Short blog for today, no record of mands. When I first got to the house Tony said “Parker, Parker” before he could even see me. While I was chatting with Marlaina Tony seemed deeply engrossed in the various happenings on Sesame Street. Then I felt a little hand hold mine and I heard a little voice say “walk.” So I did. I followed Tony into the room to reinforce his mand and his lovely hands-on and vocal communication. Let’s face it, the boy’s got skills! We are all very proud of his accomplishments.

Once he got me in the room he manded for paint. Whitney and Tony painted last night, and I’m sure she found a great place for the paint but I wish I knew where it was. Tony was patient while Marlaina and I looked for the paint. We were asking ‘where’ and Tony was echoing. I told Tony that we were looking for the paint with our eyes and slipped in a current intraverbal: we see with our _____ (eyes.) Eventually we just decided to open some new paint. We had a swell time painting. We used a brush a little but mostly just our hands.

After we were finished painting, Tony watched Telletubbies (sp?) while I changed into my suit. Marlaina got Tony changed and then we were off. To the pool, we walked and talked and sang the whole way there and then we did lots of jumping, splashing, wading, ball fetching, walking, floating, and even partially swimming. Of course I was fully swimming. We had so much fun it was tough to convince tony we should go home, even after his longing for cup and turtle had set in and he knew they were his for the taking inside his house.

Something must have happened to his foot and we don’t know when or how. He tripped on the sidewalk on the way home and skinned his knee, but he had his shoes on at the time. He recovered from this incident pretty quickly, but while Marlaina and I were taking off his bathing suit to put on new dry, clean clothes Tony started screaming in what sounded like agony. Marlaina questioned him for details of his discomfort and found the boo boo. Tony was seemingly still in pain when Jill arrived, but the sight of Jill and the prospect of playing with Jill made the pain subside. All hail the power that is Jill!