projects on his own. But he wasn't getting any unless he shapes up and acts nicely the rest of the evening and reminded him he owed daddy an apology. He went to daddy and said he was sorry and when daddy opened his arms out wide for a hug, Andrew swung his arm out wide and hit daddy (for the third time since he was picked up from school.) He sat in time out for two minutes. I told him again how proud we've been of him, but that behavior is not acceptable and he should be respecting daddy (and I listed a bunch of reasons why.) Then I told him he was going to get one more chance, but I needed two things from him. 1) apology to daddy 2) telling me why he was so upset. He told me he was disappointed that things did not go well at school. Something about kids at the yellow table being not nice and going "naa naa na naa naaa" and it really upset him. He wasn't at that table but he somehow got in trouble or felt like he was in trouble because of those kids. But he was taking his frustration out on daddy. So I told him I'm sorry that happened and I would be frustrated and upset too, but suggested maybe next time he TELL daddy what happened to make him feel disappointed and frustrated and ask what they can do to deal with it (like punching a pillow or his punching bag, or yelling outside, etc.) He clearly felt much better, went and hugged daddy and apologized, then came running to me and said, "Thanks for talking to me mom!" He was good the rest of the evening.
Thank goodness - because I really wanted us to enjoy cake and his surprise! So after dinner we had cake and I told him as soon as he was done with it, there was another surprise for him. "What is it?" I told him it wouldn't be a surprise if I told. After another reminder to finish his cake he said, "Is my surprise my new Lego set?" I didn't even answer and just smiled at him. Then when he was done, daddy told him to go look on his bed. He ran down the hall to find a large box holding the Space Station Lego set. He squealed and jumped up and down on the bed for a minute and then did a face plant into the mattress (and then did it again asking us if we saw it.) Then he sat discussing the picture on the box for what felt like an eternity. He had less than an hour to get started on it before bed.... he built the control tower and the shuttle carrier all by himself (and it's for ages 6-12!) Daddy only turned the pages in the instruction booklet and helping get the pieces ready.
Saturday we had to get groceries. He wrote out the grocery list on the way.
Sunday the 15th we were off to Cookeville for the Special Assembly Day. He did really well considering it was a long drive and a long day of sitting. He had a blast running around with other small children on the arena floor. He wrote a note to Nana saying, "I lofe you" It's the first time he's ever spelled love incorrectly.
Wednesday I let Andrew use my new Red Light Therapy tool on acupressure points on himself for Wellness and also the Common Cold to see if it will help release him of the sniffles he's had for the past month. His nose doesn't run.. he just sniffles. Earlier a friend was here with her daughter to tell me more about the red light therapy and Andrew was taking her around showing her all the mouse traps and spider traps he knew of and told her not to touch them because they could really hurt her and take her finger off.
Thursday Ted opted to work from home so Andrew will be home on winter break until January. He enjoyed being home. I learned a new therapy called Bars on Tuesday and practiced it on Ted for the second time and the first time on Andrew. Later Andrew and I played 'baseball' with a tennis ball and racket because we didnt know where the bat was. He's pretty good! While I was making dinner, daddy played with him and helped him climb a tree too.
I don't know if the Bars therapy played a roll in this or not: For the last several weeks, when we say it's time to brush teeth he'll fight us one way or another. He would tell us he's still hungry or thirsty, or he'd fall to the floor moaning and drag out the time, he'd not cooperate with brushing or getting pajamas on.. it felt like a battle every step of the way every single night. Not this night. He and I were playing legos and I said, "okay, it's that time. Let's go brush teeth." He said, "Okay!" tossed his legos into the bucket and headed to the bathroom asking for no toothpaste. Then he asked if he could try the cinnamon toothpaste in our bathroom - which turned out to be the peppermint one, not cinnamon.I thought the wintergreen would be less intense but he didn't like it much, but there was no battle. No battle getting pjs on or getting into bed. No requests for food or drinks or toys.
Well after we'd put him to bed, he got up and opened his door. I went in and he was sitting up in bed. We talked for a little bit. He told me he needed a massage so I massaged his back and legs and had him turn over so i could do his feet and scalp. I started singing Dream A Little Dream to him and he sang, "Close your eyes..." so I switched to the Beatles song instead. I sang as far as I knew and he asked me who sang that song. He thought the Beatles was a silly name for a band.
He also told me that when I'm sleeping and I hear a knock at the door that it will make me happy. I told him I don't need to hear a knock at the door - all I have to do is think about him and I am happy. He told me, "I'm going to think about Meemaw and Bebop because they're nice to me sometimes." Hey - whatever works to have sweet dreams.
Friday Andrew and daddy got to see the new school I'll be attending. Since we were in Nashville, we had lunch with Grandma Bess. We all sat down in the living room and Andrew sat in his seat and crossed his legs like everyone else had. Then he bashfully asked me if she had any toys and if I would ask her about them. They found a tiny wagon and a couple of stuffed animals. "Do you have any other hard toys?" I thought that was a cute way to ask for something other than stuffed animals. He also wanted a tour of the house, so Bess took him downstairs and then upstairs. He liked that.
Several nights lately he has pretended to be a horse pulling a carriage that you have to ride in to take him to his room or bathroom for the bedtime routine.
Saturday he was pretending to be the pilot of a plane taking Bess to Maryland (she leaves to visit family on Sunday). Then on the way to service he was telling me how he wanted to arrange car groups. He wanted Rick Mann and Delilah and Kelly Pingle and Samantha to come in our car and told me where each of them would sit. He did get half of that - Rick and Delilah came with us and they played beautifully together all morning.
On the way home he said he wanted to build a cave in the backyard by digging a hole out of the dirt. Instead, Daddy clamped a large blanket over his entire bed so he could take his nap in a pretend cave. He loved that... slept all night in it also.
Also Saturday night he decided to write up his own menu.
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