Mands: 14

Hot, hot, hot – that’s the way we have it. Today’s weather was excruciating, and we only have more of this heat to look forward to. I smell some frequent visits to the pool in the near future . . . if only the neighborhood would just open it up for business!

Whitney, Tony, and I braved the heat twice; once for a walk and once for an order of sidewalk chalk with a hearty helping of study time. When we embarked for our walk Marlaina told Whitney and I that J-I-L-L could be expected in a matter of about half an hour. Luckily I was already holding the boy when we went outside because again he got a bad case of car ride fever at the sight of the blue Subaru. I whisked him out of sight of the car and before he got upset about it I was able to get his attention switched to the pretty pink and yellow flower his Mommy painted on the back of the bus. WHEW!!! After we talked about the bus for a split second, we moved on to the rest of the walk. I put him down when we got to the courtyard and we all had a swimming time with stop/ go and near/ far. We also went over to some square shaped stepping stones Tony is fond of and he had a great time pouncing on each one while he counted them out loud.

While we were playing he suddenly made an all too familiar mand, actually now the two seperate entities have merged into one to create . . . a monster! (just kidding!) Really, to create his new double mand: “turtlecup.” I guess it only makes sense, since he almost always desires both at the same time. Well, Whitney told him turtle and cup were in the house and we would have to venture home to get them. On our way home we saw Jill. Whitney and I saw her before Tony and W. prompted him to say ‘who’ which he did nicely. I observed and took notes during Jill and Tony’s session in an attempt to gain some new knowledge and tricks to put up my sleeve. It was very helpful. Jill (obviously) does a fabulous job – she really knows what she’s doing – yeah Jill! Thank you.

Tony was sucessful with at least half of the ABA phase II that Whitney or I tried. There are many questions involving the cards and it is easy to see that Tony is ‘all done’ with them before all the questions have been posed. We will try mixing in other objects to represent our house, bird, cat, water, and play-dough. Tony’s happiness is the number one priority.