Monday, June 11, 2018

Whooops!!! a giant catch up post

So the last thing i shared was that Dominic was cooking with his OT Alyssa, the beginning of May.

Oh my have we been busy...

- 2 weeks after that post, Alyssa moved to Texas and We got a new OT, Miss A, who I need to ask if I can post about and Dominic seems to be handling the transition beautifully.

- School ended. 7th grade is a wrap. He made A's and C's, which baffles me because he is most assuredly academically way behind, but I pay more attention to him than the numbers.   He had a choir concert the end of the year in which we captured him ACTUALLY singing.  He has been attempting to sing along with his movies a lot recently too.







note the super chill teenage pose his teacher got a picture of between sets...


- After said concert we took him out for chicken wings for a special dinner.  He ate 30, along with a pile of fries.  We are going to go broke getting him through teenagerhood.







- our Kama has had a rough spring - in late April he got bitten on the tail by a spider (we suspect recluse), and after 3 weeks of antibiotics and bandages we had to have half of his tail amputated because it had gotten necrotic.  After a full 6 weeks in bandages, we got them off on Friday. Dominic has been keeping a close eye to make sure that Kama doesn't chew on it, and has been saying "its all better now"



- We have gotten 1 week and 1 day into our summer schedule.  Miss Courtney, Dominic's favorite camp counselor from last summer, is being his companion (because he's too old for a nanny) and they have been super busy.  His weekdays go like this:
1. Before Breakfast:  Clean the duck pond and feed the ducks
2. Make his own breakfast (this involves only reheating egg cups and making oatmeal)
3. Do chores (2 out of the following list each day, we have a chart: pick up dog poop, take out                       the trash, vacuum, sweep, wash the windows)

4. Walk a dog (we do this to settle him before the next)
5.  Academics (they are doing math, reading and practicing cursive each day.  The workbook                    they are using right now is a 1st grade level, and i'm so proud that he's actually getting                         it)


 6. Make his own lunch (last week it was clean out leftovers from the freezer week and there                          were a lot of random sandwiches)
7.   Go do an outside activity - I got them memberships to The Swimmery and the Zoo and they've                  also gone to the trampoline place.  I expect the pool and zoo to be the standbys but that
             they will do other stuff too.



I am so pleased at how well its going. I knew the first week would be rough, but its actually been better than I expected.  The funny part of this is that Thursday (so day 4 of this experiment), Dominic literally turned the whiteboard with his schedule around so that he didn't have to do it.  Spoiler - we turned it back around.

- He's started doing this weird "Me want" phrasing. I was annoyed by it and worried that it was a regression (we've been trying for "I want" for along time) until I mentioned it to Miss Sarah, our speech therapist and she pointed out that is a developmental stage that toddlers go through as they learn to talk.  That makes me excited that he's filling in a developmental hole there. :)  She told me this morning that he has been super focused the last 3-4 weeks for her, which coincides with adding this particular homeopathic blend our Chiropractor recommends (he gets kids off ritialin with it).  While D has NEVER been on RItalin, increased focus was super nice.  Contemplating reintroducing coffee to him for the same reason.....

- Speaking of the chiropractor.... The change that started when we added the VoxxLife technology, where Dominic didn't scream / complain during an adjustment has held.  Every appointment now, Dominic goes back alone (WOW), and is completely compliant. Doc is just blown away.

- we are about 14 months into braces and we have accomplished our primary objective - which was to make room in his mouth for all his teeth.  We are at the point where everything else is gravy and we are about to start trying to fix his underbite.

- Over Memorial day weekend, we had a duck (same one that had a kidney infection last fall and antibiotics) start breathing weird.  The only vet in town that takes waterfowl was closed, of course, so all i could do was home remedies.  I think she couldn't handle the heat due to her kidney stuff.  Anyway, she did this for a few days and ended up dying.  What was remarkable is that Dominic came inside after putting the ducks in their house for bed and told "Duck.... dead?"  I didn't actually know he understood the concept of death.

In a moment that is totally the harbringer of teenagerhood.... note the manchild tweezing his unibrow.... i was in the bedroom loosely supervising shower and it was too quiet....



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