Gum / Good night, _________

***TMI ALERT***This was day two of no MiraLAX in the morning, just Benefiber 3x/day. Yesterday I ran out of Nikko's chocolate fiber Pop Tarts, which stinks because he was eating them happily (of course!) and I thought it was helping his poo. Today the poo was not quite as voluminous but still peanut butter smeary. I am anxiously waiting for his bowels to pause for a day and hopefully form something more solid. Or will he bypass that step and become backed up again?

Nikko started the day with some body crashing onto the floor. He lay on the living room mat and put the big square floor pillow over his head and torso, whining but not full-fledge crying. I wonder if he needs more deep pressure in the mornings from the way he would pile that pillow plus another arm rest pillow over himself. His feet would be sticking out from underneath the pile and I worried that Ronin or Audrey would seize the opportunity to jump on the pile. Thankfully they didn't because that would ensue a rage from Nikko, I'll bet. At breakfast Nikko lay under the kitchen table with his head in the box bin. It makes me wonder why he seeks these cave-like conditions, but does not like to be restrained or cornered in tight places. Perhaps it's of his own free will? This morning I had to leave for a dental cleaning at 8a. On good days, Ronin will happily chant, "Bye Mommy, see you later!" Nikko will echo that and seems to handle my departure easily. However, on bad days such as when I go to pilates class, Ronin will whine and cry when I leave, setting up Nikko for failure. My visit roundtrip was an hour and I was greeted by my cheering throng when I came back. Kathy came at 11a for therapy and he had a good session. When they both came up during the kids' lunch at 12:30, Kathy came over to me and said that she thinks she did a bad thing: Kathy said Nikko was watching her put a stick of gum in her mouth. He started pawing at her purse and was becoming quite relentless and aggressive so she gave him a stick. He started chewing on it and she was watching him closely to see if he would swallow it. He didn't! I think he has observed Kathy enough times to see that she chews her gum, and he probably copied her. The problem was that it was lunchtime and he didn't know what to do with his gum. I invited him to put it at the edge of his plate and eat it after the meal, but he ran away. Nikko finally tried eating his mac cheese WITH the gum in his mouth. I think he swallowed it because I didn't see him chewing anymore after lunch. Oh well. I also think Kathy will have problems with Nikko going forward regarding her purse and that there might be gum in it. When Sarah was here, she made the mistake of allowing Nikko to root around in her purse for something. Whenever she came over, the first thing he started clawing was her purse. I believe the same thing will happen to Kathy.

I took the kids to Target to get Ronin a backpack for preschool next week. He got distracted by the toy section and didn't pick anything out. Nikko was hunting for lollipops and in desperation I gave in again. His whining was grating on my nerves, plus the vision of having to haul these kids away from the toy section a la Wal Mart was stressing me out so I decided we'd have to go. I informed Ronin that despite his weeks of protest, he would have to wear Nikko's Thomas the Tank Engine backpack. Ronin said, "OK!" and I wish he would have saved me the trouble of the trip in the first place by being agreeable. I managed to pick up some gym shoes for the boys, and they light up when you take a step, similar to the ones I got Audrey from Meijer last night. We met Denis at his "Secret Park" and the kids had a good 45-minute play time in great weather. Then it was home, dinner, baths and bed. After the prayer book, we usually prompt Nikko to say, "Good night, Mommy / Good night, Daddy" and then he kisses us good night. He leaned into me, looked me in the eye and said, "Good night, Mommy." Then he kissed me, leaned over to Denis and said, "Good night, Daddy." He kissed his dad and hopped into bed. We were floored! Nikko has never addressed us by our "names" without prompting. I was so thrilled and really hope it is something that will stick and generalize in other areas. What an awesome thing to happen.