Today Tony wanted to start painting almost immediately. He communicated very well and got exactly what he asked for: “ant up, hirer, aint, open bwoo, dye-dye bwoo, I ant wed [echoically], a done wed,” and so on. These days he is done with one color very quickly and ready to move on to the next.

This time it was Marlaina and Anton who manded for a car ride. We all packed up and went to North Charleston for a visit to Big Lots. We were sure to bring Turtle, cup, and crayons along for the ride. On the way there were many cool things to see out the car windows and Tony was enthralled. We saw big trucks in many different colors, trees, and water among other things. When Tony wasn’t gazing out the window he was coloring in a “Wiggles” coloring book. Tony’s temperament stayed steadily good for the entire trip.

One of the Big Lots purchases Tony was most fond of was a birdhouse Marlaina found. In case you, the reader, are not up on things Tony is really into houses. They’re sooo this season. When we got home Tony painted the house with finger paints. He was not thrilled with the absence of doors and windows, so I took care of that with a crayon. After we were done painting and Tony helped clean up he manded for me to open the tunnel. He had tons of fun in the tunnel and wanted to share the experience with Turtle. He patiently WAITED in the tunnel while I left the room to get Turtle. Then when he inevitably manded for cup soon after I asked him whether he wanted to come with me to look for cup or wait and he chose “wait!” Woohoo, this waiting thing is working really well! Yeah for Tony!

Again today Tony ate an entire banana. He watched an episode of “Blue’s Clues” in which the characters were painting and mixing colors. Of course we have done this before, but I was surprised to hear this smart boy answer the question “what color do blue and yellow make?” correctly. We have a budding artist on our hands, folks.

Tony had to go night night at 1:30 in order to prepare for his OT session with Britney. I wonder what kinds of things he and Britney do during their sessions. It would be very interesting to find out. (hint hint)