More Cheese

Nikko had been clingy to me for most of the weekend, so I dreaded boarding the bus this morning. But he was very accommodating as I put him in the seat and strapped him in, and didn't shed a single tear. He was a good boy on the way home, too, according to Mrs. Beyer. As I unbuckled Nikko, the blonde girl behind him said, "Nikko has a cute brother." I thanked her, and realized she was talking about Ronin, who was sitting on the driveway next to the lamppost, guarding my phone and sunglasses and not moving as I instructed. Nikko's progress report had changed in format but I could still see what activities they did at school, and the OT wrote that he had a hard time separating from his burp cloth but he still worked with a big therapy ball, jumped on a trampoline, and then worked at a table with buttons and pounding plastic tees into styrofoam. Mandarin oranges were the snack today. I wonder if he ate them?

After lunch, I decided to haul the kids to Target to make a return. I chose the Target up north on Lake Cook Road because there was a Cars water bottle I wanted to find. When we got there, I had to wake Nikko up from a short nap and strap everyone into another cart contraption for two toddlers. Nikko ended up not liking it and making it known. The water bottle wasn't even there. Grrr. On the way home, Ronin and Audrey fell asleep, just as I had hoped, so I rewarded Nikko's silence with some McD's fries. At home I let everyone play outside to get their ya-yas out, but the boys were fighting over the jump rope so I was about to haul everyone inside when I told them to go play on the slide. Thankfully Ronin trotted over there, so I was able to bring us all to the swingset. It was a cute picture, actually, with Audrey in the infant swing, Nikko sitting on the regular swing, and Ronin and me on the rocking horse swing.

Oh, by the way, Lego is back home. He's in the basement right now, in his crate, until we can figure out what the permanent situation will be. Lego's not washed of all the possum blood so I wouldn't touch him and won't let the kids touch him either.

During dinner I was giving Audrey some cheese slices torn up when Nikko hopped up on a chair next to me and showed interest. I gave him a bite and he didn't refuse it. I asked if he wanted More Cheese, and showed him the sign. He's familiar with it, but probably never used it before. He then copied me and signed Cheese. It was rubbing your two open palms together, and he did it but was a little sloppy at the end. I praised him for signing Cheese and gave him some. He did it one more time. I think that's awesome! Reminds me of the time when he signed More Bread, as if he remembered the word and didn't skip a beat. Does this mean that he really does recognize my words and can put a sign to them? What's really hard is when he's distracted or not concentrating on a task. I gotta learn the sign for chicken nuggets. I'm debating whether or not to get more Signing Time DVDs because I do think they are helping him and/or making an impression. This method of Sight/Sound/Action seems to be a common, positive way of teaching. Wonder if the Rosetta Stone series does this. The rest of the night was ok, but Nikko was putting his fingers to his ears by bedtime. I wonder if something is bothering his ears. I noticed earlier today that they are absolutely full of ear wax. I want to clean them out, but I seriously doubt he will let me poke around in his ear.