I know, I know, I've been terrible about updating this blog. I'll make another general post later, but right now I want to cover Gavin going to camp. We got him into Beaver Scouts this year (which also resulted in me becoming a leader in the colony) and it's been really good for him. They just had their first overnight camp, and it went amazingly well. I wasn't able to stay overnight since I had to return home so I could be with his younger brother, but Gavin decided to stay overnight without me, and it went great; he said he "wasn't scared at all" and two of the leaders told me later that there had been no problems at all.

In fact, Gavin had such a splendid time, he wanted to make a "mini-book" (his term) so he could bring it to school and show his friends. I'd taken pictures of him (using my cellphone) throughout the day, so I helped him put the photos together and then he told me what he wanted the text to say. (I did some editing to make it fit the space, but it's mostly his thoughts.) We did a Google Image Search for "Beaver Scouts", and he picked which images to use for the cover, and decided on a title. Then we printed it out onto standard-size paper, stapled the six pages together, and he was good to go. He was really happy about getting to share it with his classmates. In case any of y'all might like to see it too, here it is. :) ( Click here to see Gavin's book. )

My gorgeous boy, how he grows.



He's made such incredible progress this year. He's learned so many self-help skills: how to get his own clothes on (with verbal assistance, and occasionally hands-on help if a sleeve gets inside-out), how to get himself a drink of water, how to wash his hands (although you still have to watch to make sure he does it, because he doesn't like the feel of water on his hands), how to get his own shoes on, how to get a snack... he's learning so much. He loves school and loves his teacher and loves the staff (and they all love him back - Gavin has this strange but irresistable charisma, and it makes everyone love him).

He surprises us often now with the things he says and does. A few weeks ago I told him I was going to "eat him all up", and he told me indignantly, "You can't eat me!" When I asked why, he said, "Because I'm not dead yet! Things only taste good after they're dead."

He has a social skills group that he goes to, where they work on skills like looking at people when you ask them questions. For most of us that sort of thing is something we acquire naturally, but for autistic children it's often a learned skill. He makes a lot more eye contact these days, and he's getting more comfortable at interacting with others. His teacher told us recently that at school he's developed into a nurturer - that when other children are upset and freaking out, Gavin's the one crouching on the floor with them, talking them through it and helping them calm down. When it's time for a snack, he makes sure all the children know so nobody is left out. And likewise, the children have taken him under their wing and "mother" him; his teacher said it's even to the point where it's somewhat detrimental to his progress, because the other children want to do everything for him (such as putting on his shoes and helping with his jacket - things he should be learning to do himself).

He's learning how to control his emotions. He still gets upset easily, but now he'll yell, "I'M VERY ANGRY RIGHT NOW!" rather than lash out. He's learning what it is he's feeling, and how to vocalize those feelings rather than acting on them.

He loves to collect things, and he'll carry his collections around with him. Often there's no obvious rhyme or reason to the objects he puts together, but other times it makes more sense (coins, or plastic bottle caps, or whatever). His biggest fascination by far is with grocery store flyers, especially for our local grocery store. He eagerly checks the mail each day, waiting for the weekly flyer to arrive. When it does, he spends days carrying it around with him, showing his classmates, reading it and examining all the sales, and telling us the specials that are on that week. Some autie kids like trains; other autie kids might like dinosaurs; my autie kid is in love with grocery store flyers.

He is the one who notices all the weird little things I notice: the tiny bugs, the shine of sunlight on mica, the way sticks can interlock. When we come across a dead bird we're both immediately squatting while I point out the ants trailing over the body, and explain the cycle of life and decomposition. He wants to know everything, and he is fiercely bright. At the developmental clinic they tested his academic skills; he tests at at least the third-grade level in everything, and at the fifth-grade level in some things. My boy, not yet out of kindergarten, who will sit and read chapter books. He is my child, through and through.



(Pictures by a family friend, Phil.)

Gavin and I went to the Zombie Walk 2009: Director's Cut this past Saturday. This year I felt that Connor (who's now 18 months old) would be old enough to be scared but not old enough to understand it's make-believe, so we left Connor at home with Chris. So Gavin and I went by ourselves and we had an awesome time!

At home, ready to go. This year we went as "risen from the grave" zombies, so I took some old stained clothes that were going into the trash anyway and zombiefied them. That involved rubbing them in mud, letting them dry, splashing liberally with fake blood, letting that dry, tearing some rips, then application of crusty fake blood around the rips. Gavin doesn't like messy stuff near his skin, so his zombie shirt is on over a regular shirt, and his pants have a liner inside. This year he didn't want much makeup on so there's just a couple swipes of black cream makeup to dirty up his face a bit, and a little fake blood in his hair.




Waiting for the subway, I asked him to give me his best zombie pose.


On the subway. I asked him for his best zombie face.


No no! We're scary zombies. Give me your best scary face.


At the park, waiting for the Walk to begin. He decided we should be silly zombies rather than scary zombies, so from that point on we were silly zombies.


Fishface zombies! The crusty texture on my skin is created from Liquid Latex with oatmeal flakes pressed into it, then another layer of Liquid Latex, then cream-based makeup, then lipstick.


I eat you! No, I eat you! Okay, I guess we eat each other then! Nom.


Teehee. "You're silly-pants, Mama."


In the midst of a goofy dance.


In the subway station waiting for the subway, post-Walk.


On our way home on the subway. "Did you have an awesome day?" I asked him. He grinned.


And a close-up of the other side of my face. The wound was created with a thin layer of Liquid Latex, then several single-ply pieces of toilet paper applied over it (with thin layers of LL between each piece of toilet paper). Then I tore a hole in the latex and colored it and the surrounding area with cream makeup. Finally I filled it in with fake blood.

Today Gavin was waffling between having an apple and a banana with lunch. I finally said, "Honey, please just pick one already, or I'm going to pick one for you."

He looked at me and replied earnestly, "Choosing fruit, serious bizniz." (Yes, he pronounced "serious" properly and then said "biz-niz".)

After a moment to choke back my laughter, I said, "Yes, choosing fruit is indeed serious bizniz." He nodded and went back to perusing the fruit.

Also, today he was dancing around and singing a song which went something like:
Jesus macaroni bread
Pizza pizza!
Jesus macaroni pizza
Bread bread bread!
Macaroni Jesus
Pizza macaroni
Jesus bread bread potty!

Some people happened to be walking by on the sidewalk while he was dancing around and singing that on the front lawn, and we did get some very odd looks from them. ;)

Today was Gavin's second day of school, and we definitely feel that him being in the smaller class is really, really good for him. Last year he was stressed from the first day of school onward (and it got progressively more difficult for him as his overload-related stress continued to accumulate); this year, he was relaxed and happy both yesterday and today after getting home from school. Yesterday he took part in his first drama class (I'm not sure what that involves, but every day the teacher sends home a little description of what they did that day and whether he has a "good day" or a "difficult day", and yesterday it said he did drama and played a game and read and practiced his letters, and he had a good day). Today there was a birthday party in the kindergarten class across the hall, so he joined their class for the party and had an awesome time.

The class isn't at our local school, so he has to be bused there and back. The school district covers the cost of the busing, and it picks him up and drops him off in front of our building. He really enjoys riding the bus, and I'm fine with him riding the bus because it's a smaller bus (what we in North America usually call "short buses", but apparently that term's not really acceptable anymore) so it's not like some school bus with 50 kids who are being rambunctious or anything. :) And there's seatbelts too, unlike in a regular bus.

We're just so relieved that this school year is going to be so much better for him, and he'll get a chance to work on his social skills as well as his academic skills, and he's being taught by teachers who are specially trained in dealing with autistic kids, and they'll have the capability to give him all the attention he requires (since there's two teachers and only five students). I can't say enough good things about the teacher, aide, and principal he had last year; they did their absolute best by him and tried as hard as they could. But the fact is that he wasn't and isn't really ready to be in a classroom with 20+ other children (almost all of whom are neurotypical) and no matter how hard his teacher and aide tried and how amazing they are, he just wasn't ready to cope with that kind of environment. So I'm so grateful that his principal and teacher from last year were able to get the school board to listen, and help secure Gavin his spot in the diagnostic class this year.

Today he had a really good day at school and earned a little token - a tiny dog toy, about 1" tall. Gavin doesn't get home from school until after I leave to work, and he's asleep by the time I get home around 10 PM, but tonight when I got home he came running out of his room, still awake, because he was so excited to show me the dog he'd gotten. He was so proud of himself for earning it. :) There's plenty of challenges still ahead, but right now I'm just so glad that he is where he is, and he's making so much progress.

As some of you know, Gavin received a tentative diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder early this year. Nothing we've seen or dealt with since has given us any impression that that diagnosis is incorrect, and the school district's Autism Response Team observed him for a few days and their feeling was that there's some form of ASD and some form of sensory difficulty going on. We're still waiting for the final diagnosis from a developmental clinic (waiting lists right now are a year or longer; we've been on the list since January 2009, so hopefully there'll only be a few more months).

It's almost time for school to begin again. Thankfully this year will, I think, be much less stressful for Gavin (the last year was really difficult, even after the school provided him with an adult aide to help him). We've secured him a placement in a special class - they're called "diagnostic classes" - which are specifically for kindergartners with neurological issues. There's only six or seven students and two or three teachers, all of whom are trained for working with special-needs kids. The classroom is extremely well-arranged for autistic children; it's designed to reduce sensory overload (for example, low shelving divides the room into separate little areas rather than having an open-concept classroom where stuff is going on all around) and everything is scheduled and they use visual schedules and such. This year will be focused on helping him learn skills to cope in school, and social skills, and stuff like that. There's a "normal" kindergarten class right across the hall, and Gavin and the other students in his class will share as many activities with that kindergarten class as possible; there will be music classes, and drama classes, and art classes. I think it's going to be really, really good for him.

An autism resource center near us runs respite sessions afterschool and in the evening so parents can get a break; it's $15 for three hours of babysitting, and of course all the counselors are trained for working with autie kids. We've taken Gavin there a few times and he LOVED it. So we've set up a regular respite date for him, on the same day of the same week of each month, so he has that to look forward to on an ongoing basis.

One of the city agencies that we were dealing with talked to a summer camp here that is for autistic kids, and the summer camp agreed to give us a subsidized two-week stint at their camp for Gavin. It was 2 1/2 hours a day, each weekday, and it was only a couple subway stops away. Chris would drop Gavin off in the morning (it was about an hour round-trip) and then I'd go pick him up in the afternoon. Gavin had an absolute blast at camp, he loved doing the art projects and running around in the sprinkler (part of the day was spent inside, and part of it was outside) and singing songs. And because it was a camp specifically for auties, I knew that they'd know how to handle him and they wouldn't be calling us to come pick him up early because he was being unmanageable. It was really good for him. At first, getting him to talk about camp was like getting him to talk about anything else (which is to say, it's like pulling teeth; you have to drag things out of him by asking question after question). But then there was a moment near the end of the second week of camp when I arrived to pick him up, and he paused and grabbed his backpack and said, "Mama, I have something to show you," and dug around in his backpack until he found a pipe-cleaner bracelet strung with dried pasta. It was awesome seeing that kind of progress.

It's also been awesome to see his continuing development in terms of language. Although his speech still isn't as clear as most other kids his age, the complexity continues to develop. Even the phrase above - "Mama, I have something to show you," isn't something he would have said even six months ago. (Yes, I know there's three-year-olds that could say something like that effortlessly. But that isn't the point. The point is that he's continuing to develop and he's much further along than he was.)

His imagination continues to grow as well. His use of imaginary play was very delayed (by a few years), but now it's catching up fast. Although he's still incapable of following the complex rules that other kids tend to put on their imaginary games, he's perfectly capable of imagining and acting out scenarios with toy animals, which is something that he wasn't doing even just a year ago.

He still has a lot of idiosyncrasies, which may or not be related to the autism. For example, when someone flushes the toilet at night after he's gone to bed, he'll come stumbling out of his bedroom nearly-asleep and freaking out because somebody flushed the toilet. Or he likes to carry two things around with him at a time, and they have to be the same kind of thing (such as two toy animals, or two rocks, or two Q-Tips); if he's only allowed to carry one, or if he has three, it sends him into a freak-out. But overall, life has gotten a lot better as we've learned to recognize what's likely to set him off and how to handle it if he does start freaking out.

Speaking of imagination, he continues to use a phrase that he recently came up with: "Jesus macaroni bread". He'll use this as a curse if he's mad, or as an exclamation of surprise. While I know he got the "Jesus" part from me (which I use pretty much exclusively when I'm irritated), the "macaroni bread" tagged on to the end is entirely his own.

I started working a regular job a few weeks ago, so I'm gone six hours a day, five days a week. He's having a somewhat tough time adjusting to me being gone so much; every day he asks me if I have to work today, and when my next day off is. I leave in the late afternoon and don't get home until after he's in bed, and I think he misses me a great deal. :/ But there's no way around it. I suppose he'll adjust eventually.

His "friend party" for his birthday went quite well. We had two of his school friends over (one of whom is also on the autism spectrum) and they ate pizza and played Wii and ate cupcakes and broke a pinata (we set it up in the backyard of our apartment building, and we actually had random people watching from their balconies and cheering the kids on) and opened presents. Two hours was just about perfect; they were able to do everything they wanted to do and then the parents arrived to pick up the kids, and we spent the next few hours peeling Gavin off the walls because he was so over-excited, LOL. He had a great time though, and by all accounts, so did the other two kids. Good times. :)

Gavin turned five today! I've been sick with medication-related side effects recently and was too exhausted to do much so I told Gavin we could invite two people over for our "family party" (he's having a "friend party" on Saturday, when two of his school-mates are coming over to have cake and pizza and play Wii for a couple hours), and let him pick which two. He picked two family friends that he sees often (and who fawn over him and give him lots of attention, LOL). So they came over and it was nice. We made a pasta dish and a "rainbow cake" (his request - vanilla cake with rainbow confetti bits, and multi-colored frosting). He had a great time. He got a video game he's really been wanting (Wii Sports Resort) and a handful of small things like plastic animal toys, a Slinky, some glow-in-the-dark numbers, a few plastic bugs, etc. Our family friends got him some nifty presents too - a big monster truck and a dinosaur that throws plastic rocks.

The "friend party" on Saturday should be pretty low-key; each of the kids will be given a pre-made mini-pizza base made from fresh pizza dough put into a pie pan and topped with pizza sauce, and then they can add their own toppings from bowls on the table (just basic stuff - cheese, mushrooms, pepperoni, and maybe some pineapple and ham bits). Then they can play Wii while the pizzas cook, then have lunch and dessert (cupcakes put into ice cream cones and frosted, and then they can add their own toppings - sprinkles and edible confetti and such), open a few presents, and then there's a pinata to smack around. If there's any time left (the party is only 2 hours long) they can play some more Wii until their parents pick them up.

So it was a good birthday. :) I'm sure he'd still be happy to read birthday greetings though, if anyone wants to comment! :)

It's been a good summer in general. He got to go to a daytime summer camp (2.5 hours per day) for a two-week session, which he really enjoyed. We joined Postcrossing, so he's been accumulating postcards from all over the world. We have two maps (one world map, and one U.S. map) up on his wall and we put dots on the maps for anywhere he gets a postcard from. (The postcards are also displayed on his bedroom wall; I started to put them up picture-side out but he requested text-side out, so he can read them whenever he wants.)

And should anyone want to send him a postcard for his wall, you can send it here:
( Click here for address. )

I have pictures from the past few months; I'll try to download/resize/post them soon.

Today the kids and I went to a small carnival I'd noticed a few days ago.

Riding a kiddy-car ride:


Taken while waiting for the bus to go home (you can see the sticky remnants of blue cotton candy at the corner of his lips):


In other news, Gavin's been showing a lot of talent in the direction of music, so we've arranged for some music classes for him (in addition to the weekly music class he has at school). So now one day a week he goes for a group music lesson (there's about 4-5 other kids in the class) and he's really been enjoying it; he's learning to read musical notation and now he's started coming up with improvisational rhythms (consisting of single notes, double notes, and rests) on any available surface. We've gotten a recorder for him and I need to get my hand drum reskinned (it had developed a crack) so he can use it. I should probably also look into local drum circles, since I think he'd get a big kick out of that.

One of Gavin's friends was having a birthday, so I let Gavin have free rein on designing a birthday card using a paint program on the computer. I assisted him with typing "Happy Birthday" but other than that it was all his. He decided to use his favorite word, "pug", a great deal - there were strings of "pugpugpugpug" all over the card.

A couple days ago, the mom of his friend mentioned to me that her son is now writing "pugpugpugpug" all over the place. MY SON HAS STARTED A MEME! Hee. :D

Also, today he referred to something as "siriuz". He said while looking at a family portrait, "That's the most siriuz picture I have ever seen." (He clearly picked this up from me, because I say, "That's siriuz," or "That is totally siriuz," when something is very cool.)

Gavin's quite excited about Connor's upcoming birthday. He's going to help me decide tomorrow what kind of a cake we should make. :)

This year I'm getting Gavin a lot more involved in our gardening. We grow a lot of plants and veggies on our balcony and Gavin's old enough now to help (although not with the digging/dirt part, since he hates getting dirt or mess on his hands). He went with me to Home Depot and I let him help me pick out some of the seeds we're planting this year. I told him he could pick four seed packets and he chose Purple Haze carrots (which was actually already on my list of specialty seeds that I planned to order because I thought he'd enjoy them), black-eyed susan flowers, lupin flowers, and Royal Burgundy bush beans. I've also gotten some specialty seeds that I think he'll enjoy: Easter Egg radishes, pattypan squash, Aunt Molly's Ground Cherries, alpine strawberries, Eight Ball Zucchini (the zucchini are the size and shape of billiard balls), and multicolored grape tomatoes. (We're growing a LOT more veggies than the ones I've listed, but those are the ones of primary interest to Gavin.)

He helped me plant the seeds into peat packets (by counting them and dropping them in, and then I had to do the actual dirt-covering part) and he's been peeking at the greenhouse tray a few times a day, watching the plants sprout and grow. I planted a few of his lupin-flower seeds into clear plastic tubes (I used a heated pin to make drainage holes in the bottom) so hopefully he'll be able to see the root systems developing.

Chris got a used copy of Pikmin for him today, which is a game for the Nintendo Wii that has all these little plant guys (the Pikmin) that sprout in the ground and then the main character picks them, and the Pikmin help the main character. Gavin was terribly excited when he realized that the Pikmin plant-guys, before they're pulled from the ground, look almost exactly like the sprouts of the Royal Burgundy beans. :)

My two boys together:


Concentrating while playing WiiMusic on the Wii:

I made Gavin a visual schedule and chalkboard. I was quite happy with how they turned out. The chalkboard was made using a can of Krylon Chalkboard spraypaint ($7) and an old frame we'd bought at Ikea - it's sized to hold a poster. I used the clear acrylic sheet (which would have covered the poster) for the chalkboard itself; I sanded the acrylic, sprayed it with two coats of spraypaint, then put it back into the frame. (Since we'd had the frame for years I'm not going to assign a cost, but it was probably $7-$8 when we originally bought it.) I then bought a package of foam letters at the dollar store ($1) and hot-glued words around the edge of the chalkboard. I bought a package of chalk at Toys'R'Us ($1.50) and made an eraser by covering a small box with fabric and hot-gluing it closed. Total cost: less than $10.



His visual schedule is a collection of roughly fifty 2" by 2" cards, each one depicting different things that happen in Gavin's life, plus 24 cards that are roughly 1" by 2" and have days of the week and times of day printed on them. I made the cards in Photoshop, printed them on cardstock, covered them with contact paper ($3 per roll at Grand and Toy), then cut them apart and hot-glued small pieces of velcro onto the back of each card. Then I sewed strips of velcro onto a piece of fabric, added grommets to the top so I could hang the fabric from a few small nails, and each night I put together his new schedule for the next day. (You'll also notice a bag at the top right of the photo; that holds the cards that aren't currently in use.)

This way he knows at a glance exactly what's happening and what's coming up. (Note that this picture doesn't show any of the time cards, since I made those the next day after taking this photo.) Total cost: less than $4.

Some pictures from Christmas. This one is when he first saw the tree and presents on Christmas morning, still sleepy-eyed:


Checking out one of his gifts:

1. Christmas went very well. Gavin loved the presents Santa brought him (MarioKart for the Wii and a huge marble race which took me over two hours to put together, and then Chris another hour of fussing to make it work properly/consistently), and the present his Uncle Yuri brought him (WiiMusic). He also got a powered toy-car loop from his Grandpa, new toy cars and straight track pieces from his cousins, some new robots from his Nonna and Papa, a play kit with doctor equipment from his great-Nonna, big metal Tonka trucks from his Juniegran, a pug toy and a book about a pug from our dog Foo (who is, of course, a pug), and a couple books and new bath toys from the kitties. Connor gave him a bathtub xylophone (it has a sponge base rather than wood or metal) so now every bathtime he plays the xylophone as an accompaniment to his singing.

2. Yesterday in the bathtub I heard him singing one of the songs he'd sung at his Winter Concert, Jingle Bells. Set to the clinking of his xylophone I heard him sing, "Jingle bells, jingle bells, oh what fun in a sleigh, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells with me..." quite loudly. It was cute. :)

3. His reading has become quite astounding. As I type this he is sitting at my shoulder reading aloud whatever I'm typing, and he's become proficient at sounding out words that he doesn't know by sight.

4. V-Cat died a few days ago (she was 12 years old) so we explained to Gavin that people/animals are a little like toys that need batteries, and when people/animals get old and their "batteries" run out, then they don't work anymore. But people, unlike toys, can't have their "batteries" replaced. So when that happens then they die and they are gone, but we'll always remember them.

We tried to bury her in the ground outside but the ground was too frozen, so I brought her body to the vet instead. He doesn't seem particularly sad about it but that doesn't surprise me since they didn't really have a relationship; she's always avoided him and stayed out of his way.

Halloween: Gavin picked out a chef costume for Halloween, complete with a white chef's hat. It was a huge success; people loved it because it was unique and he was the only chef around! Of course everybody asked him, "Will you come cook something for me?" and after being asked this three or four times, he came up with his own answer: "Cookies!"

It was also interesting seeing his interactions on Halloween; this year he easily grasped that he was supposed to say "Trick or treat" when someone opened the door, and "thank you" after they'd given him candy; but on his own he started saying "Happy Halloween!" when leaving, and also started randomly shouting things like, "Halloween for everybody!" and "Candy for everyone!"

I tell you, that child's haul of candy at the end of the night was truly impressive. o_O

School: He loves school but is having real difficulty with settling down. His teacher and I are working together to make the adjustment as easy as possible and I try to get to school half an hour early so he has some time to play on the playground and hopefully get a bit of his energy out. He seems to be quite popular on the playground though, and I regularly see him holding hands with other kids, or little kids inviting him to join their play.

Girlfriend: On the playground a couple weeks ago I saw him and a little girl hugging, and later on I overheard the little girl telling another little girl that Gavin was her boyfriend. It was cute and made me laugh.

The Scholastic Book Club: Every month we get fliers from his school for the Scholastic Book Club, which sells paperback children's books at very reasonable prices (many of them are $2-$4). As a result, each month I go through the fliers and clip the ads for 10-12 books that I think might interest him and then we sit down with eight loonies (loonies are $1 coins) and I explain that that's how much money he has to buy books. So he'll go through the ads and read the descriptions and each time he chooses one book he has to give me the loonies that it costs, and he understands that the remaining loonies are all he has left to buy more books. Last month he bought two $4 books, but this month he realized he could buy two $3 books plus one $2 book, so that's what he did. He seems to really enjoy choosing his own books, and it's teaching him about money and making wise consumer choices at the same time. Then we tape the ads for the books he picked to the side of his bookcase so he knows what's coming.

School pictures: They had school pictures taken and I think his turned out really cute. When we get the photos back (all we've gotten so far are the proofs that have watermarks across the center) I'll scan and post it.

Siblings: He's interacting with Connor a lot more now. Connor laughs very easily at almost anything Gavin does, so that seems to provide a good impetus for Gavin to interact with him. Multiple times a day now Gavin will come up to Connor and hug him or talk to him or play with him. It's lovely to see those two bonding. :D

Friends: He's made a few friends at school but has become good friends with one in particular, A (which is good because A's mom and I have become good friends as well), and we'll often meet them in the mornings to go to school together (they live on our street). Last week we went over to their house after school and ended up staying for five hours or so (we had an impromptu pizza party for dinner) and now Gavin's constantly asking if he can go over to A's house. In the mornings he's terribly excited to see A that day in school.

Gavin and Connor laugh together.


Gavin sings "Gilligan's Island" (his very favorite song!) with his dad.

Friday was Moo's first day of junior Kindergarten. He was very excited to get a new haircut and a new backpack and new shoes and start school. :)



He did awesome. When the teachers formed them into a line to go into class he trotted off cheerfully with a backwards glance. :) And when I went to go pick him up afterwards (it's 2.5 hours a day, five days a week) one of his two teachers spotted me and we had this exchange:

Teacher: WOW! He can read!
Me: Heh, yeah.
Teacher: We were handing out papers and suddenly he's reading, 'My name is. My favorite color is.'

Heh. :) My smart boy.

In other news, he got a tent from my sister and mom for his birthday, and he's been loving it! He'll sit inside there and read. :)



Recent Gavinism: when he sees a housefly he'll chase after it, calling, "SHOOT FLY! SHOOT!" We've tried correcting him ("it's 'shoo', honey") but he prefers his version. ;)

Date:	2008-08-11 02:11
Subject:	Happy birthday!
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

Happy birthday big boy - you're four years old today. :D I hope this coming year is amazing for you! You're so excited to be starting junior kindergarden in September and I know you're going to love it, and your little brother will be old enough to play some games with you by the time this year is done.

This past year you got a new sibling, and taught yourself how to read, and had many other accomplishments which I'll try to write about later... but for right now, Mama's been working on your room all day and needs some sleep. ;)

I love you lots, sweet pumpkin. :D

It's been awhile since I updated so here's what's new. :)

Gavin's been doing awesome. His memory and language skills have really increased a lot so now he'll talk about stuff that occurred in the recent past, and if you tell him something is upcoming, he'll remember that (so if we tell him the night before that we're going to a library, the next morning he'll wake up excited to go to the library).

The language is fun because he's picked up all sorts of odd phrases that we have no idea where they came from. A big one he uses is, in a tone of complete pathos, "Now I have NOTHING!" He'll say this after he loses a toy or has to hand a toy over (if he throws a toy or something then he loses the right to play with it, so he has to pick it up and hand it to us). Similarly, if he has to go into a time-out, he'll go into time-out and then say, "But there's NOBODY HERE!"

He's adjusted quite well to Connor. There have been a few incidents of sibling rivalry but mostly it's been fine, and if Connor starts crying, Gavin will tell us, "The baby's started crying!" He'll also occasionally shake a rattle or otherwise try to play with Connor.



Gavin's reading has progressed really fast. By now we can give him a children's book and he'll be able to read it out loud to us and only need help on a couple words. It's thrilling to see that ability developing. :D I've started teaching him to play chess too.

He'll be turning four years old in a week (where does the time go?!) and he has requested a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, so that's what he'll be getting. :) We're going to get him a twin bed for his birthday with a really cool canopy, and remodeling his room (removing some furniture, moving other furniture around, repainting some furniture). Originally we'd planned to get him a bunk bed, but when he wakes up at night to pee he's still pretty disoriented so we decided it'd be a bad idea to have him in a bunk bed right now. Hopefully in a year when Connor is ready to move to his own bed, Gavin will be ready for a bunk bed then.

Gavin's fully potty-trained now (hallelujah!) although we still occasionally have accidents at night, especially if we're not at home (at home accidents are quite rare).



Recently he was sliding off a chair and he wasn't careful enough, because I heard him yelp and when I looked over he was clutching at his crotch. "Oh honey, did you rack yourself?" I asked him sympathetically. He looked at me, forgot he was injured, ran over to his dad and told his dad in a tone of great importance, "I CRACKED MYSELF!" I just about died laughing. Now he refers to it as "cracking" when his cars crash. So he'll be playing with his toy cars, running them into each other, and then tell us that his cars "cracked".

Ah, kids.

Gavin's doing well. He's learning to read a lot of words and he's fascinated by calendars now. I print out a calendar for him every month and we have coded stickers that we put on the calendar so he knows everything that's coming up. He's learned the days of the week and months of the year and also how to correctly pronounce every day of the month (saying "thirty-first" instead of "thirty-one", for example). The ladies who run the programs at the community centre are very impressed with him - they said he's the only kid in the programs who can read. :)

We've been going out to the park again every night now that the weather is warm again.

Adjusting to Connor is going pretty well - he gets a lot of time with Daddy so that helps, and I try to include him in what Connor and I are doing (for example, I'm stuck nursing Connor a lot of the time, but I'll put my arm around Gavin while he sits on the couch next to me and plays a video game).

He's talking a LOT more these days. Today he was slowly falling off the couch (doing it deliberately) and he said, "A little help please?!" LOL. He's such a goofball.