Saturday, April 26, 2008

He Loves Me Too Much

“He loves me too much,” is probably one of the silliest things I have said recently without meaning to be a goofball. Thane has been smothering me a bit over vacation week. I think I would have handled it better if I didn’t have bronchitis, but I have been sort of tired and he has been rather demanding.

Of course, there are a lot of good things to be said for his affectionate streak this week . . . he seems more and more “typical” in his behavior. A typical 4-year-old wants to spend time coloring and such with mom. Probably the biggest difference is that most would try to draw some themselves. It seems that Thane is a perfectionist and since his pictures aren’t what he wants, he won’t do anything purposeful with a writing tool. One thing that is encouraging him to try is my backing off from worrying about my laptop computer and letting him use the pen stylus as a mouse. It seems to be working some as he is now putting his hand on mine when I draw or do other tasks. There is something sweet about it, and I also think it helps him get an idea of how to do it for himself, but it has been hard on my carpal tunnel in my right wrist. I suppose I should consider getting that fixed, but . . .

We’ve also had an interesting week for eye contact and discussion of emotions. Thane will come in and grab my face so that he can talk to me and stare at me without my being able to move. He is a bit disarming when he does this because he has a very, very intense gaze. He also likes to give nosy kisses while exclaiming “Na, na, na, NA!” which makes me giggle every time. He’s a little wild man about it. The stare is intriguing because it almost seems like he is trying to stare me down. It doesn’t work, but I can see where it might work on others, especially if he grabs their face to do it!

Yesterday a family friend opened the van door and asked Thane for a kiss, and he gave it! That was a shocker. He doesn’t usually give kisses on the mouth if he can avoid it, and certainly not to people outside the immediately family. She was thrilled too because I don’t think she expected it either.

I am still having so much trouble deciding what to do about next year for him. The place where two-thirds of the kids are typically developing seems pretty good. I wish there was something exactly like it in the same direction as where Braeden goes. The class he is currently may expand to 15 children and have a longer school day – which would honestly be a lot better for me and probably make sense to do for that reason alone. I find that I am pretty useless by Thursday with our current arrangement, so it might be better for both children. I wish I wasn’t such a third child about making decisions!

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