At The Doctor

Cameron had an appointment with Dr. Bennett. Dr. Bennett asked him what he was going to be when he grew up. Cameron said, "Well, I was thinking astronaut at first, but recently I've seen a documentary of the dangers of going into space, so now I'm thinking just astronomer." (So much for nuclear chemist . . . Dr. Bennett remembered that too and asked him about it. Nope, astronomer is the answer now.)

After that, Cameron retreated into himself, appearing oblivious when the doctor tried to talk to him. I suggested he tell Dr. Bennett what he had been learning about pH, so Cameron started writing the pH scale (they were writing on the paper on the exam table) and explaining that 7 is neutral like a teardrop, 6 is 10 times more acidic than that, and 5 is 100 times more acidic, all the way to car battery acid, which is 0. Dr. Bennett asked if he knew what kind of acid that was and told him it was sulfuric acid, which you would write H2SO4.

Cameron went off to Cameron land again, writing on the paper while the doctor and I talked for a moment. When I went to see what he had written, it said, "Venus has H2SO4 in its atmosphere. It is naturally occurring." I guess anything can be tied back to space!

When We Let Him Dress Himself

One Serious Singer

Career Aspirations Of A Seven-Year-Old

"Mom, I wanna be a nuclear chemist."

(And here I just thought he'd waste his life with SETI or something.)

Game-Playing Weekend

First, it was dominoes, by himself. "I'm trying to demonstrate a nuclear chain reaction, but I can't get these dominoes to work. I need different dominoes."

Then, he played Quoridor (a strategy game) with Andrew. He whipped Andrew several times. One time, he took pity on his big brother. They were each 1 step away from winning, and it was Cameron's turn. He said, "I'll just do this , and you can win." It was uncharacteristically empathetic of him - though I don't think Andrew was as amused as me.

Then, he played Battleship with Conor, but it ended in a fight.

Finally, he played Yahtzee with his dad. He's never played before. Michael asked him, "What is the highest number you could get with 5 dice?" A moment's pause, and Cameron says, "Well, 6 times 6 is 36, so let's see. . . 30! It would be 30!" Pretty quick math strategy. . .

A New Start

Cameron had a hard week last week. His behavior reports from school (he gets a DPR - daily progress report - each day) were all beyond poor. The DPR's didn't cover everything though; we had a call from the school each day about some sort of meltdown. (My heart sinks whenever I see that prefix on the caller id.) I was hoping this was just because of the disruption with Gabrian sick, Conor in the hospital, his mom gone . . .

Thank God, that appears to be the case. He got perfect DPR's both days so far this week with glowing comments from his teachers.

Woo hoo! Way to go, Cameron. You can do it!

Offense! Offense!

Cameron kept cheering (loudly) for Conor during the basketball game. Good job, Cameron! But he kept yelling, "Defense! Defense!" no matter who had the ball. I said, "But they're not on defense right now. They've got the ball." After that, he alternated shouting "Defense! Defense!" with "Offense! Offense!" Go ahead - try to convince him that even though it's technically correct, that's not what you yell during a basketball game. I got Gabrian to switch to "Here we go, Fire! Here we go." But not Cameron, who doesn't care at all if he sounds weird. Gotta love that boy and his cheerful obliviousness.