In Which Connor Gets Riled And We're Excited About It

Connor wasn't feeling well today; he threw up at school and again on the way home, so I canceled his physical therapy and took him home.  I suspect he might have a yeast infection starting around his g-tube; it's been red for a while and the over-the-counter antibiotics don't seem to be helping.  So I'll be calling the doctor tomorrow morning to see if I can get him in. 

For the most part, Connor has been doing wonderfully in recent days.  As we continue to go down on his medication he seems to be slowly waking up.  A couple of days ago Jeremy sang him his usual goodnight song, and Connor requested another song.  When Jer told him he'd get another song tomorrow he went into a full-blown pouting session, told him that he was "sad" and once again demanded more music.  Jer told him again that he'd get another song tomorrow, and he actually got mad and starting arguing with his daddy in sign.  "No!  Want Daddy music!" 

Jer and I were delighted.

I know it sounds strange that we'd be happy about our kid being so obstinate over something, but here's the deal: Connor doesn't usually get that worked up about anything-- certainly not enough to pout or argue about it.  He kind of embodies the Thai concept of ไม่เป็นไร, or "mai bpen rai," which literally translates to "no is nothing."  A greatly simplified explanation would be that it means to go with the flow and not let anything bother you.  While this is great in theory, Connor takes it a bit too far; it's extremely difficult to motivate him to work for anything because if a toy he wants is just out of reach or he has to do something even slightly difficult to get what he wants, he loses all interest. 

So it's great to see him really engaging with the world enough to get angry and argue when something he wants isn't happening.  And he's answering questions again rather than just ignoring me when I'm talking to him; through a series of yes/no questions today he was able to tell me that his g-tube site was itchy and sore.  Being able to give me that kind of information about how he's feeling is so amazing and wonderful because (as long as I can figure out which questions to ask) he can let me know what's wrong so we don't get into a situation like we did last winter.

And I love finding out more about what's going on inside that little corn-silk covered head of his.  He's been very carefully puckering and giving me little kisses lately, which absolutely melts my heart.  It's first new skill he's picked up in a long time, and it's something I never expected would happen.  The first few times I wasn't sure if it was deliberate or not, but now I can get kisses on request-- provided he's not ticked at me about something!  I think it's a pretty fantastic new skill to have. 

That's my boy!

~Jess