The fun stuff....

 

I know I’m having a hard time keeping this blog up to date but there’re multiple reasons for that. Being too busy isn’t one of them.  Enjoying watching Dominic blossom and just doing stuff with him are.  Today I wanted to share a couple of stories about last week because they are really cool examples of the things we’re starting to see as we peel more layers back and his speech (and subsequently personality) emerge more and more.

 

Kama

Backstory – very early – 4am -  Thursday morning, I woke up to the sounds of a dog crying. I thought it was Kumar who sleeps in his crate crying to be let out to go to the bathroom, so I staggered out of bed and opened his crate.  He looked at me with a very confused look on his face.  I went back to bed, assuming I had dreamed it, not even thinking about Kama because while Kama sleeps on his own bed in our walk in closet, he has access to go in and out as needed so that made no sense.  Fast forward to right around dinner time Thursday evening and I was petting Kama.  I petted all the way down his tail and he cried.  It was obvious he was in pain.  A closer examination determined that his tail was very inflamed and he’d been licking it. I didn’t see any blood or broken skin but the level of tenderness was concerning enough that I called our vet, talked about a couple of options and ended up giving him a doggie anti-inflammatory we had left over and made an appointment for Friday morning in case he still needed it. At this point I didn’t have any idea what could be wrong.  After a vet visit, xray to determine that his tail was NOT broken, professional exam, we theorize that he got bitten by a spider in the night and that’s why I heard him cry.  They shaved his tail to determine that there’s a place of more localized swelling.  So he’s got a big bandage on it, antibiotics (a lot. Like a gram 2x a day) in case it was a brown recluse and more anti inflammatories.  We go back for a bandage change next week.  Also, we own a 72lb poodle.  

 

Point of the story – Dominic got off the bus on Friday after school and his first words were “Kama, feeling better???” and he proceeded to love all over Kama.  Super sweet.   And showing concern, cognition, memory, and appropriate behavior.  Plus – empathy. 

 

Eggs

Backstory – Ya’ll know that for a long time Dominic’s breakfast was 3 fried eggs and a bowl of oatmeal. I taught him how to cook his eggs fried before I taught him how to cook them scrambled and these days he prefers scrambled eggs with grated manchego (sheeps milk cheese, which he CAN have)

 

Point of the story – Saturday morning Dominic was plugging along getting his breakfast together.  He got out 3 duck eggs, washed them, and proceeded to crack them into a hot skillet.  I just watched, assuming he’d decided he wanted fried eggs.  No more than 2 minutes later he turned to me with a look of absolute horror on his face –  and said “Mommy, SCRAMBLED??”  He realized he had forgotten a step and panicked a little bit. He got to learn how to scramble them in the pan instead of whipping them first.   

 

 

Chores and teenagerhood

We are continuing them, and every day there is SOMETHING that Dominic does around the house.  It ranges from picking up dog poop, to taking out the trash, to folding his laundry, to vacuuming.  What is hilarious to me is that every single thing I ask of him is met with a drawn out NOOOOOOOOOOOOO.  And then 10 minutes later he goes and does it.   Its such a glimpse into a typical teenager’s response that it makes my breath catch every time.  The other typical teenager thing we’re seeing *every* morning is that he wants to lounge on the couch in his pajamas watching videos (he’s totally figured out how to get to Netflix and amazon on our tv.  Better than we have), and does NOT want to get dressed.  I get up at 5:30am most mornings to walk on my treadmill which is right by the aforementioned sofa and every time I say “Dominic, go get dressed”, I get the “NOOOOOOOOO” in response.  Until I tell him I’m going to take care of the ducks without him. That gets him moving.

 

 

And all of these are bookended with the knowledge that we have a long way to go – as evidenced by his toy choice from Target today. Granted, he is playing with them entirely appropriately …..