Hey! No Cameras!

I think Adam's favorite season is summer. I haven't actually asked him, but I know how happy he looks whenever he's in the water. Whether it's the pool or the sprinkler, he's thrilled to be out there with his little swim trunks sagging off of his skinny butt. For a kid we're pretty sure has some degree of sesory issues, he sure doesn't care about the grass, the dirt, the water, or any combination of the three.

He'll get out in the backyard and the first thing he will do is scoop both hands in the water and splash Eleanor as close to the face as possible. Now because Eleanor has seen, "Can You Teach My Alligator Manners?" on tv, she is under the impression that you should not splash others unless they want to be splashed. And Eleanor is all about The Rules. So this upsets her greatly and she proclaims, "Aaadam! Don't splash somebody unless somebody wants to be splaaashed!" Hmm. I ignore her. I think splashing is funny as long as the kids are the same age--plus the last thing I want is a whiny kid--i.e. Waaah! She splashed me! So just about the time Eleanor gets the last word out, Adam splashes her again. She should be used to this by the end of the summer I figure.

Recently, Adam has become completely hooked on Cars, the DIsney movie. The kid can quote about 50 lines form the movie, including his favorite, "Hey! No cameras! Get outta here!" He knows the name of every Car, and often knows their numbers. We went to Florida last month and stayed at my dad and stepmom's condo not too far from Disney, so we spent a day there.

He went nuts every time he saw Cars paraphanalia which of course was often. I have to admit he came home with a track and a stuffed Lightning McQueen to sleep with. Ka Chow! Eleanor has even gotten into the act and it looks like they have agreed on a Cars birthday in September. I thought for sure by 5, they would need separtae themes, but not yet. So a Lightning McQueen cake it is--I'll have to post photos after the party.

Developmentally, Adam has made great strides during the last year of preschool. He's speaking so that most people can understand what he's saying most of the time. At this point, his speech teacher is mostly concerned with correctly answering Who, What, Where, When, Why questions more so than pronunciation. For a boy who couldn't really talk at all about a year and a half ago, I think that's great! Adam's cognitive scores are right at the avarage level for his age. He can read quite a bit, knows all his letter sounds, can write many 3 and 4 letter words, and I've mentioned how he loves his numbers. SInce his speech has improved, he hasn't been quite as obsessive with th numbers. I personally think he had found a way to communicate through the numbers when he speech wasn't so great, so he wanted to count with everyone. But now that his speech isn't as big an issue, he doesn't want to count all the time with everyone he sees any longer.

Where Adam's scores aren't so great is in the behavioral stuff. He has a really hard time focusing on tasks--particularly tasks that he hasn't initiated. He can sit and read through a book 2 or 3 times, but ask him to do a worksheet at school and there's all kinds of trouble. We've wondered if he has some attention issues. I've never been a proponent of going right to medications to correct behavior, but it's something on our minds with Adam. I would hate for him to get any farther behind because of his lack of ability to focus if we could find a medication that may help him. I don't know what to think yet.

What I do know is that Adam is improving by leaps and bounds all the time. I'm hoping that his focusing and his ability to play with kids other than his sister improves this year. He's had fabulous teachers for the past 2 years and I know he'll have one of them again this year, so it will be a great year no matter what.