seat belt buckling--Did I mention that David can buckle his own seat belt? This is not quite up there with the last day of diapers, but it's pretty fantastic. My back detested leaning all the way over the seat to stab fruitlessly for the belt connection. This is a serious motor skill as well as psyching out the whole buckling system.

drop off and pick up--After the first few days, drop off and pick up have become nonentities. At drop off, it's almost don't let the door hit you on the way out. At pick up, he finished the book he's "reading" and heads for the door. This is in stark contrast to last year when both transitions could take up to 30 minutes and involve a lot of angst. I don't know if it's because he's older or he likes this class better. I'm just amazed and relieved.

fun at school--We get random reports from David about school: we painted with ice cubes today, and I used red and blue. I was a bad guy at recess. Stephen threw sand at me. The whole class fed Sugar the carrot tops I brought. He seems fully integrated even though he does not know everyone's names.

snack at school--As you know, David can't eat the regular school snack, so I pack him an attractive gluten free alternative. Last year he often wouldn't eat it and then his blood sugar would drop and then bwaahhh! This year, no problem. I usually give him a Koala bar and a box of raisins, but I've been trying to match the school when I can, so last week he also had trail mix with mini marshmallows and cinnamon toast.

eating in general--Not so good. I do not want lots of lectures about how we should make our kid eat what we put in front of him. I just want to record the fact that David is still bad at eating. Lunches often go like this: And then George said, take a bite, and he climbed over the fence, take a bite, and water does not count as grow food take a bite of cheesy rice, and then George said to Harold, take a bite.

library book--David and I went on a library book ordering frenzy a couple weeks ago, so the books have been pouring in. Airplanes, race cars, Batman, poetry—we're reading it all. We've currently got every book about Lightening McQueen our library owns. Luckily, they don't have many words because they are insipid.

still shy--David is lively and rambunctious and bright and snuggly and sweet and very shy. Oy. I know it's going to take about an hour to adjust before he settles in and has a good time at a birthday party, for instance. We went to one Saturday. We could see the trees festooned with streamers, the bouncy house sliding into the front sidewalk. First he wouldn't come out of the car. Then he raced to the edge of a neighbor's yard and hid behind a tree. I ignored him and carried the gift inside, so I could regroup and have two hands. The other parents thought I had abandoned my miserable child. Perhaps I should have told them my plan. After that was lots of one on one attention in quiet places. He refused to go in the bouncy house and had nothing to say to the other kids even though he knew most of them from school. After I finally got some lunch in him (he refused the lunch they provided--tacos--which happened to be gluten free), he started playing. And he was all in. He jumped in the bouncy house, wore a party hat, posed for the group picture, and of course, devoured his cupcake. I know he's shy, and I gave up dance class, so I could be with him at the party. But I still don't know the right combination of giving him his space and showing him all the fun to be had to make the adjustment time go faster.

the sleeping through the night sticker chart--David was waking up every night. We didn't know what to do about it, so we went back to the sticker chart--sleep through the night, and you get a sticker. Enough stickers, you get a present. It's working. Unfortunately, the present I had in the drawer was a piece of crap from the dollar store that promptly broke, but we are already planning the big present for the end of the chart.