And now for something completely...Dave!

 catching a snooze with Ruf Ruf

"Cheese!"

Dave. Where to start with my little superstar? Well, he's now two! And he's a perfect example of how every kid is so completely different from his or her siblings. Not only does he have a completely unique personality, but he has a completely different skill set than the others at this age. At two, he talks in 3 or 4 word sentences. He knows his colours. He knows his feeling words. He shows empathy. He always says please and thank you. Sometimes, it's hard to remember he's so young!

He's always been left to fend for himself, and it seems to have served him well. That's not saying much about me that being ignored helps my kids better than attention. But for him, it's worked. Not only is he a master scavenger as always, but he's taught himself to change his own diaper. Instead of coming to me if he feels icky, he'll take off his pants, take off his diaper, roll it up, throw it out in the diaper pail and pick up a fresh one from the bathroom. THEN he gets me involved, only because he can't put the new one on by himself. I think if I switch him to pull-ups, he'll be completely self-sufficient. I did try briefly to potty-train him, but it didn't go well. It caused him some obvious distress, and at the time, he didn't have enough control to make it practical. But I think he's due for round two. I've caught him sitting on the potty for fun, and he's a bit of a neat freak - I think he'd appreciate feeling clean more than any of my other kids. He's probably not a neat freak, really - just as fastidious as a normal kid raised by a more normal family than us. I find him a bit compulsive about the handwashing. He hates feeling sticky. He doesn't like to be in PJ's outside of bed. He'll pick out his clothes for me, then strip so I can dress him properly first thing - right down to socks and shoes. He likes things just so, and will go out of his way to make things proper and peaceful. If he has a toy that someone else wants, and they're having a tantrum, he'll often hand it over, just to keep the peace. It's a nice quality, but it doesn't do much to teach the others, though. It means that when it's something really important to him, and he digs in, it's that much bigger a battle because they aren't expecting it!

We think he's pretty bright as well. Joan has been doing quite a bit of speech therapy lately (I'll get into that more in her entry). I have to take Dave and Tom to her speech sessions, and Lucy, the pathologist, is always very impressed with Dave and how quickly and easily he learns. It's probably not so much that he's so awesome, but more that she spends her days dealing with challenged kids, so he stands out in her day. She always winds up citing him as an example of what Joan should be doing, both in the level of his imaginitive play and the way he verbalizes. I'm not entirely comfortable with her doing that, because it can only hurt Joan's feelings to constantly have her little brother held up as an example.(Though it's still nice for me to hear he's doing well.)  Last time she marvelled at how "connected in" he is - that he's always watching and listening and learning. We were sorting dolls with Joan into a boy pile and a girl pile. Dave was off playing with a truck by himself, seemingly absorbed in his own game. He happened to see a little girl doll in a dollhouse, brought it over, announced "girl", dropped it in the girl pile, then went back to his own thing. Even during her assessments, we had to hold his hands, so he would stop pointing out the right answers in the book.

Though he has his moments. He's figured out that if he pulls a stool up to a closed door, he can turn the knob and get in. But once he gets in, he closes the door behind him, trapping himself inside. For a while, he'd thought he'd beaten the system by taking the stool in with him, to use for his escape. But that only made it worse, because then he'd be trapped, with the door blocked by a stool! He didn't do THAT too many times. A few more inches and the problem will be solved. For now, he either leaves doors open, or knocks to be let back out. Sucks to be a big guy in a little body.

Dave got a treat - literally - at Halloween. He managed to weasel his way into his first trick or treating! The original plan was for me to take just John. But John didn't think that sounded fun - he wanted his siblings with him. We agreed to split the job 50/50 - I'd take John and Joan out, Mike would watch Dave and Tom at home, and if I needed help, he'd close up and come too. But Dave's been around long enough to know, if you want to do cool stuff, stick like glue to John. And that's exactly what he did. He was NOT leaving John's side, literally. So I relented, and off we went. Dave had no clue what we were doing. He just knew it looked like more fun than staying home, so he wanted in! We live in a semi-rural place, so we drove to a more concentrated community nearby. It's a new subdivision, filled with young families, living in well-lit homes, packed tight on brightly lit streets, so we thought it'd be better that hauling three little kids along a dark rural road. We weren't the only ones with the same idea - the streets leading in was packed tight with other families coming in as well. It made for a really fun night - we only did two small blocks of it, but we saw easily a couple hundred kids! I can't even imagine how much those people need to spend on Halloween each year.

Dave's reaction to his first house was priceless. He didn't know what was going on. He got a bucket shoved in his hand, and was told to follow John. So off he toddled up the steps. A lady answered, and dropped his first candy into his bucket. He let out this squeal of delight, then sang "thank you thank you thank you!" while doing a little happy dance on her step. It was so cute! Then, he was hooked! he ran from house to house with John, holding up his little bucket, like some sort of homeless street urchin. But he NEVER forgot to say thank you. At some homes, he said "Thank you much!" At others he got into his lion character, and he growled his thank you. He actually got double candy at a lot of homes because people thought his little thank yous were so cute. He wouldn't go up to a couple houses because they were too scary. "That spooky. I scared," he said. But a little pep-talk from John, and he'd be back at it. We only did about 20 houses. By then, the bigger kids were coming out so it was getting a little hairy, and they were getting tired, so we packed it in. But it was loads of fun!

Anyway, Tom is up and I just saw Dave wander past with a pair of scissors, so I think it's best I go! Joan's 15 minutes is next!