I think it's safe to say that I finally have a child who can speak in sentences!!! I have just been unbelievably impressed at Nick's vocabulary and his ability to put 3-4 words together to make a sentence. He demonstrated this today when we decided to do some shopping at Gymboree. Daddy happened to find an adorable dinosaur costume in a size 5T that was on clearance for $13. I tried to put it back on the rack and Nick started crying "I want dinosaur!" Yup...he got to have the costume. However, I didn't expect him to INSIST on wearing it out of the store and all over the shopping center. It was a rather warm day, but every time I asked if he was ready to take off the costume, I got a stern "NO!!" Soo...Nick walked around in the very warm weather all night in his dino costumes. We got stared at and pointed and giggled at all night, but Nick enjoyed the attention and Allen and I agreed that you are damn well allowed to wear a dino costume any time of the year when you are 4 years old!! We managed to get it off of him for the car ride home, but the fight was on when we got home and got dressed for bed. Nick just flat out insisted on wearing that costume to bed, so we finally gave in and let him put it on. I tucked my little dinosaur into bed and snuck back into his room after he fell asleep to remove the costume so he wouldn't get too hot!
Nick amazed us yesterday when we went to pick up a few things at Target. Because he is normally pretty wild in stores, I made him sit in the shopping cart. This did not make him happy, but he dealt with it....for awhile anyway. Finally the cries of "I want down!" forced us to give him a chance and see if he could walk like a good boy. As soon as his feet hit the floor, he went tearing down the aisles across the store. Allen gave me an exasperated look and just kinda shrugged. I told him to go get Nick and put him back in the cart since he wasn't able to follow directions. Right as Allen started to run after him, Nick stopped. He had reached the candy counter which holds his absolute favorite treat....gummy dinosaurs. He picked up a dino, ran across the store where we waited, put his hand on the cart and said...."I be good!" And he was....at least as good as Nick can be, for the rest of the shopping trip. As a reward, Nick got to eat his dinosaur after we checked out.
This post has been written over the course of several weeks. Nick has continued to surprise and astound me almost every single day. He now has an infatuation with band-aids. Every night he tells me, "I want band-aid" and holds up his "hurt" finger. After I carefully applied to band aid tonight, Nick held up his bandaged finger and said, "I LIKE band-aid!" I felt my heart leap with joy at his ability to express even a very small and unimportant thought. I told him, "I LIKE your talking!!" At lunch today, he told me "I want macaroni-cheese." You'd better believe he got that $4 GFCF Amy's mac and no cheese just as soon as I could cook it. I giggled and got (just a little) upset when he fed his stuffed dinosaur the first bite. Luckily the dino was full after just one bite, but he sat at the table with Nick for the rest of the meal and his mouth was easily cleaned out.
Early in the evening, I was a little touchy with Nick. We were trying to get out of the house to go to the grocery store and he was stalling. He insisted on taking every one of his stuffed animals and tucking them into our bed for a nap. By the time we left the house, we had no less than 10 stuffed animals tucked under the covers as Nick told each one, "night, night" and "sleep." He insisted on bringing at least one stuffed animal with us..."I want green bunny!" I got even more irritated when he insisted on climbing into the backseat of the minivan and seat belting that darn bunny in. When he couldn't get the belt latched, he said, "I want help please!" As I leaned down and crammed myself into the backseat and buckled the stupid bunny in, I was grumbling to myself about the stupidity of this all and wondering if we would ever actually get out of the house. I finally got the bunny and Nick buckled in and climbed out of the van....sweating and irritated. Allen looked at me and said, "It's so great to see him pretending.....he's so much better than he used to be....." Again my heart leapt as I was reminded how much I had hoped and prayed and cried for Nick to do these "stupid" little things mere months ago. I have a son who speaks in sentences, insists on band-aids for an imagined boo-boo, pretends to feed stuffed animals and buckles them into their seats just like him. I am inching closer and closer to having a "normal" child. I'll love him no matter what....even if this is as far as he's come 20 years from now. In my heart though, I know there is hope, love, joy and most of all excitement for his future.
Nick amazed us yesterday when we went to pick up a few things at Target. Because he is normally pretty wild in stores, I made him sit in the shopping cart. This did not make him happy, but he dealt with it....for awhile anyway. Finally the cries of "I want down!" forced us to give him a chance and see if he could walk like a good boy. As soon as his feet hit the floor, he went tearing down the aisles across the store. Allen gave me an exasperated look and just kinda shrugged. I told him to go get Nick and put him back in the cart since he wasn't able to follow directions. Right as Allen started to run after him, Nick stopped. He had reached the candy counter which holds his absolute favorite treat....gummy dinosaurs. He picked up a dino, ran across the store where we waited, put his hand on the cart and said...."I be good!" And he was....at least as good as Nick can be, for the rest of the shopping trip. As a reward, Nick got to eat his dinosaur after we checked out.
This post has been written over the course of several weeks. Nick has continued to surprise and astound me almost every single day. He now has an infatuation with band-aids. Every night he tells me, "I want band-aid" and holds up his "hurt" finger. After I carefully applied to band aid tonight, Nick held up his bandaged finger and said, "I LIKE band-aid!" I felt my heart leap with joy at his ability to express even a very small and unimportant thought. I told him, "I LIKE your talking!!" At lunch today, he told me "I want macaroni-cheese." You'd better believe he got that $4 GFCF Amy's mac and no cheese just as soon as I could cook it. I giggled and got (just a little) upset when he fed his stuffed dinosaur the first bite. Luckily the dino was full after just one bite, but he sat at the table with Nick for the rest of the meal and his mouth was easily cleaned out.
Early in the evening, I was a little touchy with Nick. We were trying to get out of the house to go to the grocery store and he was stalling. He insisted on taking every one of his stuffed animals and tucking them into our bed for a nap. By the time we left the house, we had no less than 10 stuffed animals tucked under the covers as Nick told each one, "night, night" and "sleep." He insisted on bringing at least one stuffed animal with us..."I want green bunny!" I got even more irritated when he insisted on climbing into the backseat of the minivan and seat belting that darn bunny in. When he couldn't get the belt latched, he said, "I want help please!" As I leaned down and crammed myself into the backseat and buckled the stupid bunny in, I was grumbling to myself about the stupidity of this all and wondering if we would ever actually get out of the house. I finally got the bunny and Nick buckled in and climbed out of the van....sweating and irritated. Allen looked at me and said, "It's so great to see him pretending.....he's so much better than he used to be....." Again my heart leapt as I was reminded how much I had hoped and prayed and cried for Nick to do these "stupid" little things mere months ago. I have a son who speaks in sentences, insists on band-aids for an imagined boo-boo, pretends to feed stuffed animals and buckles them into their seats just like him. I am inching closer and closer to having a "normal" child. I'll love him no matter what....even if this is as far as he's come 20 years from now. In my heart though, I know there is hope, love, joy and most of all excitement for his future.
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