Today had the makings of a long day. Denis had a martial arts seminar for most of the day and it was gloomy and raining outside. Our morning routine was the same, not eventful. During breakfast I watched Nikko standing in front of the fridge doing some spins. They look like how a ballerina will spin on one leg with her head focused on one thing, then whips quickly to catch up with her body and refocused on that one thing again, probably in an effort not to get dizzy. Nikko's head was whipping around quickly just like that. We just chilled out in the living room in the morning as I tried to keep Audrey happy before she'd nap. Oh yeah, Nikko was pretty upset during breakfast when I left the room to attend to the other kids. He was wailing and following me from room to room. I don't understand why he gets so clingy. He was also trying to communicate with me for something in the kitchen. He dragged me to the middle of the room and signed More Please. The problem is that I really had no idea what he might want: juice, chocolate milk, cashews, banana? I'm sure it was frustrating for him, but no words will come. He just communicates with rough gestures and his eyes. Poor thing.
The afternoon also had a moment when, during Ronin's diaper change, Nikko flung himself at my leg and was face down on the ground. I was surprised and told him he'd have to wait since Ronin waited until after Nikko's change to bug me. When I was finished and hauled Nikko up into my lap, I saw that he had uncontrollable sobs and tears escaping from his body. I examined him to see if he had burned himself in the kitchen when I wasn't there, or cut himself, or had any bodily harm. Negative. He was just sobbing and wanted to put his head on my leg and be on the floor. I didn't understand what was going on and I wondered if this was an instance where instead of seeing something that set him off, perhaps he remembered something that happened earlier and it made him incredibly sad. Or angry. I just couldn't tell and I felt so helpless that I couldn't comfort him, even by joking, or by hugs. We basically had to let the moment pass and he cried himself into exhaustion. It probably helped because he sat on the couch silently until he fell asleep for an hour nap. This is not the first time he had some kind of an emotional outburst, but it was the first of this magnitude. The other bursts just had him with a quivering lower lip and fat tears rolling down his cheeks. This one was more involved. I really don't know how to diagnose this.
After Denis came home I was going to take Nikko with me to Costco and Jewel, but he seemed to want to stay home. I took Ronin instead because he was eager to go with me wherever I went. He ended up falling asleep in the car between stores and slept through all of Jewel. This is because he cried for the entire hour that was supposed to be his naptime. I don't know why he is resisting his nap and not just realizing that instead of crying, he should just lie down and sleep it off because I am NOT coming back into his room until the hour is over. Seriously.
Finally, toward the end of the night, I was putting the kids on the blue exercise ball and wobbling them back and forth. Hard to take turns, but I tried. I also sat Nikko on it and tried to balance him using his core muscles. He may be built like a truck and very strong, but all the therapists say that his muscle tone is poor. I couldn't understand how that could be, until I saw it for myself: one day outside of the clinic I wanted Nikko to push the OPEN button for the automatic door. He stood in front of it and didn't know what to do, so I took his hand and put it on the button, telling him to push it. His hand and arm was like a limp noodle so I had to push his arm forward to press the button. When I told Shelly about it, she pointed out the poor muscle tone and cited that he needs to build up his core muscles (by using the swing, by climbing and pulling/pushing things) so that the core will help push his arm, which will help push his hand and fingers forward with enough force to push a simple button. I never realized the importance of the core until then. Geez, I have to work on my own core, that's for sure. But I didn't know that kids can be a true Noodleman if they don't build up their muscle strength.
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