Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Hands on My Ears, Hands on My Ears....

Can't hear the buzzer with my hands on my ears! That may be Will's current theme song. The habit developed the first time we took him to Wabash basketball game in December. He heard the buzzer sound, put his hands on his ears and refused to take them off for the entire and I mean entire game!!!! He played, and ate popcorn (like a dog-no hands)but never once took his hands off of his ears until we had completely left the gym.

This has continued for weeks. He has gone to several more games and done the same thing! We have ruled out ear infection and real auditory issues. Although I do beleieve that he is developing the "three year old selective hearing" skill. Well honed I am told by the early teen years! Joe and I have been really concerned as of late and took him to the doctor yesterday.

Here is what our sainted doctor told me, " This is a phase. There is nothing physically wrong however, many children do become more sensitive to sound around age three. In all likelyhood he will just grow out of it. Continue to take him to games and he ought to desensitize in the process." Great!!! So chalk one up to the frantic mom who thinks there must be more to this.

We have purchased ear plugs, ear muffs (ear mumps a la Will)and had Dr. Douglas tell Will directly that while the buzzer is indeed loud, it WILL NOT HURT HIM. We shall see... there is a game tomorrow night.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Christmas, 2010 and snow!

It has been some time since I last sat at the computer and wrote a few things to remember. Wow, what a quick holiday season it was, filled with baking (feeding frosting to our elderly dog Lulu, decorating (painting arms in various shades while briefly unattended), singing (on the altar in church with a rather loud drum)! It was a great month!

Christmas was in all honesty terrific. It did not begin with much hope however! I had decided that if we were relegated to attending Christmas Eve services at St. Bernard's (perhaps the darkest, saddest, most depressing looking church I have ever entered) that Will would participate in the children's chorus. A friend mentioned that her daughter, a friend of Will's, was going to sing. It seemed a great idea and perhaps something for us, Will's parents, to look forward to at church. He loved the songs ad picked them up very quickly at the rehearsal. The addition of the drum for "Little Drummer Boy" was a big hit! Come Christmas Eve Will was dressed in his holiday attire and ready to perform... little did we know what that REALLY meant! The singing was fun and certainly the highlight of the service. The problem we encountered was that the child I sent up to sing with the chorus was not the child that returned to the pew afterward. He was totally off the wall. Joe took him out of church (1). The priest invited the children to sit on the altar for a story at the gospel (too long at 15 minutes). It was then that I thought the hand of God would come from above and pluck him off the altar! He jumped, rolled, chatted, hopped, danced, waved... you get hte picture. I took him out of church (2). We returned until Will decided to try to use the rope belt from his shepard tunic to make a "bridge" across the main aisle. Joe took him out of church (3)! I have never been so exhausted after a holiday service. He didn't calm down at home either and blessedly fell asleep after several threats to call off the impending visit from a certain S. Claus.

Christmas morning came first at 4:15am. Will incredulously asked if Santa had been here yet. I told him no, not yet but that he was indeed coming. He should have been concerned if he was remembering his less than behavior of the previous night. All was well later in the morning at 8:30am when he really got and came down to see the tree and gifts! Whew! What a holiday!

Out first really big snow arrived yesterday! We went out as soon as we could after preschool. Will had a great time riding in the sled and shoveling the snow into the sled. Our only mishap happened when he tried to toss a shovlefull of snow over a nearby fence! The result was a face full snow! When I suggested that this was not a great idea Will responded with, "I know Mommy! I not do that 'gin! AHHHHHH! " I brushed the snow off his face and we continued on down the road. I think we shoveled most of Main Street as well as our own backyard walkway. Oh the joys of wintertime... how many days until Spring?