This morning, Denis took care of changing Nikko while I went to tend to Ronin. For the first time, probably ever, when Nikko was finished changing he went straight to the kitchen, sat down and was chomping on Cheerios. I was changing Ronin and wondered when Nikko would come walking in, making noise, but he didn't come in at all. I was very surprised that he wasn't seeking me out. Maybe he was too hungry to think about it. We joined him at the table and he was his regular self. He noticed my pen and pad of paper nearby so he leaned over, took the pen and tried to write on the pad. I had to click the pen open and let him take a few strokes.
Gloria came over for speech. (As I sit here writing I almost forgot that we had speech today... it must have been a loooooong day) Nikko was by my side like glue until I was finally seated in the corner. He had a good session. He interacted with Gloria, fit puzzle pieces together, sometimes with prompting. She said his attention span was adequate and his vocalization appeared to be more meaningful. He signed please, made the gesture for More when using the doodle board, made a choice between two objects by looking at it. He also did a good job with cleanup proceedings. He doesn't do this all the time, but I hope he'll get used to it. I told Gloria that I use verbal cues for him to start closing out an activity or between transitions.
After speech we had lunch and then Ronin was nap-bound. I got Nikko ready to go out, and Chinny was entertaining Audrey. Nikko and I went to the Westbrook School for the first of three meetings we're going to have to determine his preschool eligibility. Paperwork. Signatures. Kathy Winters is a speech therapist who was also a District 57 representative, very, very nice lady. Our meeting wasn't long, I met a slew of other women who will be evaluating Nikko on June 5th. After the meeting Kathy suggested the playground in the back of the school. It was a gorgeous day and since we ended early I took Nikko to the playground. He loved the jungle gym there. There was a tall slide that he ventured on, but didn't anticipate how steep it was at the top. When he went down, he gasped a little bit, but I held his back so he ended upright at the bottom. He looked like a luge rider coming down the pipeline. Nikko didn't go on that slide again. There was a wobbly bridge that he was tentative about at first. He took a step on it and backed away. But he kept trying, and I even took him over it and walked quickly so he couldn't hesitate. After that, he became brave and started running over it. Finally he started jumping up and down on the bridge so I knew that he conquered it. We were both baking in the sun and wrangling him from the jungle gym was tricky, despite my warnings that we had to go and bye bye playground. Juice enticed him a little bit, but it was still hard to do. We left to go to Bosch, where Tita Marina worked, and dropped off my nursing stool for Daisy. I also gave her a bag of things for Alessandro: diapers and some blue Carter's clothes. Tita Marina was so excited to see us that she handed me a bag of cookies and said it was from the cafeteria. Nikko's eyes perked up so I gave him part of a peanut butter cookie. I should have known it was the perfect thing to quiet him down and regret not bringing something like it to the playground. Note to self: bring a stash of goodies with me at ALL times for this very thing. Maybe I should get some fruit snacks in a pouch. Cookies might melt. I have to find a fruit snack that is Ronin-friendly, too. We came back home and any chaos that preceded our jaunt was gone. Chinny had things under control; Ronin was having snack in the high chair; Audrey was having a bottle in her chair. Cool! Nikko had swim class with Denis later in the evening, his last swim class this semester. The rest of the evening was uneventful. I'm sure Nikko fell asleep fast because he didn't nap today, even though I thought he was going to falter before swim class. The window of opportunity closed so he remained awake. Tomorrow we don't have anything specific on the agenda. It's supposed to be even hotter than today. I just need to make a Costco run to get more chicken nuggets. I wish I could pull out the pool for the boys but I know that ours is filthy and needs to be cleaned or at least wiped down before use. I don't have anyone to watch Audrey while I do this. The boys might be entertained by a sprinkler while I cleaned the pool, if only I knew where it was. Geez! Maybe Denis can help me find these things this weekend. It's Memorial Day weekend coming up, almost forgot. Denis has quite a few days off, but will spend all day Saturday playing paintball. I wonder what I can do with my children that day. Hmmmmmm....
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