February 21st, 2008 at 10:57 am
(Damien, My Kids, Parenting Tip, Sergey)
I had just gotten Sergey all bundled up and ready for school, when Damien began running around the living room like crazy and yelling “My eye, my eye”!
My initial thought was that he had found another rubber band. I asked him if he had an owie in his eye, and what happened to his eye. Damien just kept running around the room screaming about his eye.
I really wasn’t looking forward to taking him to Urgent Care, to check out his eyes, and having to put drops in his eyes three times a day so they heal correctly. This is what happened when he got sand in his eye last year.
Then he crawled under an end table, and came over to get bundled up. He had stopped yelling and he was chewing on something. I took a look at his eyes and they seemed fine. Damien put his finger in his mouth and when he pulled it out, it had a piece of plastic on it. Which I quickly confiscated, because:
1. It’s a choking hazard.
2. He knows he is not supposed to chew on things because he is a “big boy”.
That is when the SCREAMING really started, with the old “My Eye, My Eye”!
On closer inspection, the plastic was part of a google eye; it even had little lashes painted on it. I don’t know where he got it, but I knew he wasn’t going to get it back.
“No” I told him. “That is Daddy’s eye, and Daddy is going to throw it out because you were chewing on it”, and I did.
Damien sulked, Sergey who was initially supportive of Damien, and his cries, soon lost interest, and decided that he would take a Bee and a Tractor to school. Damien only took a Bee but only half heartedly and I had to put it into his hand. Damien didn’t seem to care about any toy now that he had lost his iToy.
Things changed rapidly after he was buckled in next to Sergey and his Tractor riding Bee. As we are pulling out of the driveway Damien says “Damien’s tractor” and makes a grab for the toy, starting a tug-o-war with the tractor. “Nope, that is Sergey’s tractor, you didn’t want any toys remember?”
More Sulking from Damien.
“How about a Hulk to go with your Bee” I say, handing him a spare Hulk from my jacket?
“Ooooo Hulk, hulk, hulk, Damien’s Hulk”, and there was peace on the ride to school.
Parenting Tip: Try to keep an emergency toy with you at all times, happy meal toys work great, as they are pocket sized, and have a freshness seal.
4 Comments
February 20th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
(Damien, My Kids, New, Parenting Tip)
First off, the doctor called and said there was nothing out of the ordinary with Damien’s indent, that is just how it grew, and my Dad has a similar indent.
Ever since Damien got the rubber bands he has been trying to find new uses for them.
 Initially they were little bracelets, so he could accessorize.
Then he decided to use them as clothing for his toys.
He was using them to bungi jump his toys, and see how many toys he could strap together.
Lets not forget the rubber band tug-o-war with Sergey, that they had oh so much fun with (NOT), until Dad stopped it, and they had even less fun, but more screaming, at each other and me, to make up for the difference.
This is when I began to rethink letting Damien have the rubber bands inthe first place. The kicker was when I came into the kitchen and Damien was not speaking, he was just standing there all quiet with a worried expression on his face. That is when I noticed that the rubber band, had mad the leap from bracelet, to necklace. I don’t know if he was in any real danger, I just worry that he may have reduced the blood flow to his brain, and he certainly needs all the blood he can get up their.
 So no more rubber bands for Damien.
1 Comment
February 19th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
(Damien, New)
For years now I have been slightly worried about a small indent in the back Damien’s skull, near his soft spot.
 Well I always thought it would flatten out and was just there temporarily as the soft spot was hardening. Since Damien was born with more hair than his brother has been able to grow in a year, you can’t see it but you can feel it.
 With Sergey, I checked and he doesn’t have an indent, and neither do I, and neither does Olya (yes I checked), and with Damien having trouble in the language department, what I did the only thing a paraent can do. I freaked out (but I kept it on the inside), until Damien had his three year checkup, the doctor felt it and thought it was worth checking out.
So he has to get his head examined, and I get to help hold him down during the xray, (he did NOT like it if you were wondering). He cried and screamed (lets not forget the sceaming, because I probably never will). After it was all done he got up like nothing had happened, and asked if he could have one of the toys.
Often they have little toys for children, so I thougt he must of seen one of these and was asking if he could have one. The Nurse just shrugged and said she didn’t know what Damien was talking about but he could have whatever he was pointing at, since it was probably just a bandage or a sticker.
Now that he had the go ahead (for one toy), Damien reached into the shelf/drawer hybrid and pulled out a red rubber band, which he proptley called a “toy” and put on his wrist. Apparently the unbalenced him so much that he had to have a second rubber band for the other wrist. And they both had to be red, because as you know subtle weight differences in the dye would cause that whole unbalanced thing to happen again. But we all felt sorry for him because he had been through so much trauma (we are such suckers, I think it was mor traumatic for me and the nurses, we had to listen to him scream, while he got to vent his frustrations).
Ok I know I am a mean dad, maybe I should change the name of the site to MeanDad.com. Well maybe I would to if it wasn’t already taken.
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The server www.meandad.com at Password Protected Area requires a username and password.
Warning: This server is requesting that your username and password be sent in an insecure manner (basic authentication without a secure connection).
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Well that makes me think it is probably a pay porno site, on second thought I’ll keep my site name as is.
6 Comments
February 7th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
(Humor, New)
                             A winter statistic
             98% OF AMERICANS SAY ‘OH SH*T’
    BEFORE GOING IN THE DITCH ON A SLIPPERY ROAD.
       THE OTHER 2% ARE FROM WISCONSIN AND
     THEY SAY, ‘HOLD MY BEER AND WATCH THIS.’
4 Comments
February 7th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
(Damien, New)
Well we had Damien tested/eveluated today.
Originally for Speech, but once he was there we were asked if we would like him tested for other things as well. We had no idea we could ask for orther testing. Since we were already there, sure test away.
When Damien first got there he was very stand-off-ish because we were in a different school than he was used to. But he soon warmed up, all of the Testers really liked him.
They found pretty much what we thought they would find. Damien has a good vocabulary, but he has a hard time using it.
Example: He knows what an apple is, and that they are usually green or red, but if you ask him what you do with an apple, he does not have an answer.
Also that he does not seem to understand the concept of choice.
Example: if you ask him if he wants milk or juice, he will respond “milk or juice”.
On the plus side they did say that it is clear that we have spent lots of time working with him, because he knows so many words and can count to 10 (actually he can count to 20 in English, and 10 in Russian) .
This is just a preliminary screening, and he definatly warents a closer evaluation, some time in the next 60 days or so.
I asked if they can tell us how to help Damien, because I am frustrated with always being told there is something wrong with Damien, but no one seems to have solutions on how to help his wrongness. I was glad to hear that Olya and I will be part of the process, and that they will help us to help Damien.
 On the plus side Damien improved greatly in 30 seconds. Becuase hey had originally put his date of birth down wrong, and thought that he was 4 instead of 3. He is still not where he should be, but you could tell just by looking at the testers faces when they realized that Damien had only turned 3 about two weeks ago, that they felt better with Damien’s scores.
When we left they told us that he was a joy to work with and that he is willing to try different things.
1 Comment