Tickle Me John John

This evening after John got up from his second nap he and I sat on the floor and blew bubbles and read books. He did very well at saying "gao" when I would say "ready, set" and then we would blow bubbles and pop them. After a bit of this he was ready for books. We read several, he picked out the wheels that go round and round on the big trucks, the monkey's eyes, the lamb on every page of Mary Had a Little Lamb and then we got to one of our favorites. Horns to Toes is one of John's very favorite books and ours too, when we get to the page where we count our ten fingers and then tickle, tickle, tickle or count them again, John used to put his hands on the pages over the drawn hands so that I could count his fingers and tickle him. Then a couple months ago he decided that he would do the counting, and points to each little drawn finger, and then waits for me to tickle, and tonight after the first time of doing it this way, he pointed, I counted, then he looked at me, smiled and tickled himself. Then I asked him to tickle me and he tickled my arm. Later he even tickled dad too!

The whole day was this good. He woke up smiling and in a good mood, ate blueberries for breakfast with no puking and then got so excited over putting on his shoes that he played in the gait trainer for an hour or so this morning. After a nap he was up, wasn't too interested in lunch but was very eager for the gait trainer again. We took him outside for a walk and he had a great time. He went a little farther than last time, but it's a little cool outside and Miss Shawna wasn't with us so it wasn't quite as much fun. At one point he pulled out his left hearing aid and threw it on the ground, then pulled out his right hearing aid which detached from the ear mold, threw the aid on the ground and then ripped out the mold and threw it on the ground too. Of course as soon as I picked them up he stuck his finger in his ear to tell me that it was time to put them back in. By that time he'd thrown them on the ground 4 or 5 times and I was done playing this game so left them in my pocket. He was okay with that for a minute, took a few more steps, and then firmly planted his feet on the ground and stuck his finger back in his ear and would not be budged until he had his ears back in. He is not stubborn at all! A couple times in the walk Mark and I would each hold one of his hands and he would stand up and take a dozen or so steps and he even stood completely a couple times without us asking or holding his hands at all. Shawna tells us that he will begin to do this more and more and today was good evidence of her wisdom.

Before bed tonight John ate a bunch of french fries, some he even put in his own mouth, but the most fun was that he could dip them in the ketchup and then wave them around. He also enjoyed hearing Grandma for a few minutes while she said hi to him over the phone. All in all a good day for John. Hope yours was a good day too!