Microwaves, Rectangles, and Ellen

I would really love to know how J sees the world. Lately, he describes everything as shapes. Rectangle light, square block, circle eyes...etc. He calls his mouth his "rectangle mouth" and his hands are "circle hands". Absolutely no clue what that means. There are days I wish I could get inside his little head.

J wanted to get out of the house so badly today. We took a trip to Walmart to get some household junk and to Toys R Us to get presents for Jameson's birthday. On the way home in the car he cried and kept saying, "home". When he's home, he wants out, when we're out, he wants home. J is still asking pretty consistently to go to Grandma's house. Hopefully, getting back into the routine of school and getting him back into the pool will help him regulate himself a little better.

At Walmart today, a woman was trying to choose between a blue stuffed animal and an orange one for her grandson. She wanted J's opinion (as a fellow 3 year old, he's 4 1/2, but who's counting - at least she didn't think he was 18 months). She showed him the animals and asked him which one he liked. The child would not speak for anything, he just stared at the woman. Normally, he's a steady stream of chatter. Maybe (hopefully) he's starting to recognize that some people are strangers and we shouldn't talk to everyone who crosses our path.

Object du Jour: Still the rectangle remote. He'll set it down somewhere and then sob when he can't find it. He's an emotional roller coaster this week. I'm trying to show him how to look for something that is missing, but I'm still not sure he's understanding. Poor fella. It's heart-wrenching to see him cry. But, on a positive note, I'm so happy that he's able to communicate his wants/needs to me so I can help him.

P.S. I guess I should explain what the "rectangle remote" is. It's a small rectangular (obviously) remote that goes to a digital picture frame at Grandma and Grandpa's house. J fell in love with it. He carried it around the whole visit, he hugged it, loved it and talked on it like a cell phone. He may have also sucked on it so much that it no longer works (allegedly). Soooo, we stole it from G & G's in the hope that we can replace it with a new one. (Shhh, Aunt Donna, don't tell on us!)