The Boy and the Bulldog: The Ick is Everywhere (and other short stories)

THE ICK IS EVERYWHERE:

The word Ick is a new and frequently used addition (sometimes interchanged with Yuck). He has recently developed a thing about having stuff on his hands (dirt, food, etc.). I know this is a sensory thing that is common for kids in general, but hugely common with previously institutionalized kids…anyway, he now says 'ICK!' when there is anything foreign on his hands. This goes for sticky, wet, gooey, and especially hair or food particles. He had a bowl of spaghetti noodles the other night that had small green basil flecks in it, and he screamed ICK! and I had to go over and pick the ick off, then show him on the napkin. This now goes for just about anything that he deems unwelcome. It was cute at first, but I think I'm creating a monster by complying with the ICK removal one too many times.

BUGS ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS:

On Saturday, we were coming home from a day out and a fly was trapped in the back of the car with him. It landed on his leg, setting off a screaming fit like none I've ever seen. He likes bugs at a distance and in books, making his signature bug face, but suddenly, they are panic attack inducing close up and in person. Even the ants, which he used to get as close to as possible in our yard (where ants are our friends). I blame the trip to the butterfly exhibit last month. Somehow, almost everyone develops an irrational fear of certain insects at some point in their lives, but I'm not sure where this has come from. I tell him that "the ant is nice", and other pleasantries about the critters, but he is no longer buying it. In the end, with the fly in the car, I had to pull over on the side of the road and stood there flamboyantly flailing around trying to shoo it out of the car. He cried himself to sleep a few minutes after that, but it was quite an ordeal. ICK.

SPOT IS NOT ICK:

There is a spot of some kind on the wall next to his bedroom door. I don't know how it got there or what it is from, but he insists on giving it a kiss good night every night now. We have a standing ritual that he give Polli and each of us kisses good night after his bath and before heading in to bed…So now we can add spot to that ritual. Heaven help us if we ever repaint.

IAN FINDS HIMSELF:

For the first time, he is starting to say his name. He was saying Nunun way back when we were in China, but dropped it, along with mama & dada for several months, then picked up mama and dad again when his speech kicked into gear, but never did establish a name for himself. He learned Mine a while ago, but has never really identified himself with any specific word. He has recently started giving ownership to things "mom's", "dad's", "dog's (he still won't say Polli), and finally this week "In's". It's very cute the way he says it. He still hasn't quite gotten the long E sound at the beginning, but it will come.

MOM'S KEYS:

He is also starting to put 2 word combos together. I know at his age, most kids are starting to use multiple word combos and small sentences, but we are thrilled to see this development. Now that colors are a breeze for him, he is combining the object with its color: red hat, blue car, orange bus. That kind of thing. He also knows Stop Sign and on walks, points out every stop sign, followed by the stop hand gesture with a very serious face. The cutest example of this is the other day, we were outside and he pointed at the garage, wanting in to look at the bikes. I didn't feel like going in for my keys, so I told him "dad's at work, he has the keys". He thought for a minute and then went back over, pointing at the door knob, and said "mom's keys!" How could I refuse him after he came up with such a logical conclusion like that. If dad was gone and had his keys…then we could just use mom's keys! I went in and got my keys.

LEG CRAMPS ARE DEFINITELY NOT OUR FRIENDS:

So, his leg cramps came back with a vengeance yesterday along with a weekend long battle with a 2 year molar giving him fits. Yesterday was one of my hardest days after having Ian solo most of the weekend. I made Shawn take the brunt of it, as I left to cry all the way to work. He dealt with a screaming fit and pleas to "Help, Please" all the way to school. Just the fact that he said please voluntarily told me he was seriously in pain. I had growing pains when I was little, so I know they are no joke, but it's an entirely different story when it's my own little boy. I simply cannot watch him hurt. Like seeing him sick, it's one of those things I was not prepared for. By the time Shawn dropped him off at school, he was doing better and I called later to find that he was fine. In fact better than fine since he was eating a snack and had been refusing everything but cheese and peaches all weekend while nursing that incoming tooth. He was a completely different child last night and this morning, so I'm crossing my fingers that it was a passing thing. We're not used to a crabby, screaming, tantruming boy. Not used to it at all.

BIG BIRD, WIGGLES & TOP GEAR:

So, I've been slowly trying to get Ian interested in TV. Yeah, I know I'll regret it someday. Just a few minutes at a time, but I (and his speech therapist) think it might be a good idea for him to be exposed to some programming. So we're still attempting the Sesame Street thing. He was into it the first time, but I tried it again on Sunday and, well, not so much. He likes Elmo and Big Bird, but the real people kind of screwed up the appeal in this episode. When I flipped it back to regular TV from Tivo before turning the TV off, one of Shawn's favorite shows was on Top Gear. It's a car show from Great Britain where they do crazy stunts and tests on cars, test the engineering capabilities of sports cars, etc. I love it, too. It's funny and interesting at the same time. He was glued. He saw the cars and trucks going around a dirt track and flipped out. I let him watch a few minutes before I turned it off. Some things are truly boy, and this is one of them. From the moment we met him he loved all things wheeled and/or motored...and he was orphanage bound almost his entire life with little exposure to more than the random few toy versions and one trip in a vehicle before coming to meet us on November 6th. Where did the obsession come from? We may never know. Oh, and the Wiggles... I loaded an episode of The Wiggles from Netflix and he actually really liked that, too (should I be ashamed that I actually liked the fruity & almost attractive grown men singing and dancing in turtlenecks tucked in with too tight pants? Freaky, but I couldn't look away either). He watched the entire 30 minutes, and somehow figured out how to pause/un-pause video on my laptop in that time...kids are too darn smart.

STEPH THE SINGLE MOM:

On tap for us, Shawn leaves on Monday for a week in Las Vegas for work, comes home for less than 2 days…then leaves for a week in Orlando. He will then be home for 4 days before I leave for a solo flight with Ian to Arizona to see my parents. While it's only a 3 hour flight, it will be my first with him NOT in a carrier, so it should be interesting. I know people who juggle kid(s) by themselves and do great...or have spouses who work opposite hours, are in the military, or are simply jerks. I'm not in any of those situations, thankfully, so I should just count myself lucky and consider it an opportunity to prove to myself that I'm capable of handling everything alone. Just don't ask me to get any cleaning or cooking done. I have a feeling I'll be eating a lot of teriyaki takeout and Lean Cuisines...and dog hair will be my primary condiment. There, I said it.

Below are a few pics from the week. Not much (and I missed out on an awesome opportunity to snap some shots of Ian trying to use chopsticks...so cute)