Random Nicky

There is nothing more annoying or nauseating than the sound of a preschooler smacking his food.  So, during all our meals, we ask Nicky to chew with his mouth shut, and we properly model the behavior.

Last night's dinner went something like this:

Nicky - noshing on pasta con broccoli...homemade of course...and by that I mean a Kraft individual microwave pasta thing with frozen broccoli added - hey, i made it at home!

Momma - enjoying a lovely crunchy salad...picked up from the grocery store salad bar on the way home.

(Dinner's always quick and easy when it's just the two of us.)

After eating for only a few minutes...

Momma:  Nicky, would you please chew with your mouth shut?  Look how Momma chews.

Nicky:  wike dis momma?

Momma:  Yes.  Good job!  Thank you!

A little bit of time goes by...

Momma: Nicky, please chew with your mouth shut.

Nicky: oookaaay momma.

Momma: Good job. Thank you, now keep doing it.

Another few minutes go by...

Momma:  NICKY.  PLEASE.  STOP.  SMACKING.  YOUR.  FOOD.  I do not want to hear you eat - please chew with your mouth shut!  (obviously this part was said through gritted teeth and with a slight inkling of agitation.)

Nicky:  Not a word.  Just a blank stare.  Began chewing with mouth closed.

We continued to eat in silence for about a minute...

Nicky:  (said while Momma was chewing the aformentioned crunchy salad) - i no want to hear you chew either Momma.

Touché my son.

A Fly on the Wall

Here are a few words and phrases you're likely to hear in the Johnson house these days.  A little sampling of Nicky's current vocabulary, if you will... 

whatcha talkin bout momma? 
Nicky's version of "I don't know what you're talking about" - a phrase usually said by Momma and Daddy when we don't understand what he's saying or when he utters random things such as "there tiger in tree" - when clearly there is no tiger to be seen.  Now Nicky says this to us to be silly.

oooOOOooohhhhhh!
Said after our response to a question Nicky has asked (see "what dis car?" below).  He says this one a lot - over and over - quite annoying - and after telling him so, he's now changed it up a bit (see OOOkkkAAAYYY below).

um maybe (insert word here), maybe (insert word here)...
When we ask Nicky a question and he doesn't know the answer, he will say this while trying to get to the right answer.  i.e. Momma: "Nicky, what did you have for snack today?"  Nicky: "um maybe fruit, maybe amel craker."

what dis car? (or what dis chair/table/shirt...you get the picture)
Nicky's way of asking a question that he knows most of the answer to - as in "i know this is a chair, but it's different than the other one..." kind of thing.  After we tell him he will say "oooOOOooohhhhhh!".

OOOkkkAAAYYY...
Either used in place of oooOOOooohhhhhh! or along with.  This is said after he asks a question and we answer.  Hard to tell if he actually understood the answer, because he tends to say this before we're even done answering.  He also says this when we ask him to do something (wash hands, put on shoes...), and our tone might be a little agitated...he'll mimic our tone while saying it.

renstraun...
This is how he says restaurant.  As in "we eatin dinner at renstraun or home?".

yesserday...
Anything that happened in the past is "yesserday".  i.e. "momma.  i fall down yesserday" - when it was actually 30 minutes ago while getting out of Daddy's car.

morrow...
Anything that happens in the future (even if it's 5 minutes, 2 hours, 1 week, etc) is considered "morrow".  He might see an airplane flying over head and will say "i fly that rayprane morrow."  (rayprane = airplane...he used to say airpene, somehow it evolved...)

And lastly...

bailey nice now!
This is said at completely random times throughout the day; usually when he sees Bailey walking around or if she's laying on the couch in the spot in which he wants to sit.  You see, Nicky and Bailey have had quite the tumultuous relationship.  When we first brought him home, he was terrified of the dogs.  Then he got a little more used to them and would pester them repeatedly.  On one such day, while Bailey was eating, Nicky decided to poke at her.  And, well, let's just say he has a scar on his cheek that is slowly fading away.  Now I suppose Bailey is a little more tolerant of Nicky and doesn't snarl at him so much - even cuddles with him at times, in which Nicky will say "bailey nice now".

The Hardest Job EVER...

Is that of being a parent.  Don't get me wrong, I never thought it was going to be easy.  But when we decided to adopt, we talked about parenting practices and what we would do in this situation or that - meaning how we would react to his different behaviors over the course of his childhood.  What we really didn't give as much thought to was his education.  I'm not talking about the "is he going to go to college" or "are we going to pay for his college" questions.  I'm talking about "should he really be attending two different preschools in order to get him caught up with his peers, when it actually might be keeping him back" kind of thoughts.

Nicky has so much going on, with attending two preschools and Occupational Therapy (for his fine and gross motor skills) once a week.  Three days out of the week he has mornings that are 5 hours long with only 2 hours spend doing actual school work.

Nicky's public preschool teacher tells us how wonderful he's doing in school, and how she's "extremely impressed with the progress he has made this year."  His private school teachers say "he's the sweetest kid they've ever met" but that "he has a hard time concentrating and staying on task in order to complete his work". 

We agree that Nicky has come a long way.  He's talking a TON more, but most times it seems like although he is talking a lot more, he's really not saying much more.  Meaning that he's just building upon the words he already knows instead of learning new words to go in their place - leaving him sounding like a stuttering caveman! (New development - he stammers a lot/stutters when he tries to get his thoughts out - very painful to listen to).

Most days he knows his shapes and colors; others he will respond quickly (with an incorrect answer) just because he knows that we require an answer of him.  At home he will mostly answer "who" questions with a "what" answer; "what" questions with "where" answers; and so forth - yet at school he tends to get them correct 70% of the time.  He gives up easily if he cannot do something - even things he's mastered in the past, but for whatever reason is unable to do so on that particular day.  Is this a cognitive issue?  Is he just not wanting to work on those days?  Is he worn out?

We've spoken with his public school teacher (who is awesome, by the way) and she's going to give him a language assessment to see exactly what words he does know and understand (it's a non-scoring test).  This will help her with formulating his new goals come re-evaluation time with the ARD committee in April (they meet every year on the child's birthday to see how much they've progressed).  At that point, we will have a big decision to make:  1) do we keep him in both schools and hope that it's not too much for him; 2) do we pull him out of public school and just have him attend the private school where he'll spend his entire day, every day, with one group of teachers so they can monitor his behavior and progress; 3) should be start him back with the OT to continue the fine tuning of his motor skills to reduce his frustrations; or 4) any combo of the above 3?!

I suppose this all means we'll have to wait to see how the next year goes and go from there.  If you had to ask us what we would do right now, it would be to just send him to private school and therapy.  But, if he is making such progress with his public school then how can we take that away?  What to do?!

Random Nicky

I've been buying bags of either "Little Cuties" or clementines (aka seedless tangerines) - whichever is cheaper or on sale usually wins.  Apparently they're pretty much the same fruit (variations of mandarin oranges) and besides being seedless, they are super easy to peel.  In fact, I am so talented, I can peel them in one big piece - I should put that on my resume..."top notch clementine peeler".  Anywho, I'm not always certain of what they're called, so I've told Nicky they were tangerines for lack of a better term.  The other day we had the following conversation:

Nicky:  you makin orange momma? (said as I was peeling it)
Momma:  No, this is a tangerine.  It's the same color as an orange, but it's smaller.
Nicky:  oh.  it orange?
Momma:  No, the color is orange, but it's called a tangerine.  It's like a baby orange.
Nicky:  oh.  it tangine.  ok.
Momma walks to the other side of the kitchen to wash her hands.
Nicky (mutters as Momma walks away):  yeah.  that orange.
Momma shakes her head and goes about her business getting lunch ready.

I suppose technically, we're both right, but, he doesn't know that - and we are trying to explain that things can appear to be the same, yet they are different.  I definitely see litigation in this kid's future.

Sophie's Birthday Party

Today we helped celebrate Sophie's 4th birthday.  She's in Nicky's preschool class, and from what his teacher says, they're quite the pair!  The party was at Gymboree, and parents are strongly encouraged to participate in the activities.  I guess some of them didn't get the memo, because instead of joining in, they stood around the room barely paying attention.  There were a few that were so engrossed in conversation that they didn't even hear when their child was calling for them.  I on the other hand, thought it was great fun and unleashed my inner child!

The kids all jumped...

...climbed...

...danced and played instruments...

...put on a "parade"...

...chased bubbles...

...and pretty much ran around like little crazy people for just over an hour!  Perfect for getting the sillies out on a cold winter day.

Here are a few fun pictures of Nicky and his friends...

All was fun and games until this guy made an appearance...

And then when I looked around, he was everywhere and on everything - apparently he's the mascot, "Gymbo". 

Seriously!  Whoever originally thought that clowns make for fun was just plain twisted!  There is nothing amusing about clowns - have you seen Poltergeist or Killer Clowns From Outer Space?  Now that I think about it, I don't think I even cared much for them before either of those movies, and don't even get me started on the Circus!  Needless to say, there will be no apearances made by those creepy buffoons at Nicky's birthday party!

After playing, we all settled in for some yummy refreshments.  Here's the birthday girl getting ready to blow out her candles (which she ended up being too shy to do on her own so we all chipped in).

Nice.  Good thing the employee has plastic gloves on.  We wouldn't want any germs ending up in our food!  Gotta love 4 year olds.

Here's Nicky shoveling his cake in when they were given the 5 minute 'til the party's over warning...

As we were leaving, Nicky had a sad look on his face.  He looked up at me and said "we come here morrow?".  I guess it's safe to say he had a good time!  Up next morrow...neighbor Jade's 2nd birthday party!

"i have just little bit candy?"

Kris and I try not to indulge Nicky in a lot of candy, or sweets in general.  Not that we deprive the poor kid of any sweeties completely, and we do give him processed foods, etc, so we're not all granola or anything (although that kid does love him some granola!).  We figure we only have so many years that we'll be able to impress upon him the importance of healthy eating, we might as well take advantage of it!  He definitely gets cake and ice-cream on birthdays, and candy at Halloween and in his Christmas stocking.  But, it takes him forever to finish all the candy because his mean parents only let him have one measly piece a day (if that), and only if he doesn't whine/cry/beg for it first!  We're more on the philosophy that it should be a reward, not the norm.  Most of the time it doesn't even occur to Nicky that the candy is even in the jar on the counter.  He's blissfully content eating fruit, yogurt, and applesauce for dessert; carrots, pretzels, fruit, and graham crackers for snack.  There are the random nights when we ask him what he wants for dessert and he says "maybe cake?" - um, no, we only have cake for birthdays - "maybe cupcake?".  Gotta hand it to him - he's trying to work the system...and it's hard to keep a straight face with that kind of comeback!

Anyway, somewhere along the line, a monster was created.  An "I want it and I want it now" kind of monster.  A sweet little "i have just little bit candy?" (said while holding his cute little thumb and forefinger to demonstrate the size) turns into a complete tantrun/meltdown when denied.  Unfortunately, the ol' "just one day of over-indulgence won't hurt" has actually done just that.  Almost every day, the first thing Nicky asks is "i have just little bit candy?"; after school we hear "i have just little bit candy?"; again before dinner "i have just little bit candy?"; after dinner "i have just little bit candy?"; before bed "i have just little bit candy?".  You get the picture.  I know, I know - he just wants a hit of that good, good stuff.  And giving it to him every time he asks only makes him want it more; never giving it to him only makes him want it more; we're just trying to keep the status quo.  It sure is cute when he asks...which I know is his point - I just don't think that he knows, that I know, that he knows!  Parenting sure is fun when you get a "win" for a change! :)

Down the Hatch

Several months ago I mentioned that I've been plagued by the chronic, hideous migraine.  Since then, I've taken several preventative meds, as well as those for acute symptoms.  Unfortunately, all to no avail.  I'm now going (on average) at least 15 days each month where I have a migraine of varying levels of pain (typically ranging from a level 4 to 9 on a scale of 1-10, where 10 is the worst).  I was going to a neurologist that was touted as being "one of the best in Dallas" - I beg to differ.  He never ordered any tests to be run, completely ignored my wishes, much less what I tried to tell him about the drugs he prescribed not working, and he had the most arrogant bedside manner...so I had to fire him.  I tried the holistic approach - chiropractic visits, which inclued a 30 minute massage on my "trouble spots" (neck and the constant pinched nerve in my right scapula); accompanied by a host of vitamins meant to help with migraines.  After working on me for a few months, my chiropractor decided that he had pretty much done all he could do, and there was no sense continuing since I wasn't improving (go figure - a doctor with a conscience!).  So, he sent me to a neurologist he works closely with, who sent me for a c-spine.  Diagnosis: I have a degenerated disk which is protruding at the C5-C6 level.  Awesome!  An actual reason for all the pain I've been experiencing!

Well, the joy has been short-lived.  Just before Christmas I received a cervical epidural injection to see if that would alleviate the pain.  It wasn't the most pleasant experience, not to mention the cost (over $1600 for one little poke - the entire appointment was less than 15 minutes!) but the results have been pretty good.  I can now turn my head to each side with minimal pain, and can almost touch my chin to my chest - that's no small feat, let me assure you!  The sharp pain I used to have when turning my head, and the burning sensation I had pretty much all day, every day, has all but subsided.  However, there are two caveats: 1) the pain is starting to return in my neck/shoulder/scapula, which means at some point in the near future my body will be longing for another shot, for which I do not want to shell out the money; 2) my migraines have yet to decrease, much less disappear!  I'm going on day 19 of head pain for the month of January alone.  I have moments where the pain is so bad I want to just ram my head through a window or into a wall.

Solution:  Depakote.  What's that, you might ask?  Well, it's a drug which was developed for a number of different ailments (epilepsy, mania, bipolar disorder - maybe it will help with a few of those issues as a sidebar!), that just so happens to help some individuals with migraine prevention.  Hesitation:  in some instances the active ingredients in depakote have caused life threatening liver failure!  And, if that wasn't bad enough, here are a few bonus side-effects, of which I cannot wait to experience (read with LOTS of sarcasm): hallucinations; unexplained weakness with vomiting and confusion or fainting; depression, anxiety, or other emotional changes (great, I have enough of those already!); extreme and rapid weight gain; and here's the kicker - hair loss.  Super.  So, I'm doomed to be fat, bald, confused and anxious!  I can't wait!

I know that those are just possible side-effects, and they don't happen to everyone, but from the different message boards, etc I've read, the weight gain and hair loss are pretty common.  Now I have to ask myself which is worse or more important - being headache-free or having my sanity, hair and decent figure?  I started taking the drug last Friday and I'm giving it 3 months and then I'll decide.  I figure I can't not try them for fear of what might happen, when what might happen is my head ceasing to ache!  Ah...that would be pure bliss.  If only there were a magic pill for random tantrums thrown by otherwise happy 3 1/2 year olds, then I'd really be in business!