Barry’s Daily Web News

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Even though Sean’s speaking skills are lacking, his language knowledge is improving. I was suprised he knew what I meant when I said “Let’s go upstairs”. He understood this without me giving any hint or context. We can add this to the list of other phrases he understands, like “Climb in your booster seat”, and “Let’s wash your hands”.

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Another meal tonight with Sean “standing” and “cramming”. Tonight, he managed to fill his mouth with fresh raw carrots before we could intervene. I’m impressed that he actually tried to chew the mouthful for a couple of minutes before spitting out a nice orange paste. Unfortunately for Sean, this ended his meal before he could finish his pasta and chicken.

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I understand the academy awards were last night. Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is. I don’t know why anyone outside of the movie industry cares about the awards. If you like an actor or actress, fine. If you like a movie, great. I don’t see how anyone’s opinion would change based on the awards.

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Sean has some behavior problems when he eats. I call the two major ones the “stand” and the “cram”. The “stand” is where he stands up in his booster seat. We could strap him into the booster seat, but Sean has already learned to climb into and out of the seat on his own, so I like him to have this freedom. The “cram” is where he fills his mouth with food, only to realize he can’t chew it, so he has to spit it all out. For lunch today, he managed to achieve the “stand” and the “cram” at this same time. I rewarded this achievement with an immediate trip to his room for his afternoon nap.

Sean didn’t do the “cram” for dinner this evening, but he did do a new take on the “stand”. For the last few days, we have been trying to prevent the “stand” by moving Sean’s plate away from him, so he has to sit back down to start eating. He was a little too clever this evening. He pushed his plate away first, thinking he then had permission to stand! Even though I didn’t care much for this at the time time, I love all of the little challenges Sean throws our way.

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Typical Sunday day. I started the day off with some yardwork, then cleaning around the house. The yard is starting to look good, with many of the plants coming into their spring bloom.

Training Day

The saturday night movie was Training Day. Another entertaining movie. A lot of cameo appearances. A thought that Denzel Washington’s character was a bit overdone. I rate this movie a B.

Buy it.

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Sean and I went hiking this afternoon. The weather was nice, and quite a bit cooler than the 90 degree weather we had for the last two days. Sean had fun pointing out things on the hiking trail for me to tell them what they are. I had a problem when he pointed off into the distance. With a visibility of almost 30 miles, sometimes it was tough for me to tell what he was pointing at.

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We took Sean to get his two year pictures today. We are of course a month late, but part of the problem was that Sears closed down the portrait storefront we normally go to, only to move it across the street to the new Sears store in what use to be the Montgomery Wards. I didn’t realize that today was the grand opening of the Sears store, and that our appointment was scheduled at the time of the store opening. We were practically overrun by senior citizens turning in their cards for the prize drawings. I have never seen anything like it. Once we made it to the portait studio inside the store, it wasn’t so bad. Sean behaved well during the pictures. He didn’t like the outfit changes, but otherwise he enjoyed it. He really hammed it up for some of the pictures. After we had finished, he climbed back onto the platform, expecting someone to take more pictures. Here is a copy of the proofs:

Heist

Last night’s movie was Heist. This was an entertaining movie, perhaps just a little slow at times. Given the cast — Gene Hackman, Danny Devito, Delroy Lindo — I would have expected a better film. I rate this movie a B.

Buy it.

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I think Sean is over his illness. He had a nice big dinner, and he was full of energy this evening. Just before bedtime, he actually was too warm to put his pajamas on because he had been running around the upstairs rooms.

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Sean is 25 months old today. He went in for a hearing check today. We didn’t suspect anything wrong with his hearing, but we were double checking to see if there were any problems that might cause his poor speech development. It turns out his hearing is fine. In fact, Sean was the first child that the tester had seen put his hands over his ears because the sounds were too loud.

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It was hot today, with a high of 91 degrees. Rather than spend our time outside at the park, we decided to spend the evening at the Price Club. I went to buy some more contact lenses, but we decided to stay and just stroll up and down the aisles. We didn’t buy anything, we just looked. Sean had fun riding in the shopping cart. And, it was nice and air-conditioned.

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Sean and I went to the pink (but mostly green) park after dinner tonight. It was a really pleasant evening. It has warmed up quite a bit since this weekend, I and was able to go out in shorts and T-shirt. Sean had lots of fun going down the slides. He has learned to go down the slide head first, and also feet first on his stomach. Sean also had fun playing with an older girl, chasing after a remote-controlled toy car, and ran over to see a woman walking her greyhound.

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Not much to write about today. Sean is feeling better, but still has some congestion. Leslie, Cortney’s mom, flies home this evening, or actually, early tomorrow morning. She is taking the red-eye back east.

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Sean has an informal diagnosis of croup. I haven’t heard his cough yet, so I can’t tell for sure. Even though it is obvious Sean isn’t feeling well, overall, he’s being a good trooper, so it hasn’t been too hard on us.