Teenagerhood, we have arrived....

Yesterday was Dominic's 13th birthday.  We have a teenager!!!!
We had a really hard time figuring out both what to do and what to get for him because he's a complex mix of physically /hormonally teenager and cognitively maybe 4-5ish.  It complicates matters.

So, we decided to invite the one friend he seems to have made on his own  - a fellow therapy recipient from Shandy Clinic on Tuesday nights, the same family that took Dominic and I along to see the lights at the Zoo right before Christmas.

We met Kane and Jayme at Chuck e Cheeses.  One thing (potentially the only thing) that I appreciate about Chuck e Cheese is that when you walk in, the child and all related adults are stamped with an invisibile number,and you can't leave with a child if you don't match their number.  So its a safe place to give him some independence.  All adults basically spent the time sitting and waiting for the boys to finish the allotted hour of chaotic play.


They did so well.... no meltdowns, no frustration, lots of smiles.

At one point I looked up and they were turn taking at basketball, so I played papparazzi mama and got this video without them seeing.  Spontaneous turn taking, cooperating, communicating.  Its AMAZING.  I promptly texted it to the majority of his therapy team and everyone was Mind Blown.

After the hour at Chuck E Cheese (seriously couldn't take much more than that), we went to Red Robin where Dominic drank at least a gallon of Strawberry lemonade and Jayme  got to see what he's like when we aren't strictly staying away from dairy (he got a birthday sundae).  She was duly impressed at how much control that diet alone gives us. Its a beautiful thing....




Since we had drawn such a blank on what he might like, we decided to give him a Toys R Us gift card and let hgim go shopping on it. It was really fun, and he was so overwhelmed that he stopped before he used all his GC up...

In a funny footnote, my parents sent him a Chewebacca tshirt that arrived today.  He opened it when he got home from school and I asked him what it was.  He proceeeded to give a better than passable Chewie growl...