Clean Teeth

Ronin woke up with a fever and while he was in a semi-normal state today, he had to take a few naps to gather his strength. He only ate crackers and juice; when I gave him some peaches, they came up with the next cough. Ronin's going to turn out to be vampiric, like me, because he wanted the window curtains drawn all day. Depressing! I put on some Hi-5 DVDs for the afternoon and I even opted to start folding a mountainous pile of kid laundry. Nikko sat next to me while I folded in the semi-darkness. During one skit, Kimee was using a traveling toothbrush and a huge prop toothbrush to brush her teeth. At one point she was talking about her clean teeth, and then Nikko put his index finger horizontally to his mouth and said, "Clean teeth," clear as day. I made him repeat it a few times, and was pleased that he repeated something he heard on TV and mimicked it as well. The other funny part about it was that when Ronin and Audrey were awake and heard/saw me do this with Nikko later, they both immediately walked around with fingers in their mouths saying Clean Teeth like chirping birds.

Nikko's ST report:
Saying "dog" and "car" to request small toys! He was trying walk, run, sleep, jump directions with the dog. :)

Besides building his vocabulary, I think these one-step directions are probably the next step. He still drags me to the TV to put in a DVD, and I have to ask him what he wants to watch before he answers. Same with food, I have to offer it verbally (or with a PEC picture) and then he'll repeat it or pull the PEC from the velcro and hand it to me. If he wants a toy from Ronin that he can't grab directly, he'll take my hand, walk me across the room, and then pull my hand in the direction of the toy. Lots to work on with this lad. We're supposed to go to the Hinsdale church tomorrow to see the in-laws, but with Ronin's sick day today and breathing on the cusp of being bad, I don't want to overexert his lungs. He'd be excited by his surroundings and would probably chase other kids. I remember he did this one Friday night, chasing Rex around while I knew he was wheezing, and while I let it go because I figured he was bonding with his cousin, he really paid for it with multiple albuterol treatments the next day.