Whine and Singing

Nikko's OT report: More talking with words - labelling. Did lots of movement activities - trampoline, rolling, big ball work. Then at table worked on follow the path papers, finding bugs in putty & puzzle.

Nikko was asleep on the bus coming home. He didn't nap yesterday and wasn't completely tired at bedtime so I wonder why he was sleepy today. He has been wolfing down this concoction I make using ground turkey, whole wheat macaroni and jarred Ragu cheese sauce. Cheesy mac. But he calls it mac cheese and loves it. Nikko really has been babbling up a storm lately, mixing in things that he has heard on TV. I hear him say Sorry as well as Yellow, yellow, pink! He is still saying one and two-word requests, prompted for the Please. This is all unfortunately accompanied by shrill whining. When Nikko is sitting at the kid table, "waiting" for his food, he watches me and starts to whine. Then it builds into a longer, louder whine and my threshold for whining and crying is definitely challenged. When you are supposed to reward positive behavior, like him verbally requesting a food, you're supposed to give him immediate positive feedback like Thank You or Good Job Saying ----! But the immediate payoff is the actual food, and 10 out of 10 times it's not ready yet. Hence, whining. Today he asked me for fruit snacks twice. It has been a few days since he has tried this, and my answer was No. I don't have any, Nikko. Whining followed, but I was able to redirect him, thankfully.

I am getting into the habit of greeting Nikko with Good Morning when I walk into his room. He has repeated it back to me. I am also coming up to him and saying, "Hi Nikko! Say, Hi Mommy!" and he may take a few seconds but will say Hi Bomppy or some derivation of that. Last night after stories and before prayers, I asked Nikko if he wanted to sing. He sat in my lap facing me and we sang The Wheels on the Bus. I would sing part of a phrase and he would complete it. He wouldn't necessarily do the hand motions that accompanied the words, but he was singing back to me and that was great. Tonight the song of choice was the first stanza of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He did a really good job with it! He was prone to staring off over my shoulder or above me and slightly to the left, but he still sang the song appropriately. Way to go!