12.02.2007

Forgive My Braggings, You Will

Forgive My Braggings, You Will

Our third child is becoming a real person. With a conversational person's ability to skirt issues. After watching her thwack Shia the cat, I gave her The Look. She said, "Don't worry, Mommy! I would never do that to Shia. I am petting her gently. See?"

Mali has started to preface many of her statements with "actually." As in "Actually, I'll take the blue plate," or "Actually, I want my pizza to be cold." SHE ARE GIFTED! (Fourth bullet point from end of list.) I think I'll start getting her pre-tested for the local gifted kids' private K-8! (Just in case you don't know me, I am very much kidding. We intend to take advantage of our excellent local public schools, for the third time.) However I fully expect the MIND Institute folks to tell me that she is the cutest and most brilliant child they've yet encountered, when she goes to her 36 month Infant Siblings study evaluation tomorrow.

SMRT or not, she is very fun to talk to and play with. Especially when she gets surreal ("My jammies are turning orange!"), affectionate (throwing her arms around my neck for no reason and murmuring, "I love you, Mommy"), defiant ("I am not naked! I have a pullup on!"), creative (her many and varied spontaneous modern dance demonstrations), or just absurd (lying upside down against the couch back, pounding her feet alternately on the wall, yelling "Left foot right foot left foot right foot!").

Her sister is more existential; recently Iz and Violet spent the entire ride back from school discussing whether or not they actually existed, whether what they were experiencing as their day progressed was real. I told them they were too young to have existential crises, but immediately revised the statement: "Sorry, telling you that you're 'too young' is patronizing. What I meant was that I was surprised."

And then there's Leelo. He is doing the most amazing singing routines these days, and wants to engage us in all of them. I will try to video one of his song cycles. I always worry that he doesn't seem to be able to sing more than one or two line of a song he didn't make up, but then yesterday he taught me, line by line, the entire "rainbow" song that Babysitter K used to sing to him. Clever boy.

He had a lovely day today. Here are the excerpts from his home record spreadsheet. He is really fun to be around. I am so very proud of him.
HEALTH
Seems healthy. A bit of Las Vegas eczema still lingering.

SLEEP
Up at 6:30, to bed at 9:30

DIET
Overeating, all day long still issue. Cod liver oil, croissant, PB&J, veggie booty, banana. Stole some M&M's, refused goldfish. Is starting to try some new foods (corn chips, bagel).

MEDICATION
Claritin

LANGUAGE
Lots of singing "cycles" in which he is telling a story, or describing things on his mind. "Look at the teletubbies, look at the eyebrows, want to go on the computer" or "It's Mali. It's your sister Mali. Grandma & Grandpa, Grandma & Grandpa" Good asking for things he wants. "Want to go to Suraj. Want to go get some Naan bread." Also excellent identification of almost everything in his vicinity -- even in responding obscure, unprecedented questions like "What is on the ketchup label?" A: "Tomatoes!" Lots of demanding our attention verbally: "Put down the phone, Daddy!" Just a lot of language in general.
BEHAVIOR
Lovely behavior. Couple of hitting incidents. Abundant independent play (going outside to ride on tricycle, etc.), sustained calm interaction with family. Giving lots of spontaneous hugs; also giving big smiles and hugs in reaction to praise, e.g., "You are so good at going to the potty!" Calm and social (for him) in general. Able to buckle himself into his car seat (and won't look at the buckle/clasp while doing so; doubly amazing) but cannot be adjacent to sisters in car; we have been having a lot of incidents of reaching over to hit them. Showing some task persistence with motivation: figure out how to work our rather tricky step stool in order to get at the veggie booty and straws cabinet.

TOILETING
No accidents. Followed body's cues to run for the potty, even when he woke up in the morning -- he stripped and went to the potty, *then* came to wake me up. His pullup was dry. Only downsides are compulsive flushing is still present and he is not remembering to wipe himself. But he is no longer compulsively hitting himself and the door as part of his routine.

OTHER INFO
Leo got new teacher on Monday 11/26 (third one this year as the class is still without a permanent teacher). However the paras are all so talented that I'm not too worried. He is learning so much at that school.
Other than that, please tell everyone to get a copy of Can I Sit With You? book. This really is the critical week for us. We are having a lot of success but could some more, so please do tell all your friends and family to buy the book!

No comments: