The Lightning Kid Turns Two!

Another chapter will be published soon.... in the meantime, Happy Birthday Little Prince!

And how old are you turning?

Teaching Speech

The Lightning Kid neared his second birthday, and was showing many signs of the ‘Terrible Twos’: tantrums when he didn’t get his way, mostly. The King and Queen knew it was time to engage some help in teaching him to speak. Yet they knew it was important to find the right person and the right method of helping, and this took a lot of time and effort on the Queen’s part.



Many children with the same condition as the Lightning Kid used a method where the idea of talking as a pair was emphasized. While this method was popular and highly touted, the Queen’s research seemed to show it might not be a good fit for the Lightning Kid; he was showing a lot of willingness to communicate, but the sounds he would use for different meanings weren’t that consistent, and he frankly needed to learn how to make more varied sounds.



In the meantime, the Queen found another methodology that showed more promise - it would use the sense of touch to help teach a child how to physically produce certain sounds. Besides pure methodology, the Royal Family wanted someone who could fit their help into the family’s lifestyle and schedule. In helping the young prince to learn to crawl then walk, starting early yet only doing a little at a time had really paid off, and they hoped to use a similar approach with speech. Finding someone nearby, with the right options for both methodology and schedule was not easy. They did find, an option for a similar methodology where hand cues and signals were used not to communicate meaning, but rather how the sound was formed by the mouth and other parts of the body. Moreover, the Lightning Kid really seemed to like the healer they selected and that would make a big difference in terms of getting him to do the work to learn.



The healer came to the castle with bags and bags of toys, but the Lightning Kid was not allowed to play with any before saying a word to identify and acquire it - the pronunciation wasn’t that important, it was the effort that counted. The King and Queen knew that this would be a long road, and the going would be slow, but fairly soon, they started hearing ‘HIIIIIIII!” and “BYYYYYE” more consistently (and in the right context), and the Lightning Kid could tell you how old he was going to be with fairly good pronunciation.

In Sickness and Health...

It was a Friday morning, and things were proceeding according to the usual routine. Shark Boy curled up in his father's lap, and said he didn't feel well. Within seconds, he told the King that he had to throw up, and they successfully rushed to the commode to take care of that bit of nastiness. The elder prince had clearly picked up a stomach curse known as a "bug". The bug ruined Shark Boy's Friday, and he had to throw up several times, including on the Queen unfortunately. He was very tired and spent most of the day resting. Luckily, the bug passed in just under a day, and the Royal Family was able to travel to their Castle by the Lake. The Saturday passed uneventfully in terms of any re-appearances of the bug, and they had a fun day. Sadly, by Sunday morning, it was clear that both the Queen and the Lightning Kid would be stricken. The Queen suffered worse, for the only apparent difference in the Lightning Kid's behaviour was occassional pauses to fire disgusting projectiles halfway across the room.

The King was stoic; his cast-iron stomach was the stuff of legend. To prove its mettle, he had considered even trying to take on an evil cursed food that had brought many others down into the depths of misery. He would not be given the chance, because early on the Monday morning he found himself under the same curse as the rest of his family - and his own mother would suffer a similar fate.

The King and Queen had worried most about the Lightning Kid. The next Friday he was scheduled to get new Tiny Titans for his ears - the previous ones had fallen out. His healer had recommended also to remove his adenoids, and this held much promise not only for improving hearing long-term, but maybe even turned him into a better sleeper, or reduce the number of runny noses - there were many promising possibilities for an outcome. Yet, he'd have to stay healthy to have the work done on him.

His recovery from the bug was so quick, and so complete, that they were able to go to the Healing House for Sick Children on schedule. In his usual fashion, the Lightning Kid refused to take a nap at any point before the operation, yet his bright, fun-loving personality kept him from getting too cranky while waiting (for the most part anyway). The King arrived late, having been held up by Royal business, and Shark Boy would spend the day (and that night) with his Grandfather and his wife. When the time to take the young prince into the operating room came, the King and Queen saw him off, and he bravely went with the nurse, needing nothing else but a wave goodbye.

The Healing House for Sick Children did its usual fantastic work, and the operation finished quickly. His healer told the King and Queen that she was able to put in one Tiny Titan in his right ear and one "Shepherd" into his left ear. The procedure took a certain amount out of the Lightning Kid, and he was sluggish the rest of the afternoon, being alternately held and comforted by the King, the Queen and her mother. Only one parent was allowed to spend the night with him while he stayed at the Healing House for observation, and while it had been decided that the Queen would be that parent, the King was dismayed that there would only be a chair to sit in; no bed to lie in.


Fortune stepped in, and there was a family with a sick little girl in the same room. They had opted to stay in a nearby inn and lent the lone overnight room that had been reserved for them to the Queen (the little girl must have been very brave to stay in the Healing House without her parents - it saddened the King and Queen to think she might be used to these overnight stays). The night was not a restful one, as a place like that is never strictly quiet, but the Lightning Kid slept about as well as he did at home - no worse (yet not much better). The next morning, he was on his feet, ready to explore as much of the Healing House as he would be allowed. He and the King got into a game where the King would lift him up to a bench then back down again, and do this repeatedly till their paired sets of giggles were ringing through the halls of the Healing House. His main healer said he was doing well and could go home - in fact a Healing House for Sick Children isn't really a place for ones as hale and hearty as the Lightning Kid, even if he did seem to be enjoying himself.

By late Saturday morning, the Lightning Kid was home, and so was Shark Boy and the Royal Family was ready for a September full of adventure!

 

 

 

 

 

A Brief Bolt: Kayaking

The King and Queen had often enjoyed taken Shark Boy out on the water in a kayak when they spent time at their Lake Castle.  The year before, they didn't trust it to take the Lighting Kid in, but he was bigger and a little more easy to manage... they hoped.

The Lightning Kid did not like wearing his Magical Floating Vest, he found it came up to his jaw and that was stifling.  The King would not let that deter his ambitions and he placed the young Prince in the Kayak and set off down the shoreline.

The tricky part was always managing to make strokes with the two-headed paddle without bashing the little passenger in the head or face; the King had learned this the hard way with Shark Boy prior to this.  So when the Lightning Kid wanted to sit more forward, he had to be held back and discouraged from sitting up.  Other times he would try to stand up, which led to more power struggles.  At least he didn't mind getting water runoff from the paddle dribbled on him.

The King reached the end of the bay and turned around.  Now he was paddling against the waves and he felt his arms were getting tired.  He considered trying to bring the kayak back home as quickly as possible, and wondered if the whole thing had been a mistake.  The Lightning Kid seemed to settle down.  He must have liked the wind in his hair and the sunshine coming off the water.  He turned and looked up at his father with a big smile; and suddenly the King's arms didn't feel so tired anymore.

Talkin' Lightning Kid

The Lightning Kid woke up, and the King took him out of bed, and carried him out of his room and stopped at the top of the stairs.

"Would you like to go downstairs?"

"DeeDehDee!"

"I know you can say it better than that... DOWN - STAIRS."

"DehDeeDee". Why won't he get on with it? What's the difference? I'm pointing down the stairs, aren't I?

"DOWN STAIRS"

"DehTah."

"Good enough."

These people seem to have real problems understanding me... it seems simple enough to me.  I guess they need a dictionary.

Mama = Help me; I want something

Papa = Let's have some fun; time to go

DeeDeeDee = Look at that!  Good for dogs, birds, any window etc.

Ditty = Cat

Dankuh = Thank-you*

Awdun = All Done

Bowwow = Dog

The favourite, most important word in the Lightning Kid dictionary was an all-purpose call to action.  It could also be used as a victory cry after accomplishing something or a means of celebration...

"ATTTAAAAAAH!"

The Summer Of Lightning

The Royal Family took advantage of the warmer weather to visit a Castle By the Lake on many weekends throughout the summer. The proximity to the water was especially delightful, since the boys could have fun in the shallow water (heavily supervised), and it kept them cool enough to withstand the heat.

Besides the risk of the water, they had to protect the boys from the sun's rays, and some biting insects too. The King had a long-standing hatred for biting insects, but he didn't realize how intense that hatred could get until he saw a little bit of his sons' blood trickling down from their latest bite.



While Shark Boy was getting closer and closer to being able to swim independently, the Lightning Kid was causing trouble eating sand. His sand-eating habit seemed to get better, and he could be counted on to play on the beach without sticking a shovel into his mouth, until he did again and the whole thing started up again.

The Lightning Kid's chief healer had asked the King and Queen to work on giving the Lightning Kid obstacle courses to work on movement skills beyond simple walking. They had never put an ounce of effort into that task, because the young prince had been seeking out his own obstacle courses; he'd crawl under chairs, but over the cross-beams that spanned between the chair legs for example.



At the Lake-Castle, he would climb onto rocks as big as he was, and he loved trying to negotiate the stone stairway down to the water. On the dock he was only allowed while holding hands with a grown-up.

With all these leaps of development and adventures, there was bound to be a price to pay. Predictably, any good sleep habits were destroyed, and the King and Queen found themselves sleep-deprived and exhausted again. Worse still, the lands around the Kingdom experienced unprecedented storms.

While driving home from the Lake-Castle in their Carriage one weekend, the Lightning Kid seemed very out-of-sorts - they had hoped for him to fall asleep during the drive. Instead his screams and cries made conducting the carriage extraordinarily difficult. He seemed inconsolable; they even made a detour with the notion of bringing him to a healing house on the way back. They reconsidered when they saw the waiting room from the outside full of sick people - they probably wouldn't get any real help there and he didn't seem to have a fever. Taking side-roads the rest of the way home calmed him down to the point where he fell asleep... and that's when the Lightning started. The King's night vision kept getting ruined by the constant flashes, and the heavy rains made the road hard to make out. After many hours, of slow careful driving, they came out from under the extreme weather and made it home safely, but the King could not recall a more harrowing experience.

Weeks later, they welcomed the King's brother and his family to their lands, but their first night was marked by yet another storm that turned roads to rivers and castle courtyards to lakes. All throughout the city, people had been stranded by the floods caused by the storm, and while the King did not have to actually swim when he got caught outdoors, you couldn't tell that from his clothes.

A week later, there was yet another heavy storm that took down trees and did more damage. To the King and Queen, their baby turning into a little boy was worth a bit of thunder and lightning - they could only hope for forbearance from everyone else...

The Lightning Kid in a Strange Land

The summer approached, signalling the time for the Royal Family to travel.  Their first destination would be a land across an ocean.  That meant boarding an airship, and staying aboard for 8 hours or so.  Many feared these airships, and with small children, even more-so.  The King and Queen had the courage of legendary heroes, or so they appeared on the outside.  The King was secretly shaking with fear, on the inside, at least.

The Lightning Kid was simply too active and dynamic to be kept in small quarters for long periods of time, and he had taken up a nasty habit of ear-splitting screams that could occur at any time whether he was pleased or displeased... the reactions of other passengers would surely be something to be feared.  Interestingly, the overseas flight was survived, through hard work of the King and Queen, and the fortune of an empty seat.

Shark Boy and the Wire Donkey

Once they had landed in this wonderful country, the Royal Family enjoyed many adventures.  Shark Boy swam and learned to ride a Wire Donkey by himself.  The Lightning Kid also rode on the back of a Wire Donkey with his father, and the King and Queen were very proud of both boys.  They cruised on the river aboard a giant whale, they rode a giant metal serpent across the country.

The Lightning Kid and the Wire Donkey

Best of all, they got to play with their cousins, the niece and nephew of the King and Queen (on his side) and spend time with their Grandfather and his wife.  While visiting the year before, the Queen had wondered if the Lightning Kid would be able to walk by their next visit; the King and Queen had so wished that the baby he was would turn into a toddler who could play alongside this cousins... just like any other kid.  They needn't have worried, because that was exactly what happened.   A not-so-close second highlight would have been the ale, and desserts that were consumed.

The Whale

Still the journey proved a tribulation.  While Shark Boy seemed to be able to adapt to changes in surroundings, the Lightning Kid seemed to be troubled by those same changes.  While awake, the screaming habit got worse.  Sleep was fought against at every opportunity - it was hard to put him down, he woke often, and every wake-up was treated as if a new day were to begin, even if it was the middle of the night.  He also seemed to pick up random fevers and coughs (the latter was probably made worse by the screaming).  And to be fair, the sun rose and set at a different time in this new land, the rooms and surroundings were different, schedules and rituals from home were not being observed.  Children need structure, and it was widely held that children like the Lightning Kid needed it even more.  Still the King and Queen had long resolved that the benefits of flexibility and adaptability needed to be imparted on the Princes too, and their lifestyle should reflect those kinds of values.  This new country was also important to their heritage and culture.

The King and the Lightning Kid on a small metal serpent

By the time the Royal Family made the return trip, they were questioning if and how they could repeat the adventure until the young Prince was much older.  And they had other fears: could they count on a year or two making as big a difference for the Lightning Kid as it had for Shark Boy?  As it often did, the darkness of fear had shadowed the light of reason and logic.  They were forced to remember... Shark Boy had always been a similar problem - in fact, this year was the first time where travelling with him hadn't driven them both to near madness.  And while it was their heart's desire to provide their children with adventure, it was all too easy to give them simply too much in any given day; when their cups ran over, the spills meant they would be too excited to sleep.

The Royal Family on a Big Metal Serpent

The trip was a vacation in name, though it was not restful in truth.  Still, the Royal Family would have to take the good home by focusing on what was gained in terms of great memories and love shared, while leaving the bad as nothing more than one of many lessons in patience and endurance they would have to learn in the greater voyage that was to be their lives together.  Although the King noted to himself that taking home some of the faraway land's great coffee would have been a very clever idea indeed.

A rare moment... Sleep! Aboard the Airship no less