Week in Review

Things that warmed my heart this week:

1. Watching Bennett lead Becky around her mother’s yard and having her help him throw rocks in the ditch. I’ve known Becky a long time – I used to babysit her and her brother and sister. Now she has three wonderful kids of her own.
2. Watching all of my neighbours grandkids come out and shout and wave to Bennett as we walked by – just like he was a long lost friend.
3. Listening to Bennett practice saying all of the previously mentioned kids names as he and Jim laid in bed.
4. Hearing Bennett ask for “Appo ooce” this morning.
5. Having two of Bennett’s daycare educators “threaten” to take him home with them because he’s just so adorable and so much fun to be around.

The one thing that broke my heart this week:

1. The woman (a complete stranger) who stopped me on the street yesterday afternoon while I was out for a walk with Bennett and enjoying a beautiful spring day. She proceeded to ask me three questions:

How old is your son?
What’s his name?
Is he autistic?

I'll try to focus on the first five things as I go to sleep tonight instead of trying to figure out when it’s EVER appropriate to stop a stranger and "diagnose" their child after 20 seconds.

As a bonus feature, check out the video of Bennett tonight after his bath. Is there anything cuter than a kid right out of the tub? Check out his exaggerated “shivers”.

Naps

I should've known this:

would turn into this:
We're at an awkward stage right now it seems. Bennett will still nap - he'll nap for two hours. However, on nap days he won't go to sleep at night until after 10pm - which is a problem. He usually doesn't sleep well and then I have to wake him up for preschool which leads to a tired, cranky kid who needs a nap.

We started out trying to cut the naps to an hour. It helped for a while but he was still up late. Currently we're trying to get rid of the naps altogether. When he goes without a nap he's sound asleep by 8pm and sleeps like a champ.

This morning Bennett was up early and was a bit tired by this afternoon but I decided to go without a nap. Instead we did "quiet time" which involved sitting on the couch and watching the Wiggles. I got up to check my email and within about a minute he was sound asleep. I decided to let him sleep for half an hour. It then took half an hour to wake him up. Tonight he may be up late because of my desire to check my email which consisted mostly of messages that were entirely too concerned about the size and quality of my manhood.

Ahhh.....any advice out there - about the naps of course. My manhood is absolutely none of your business!

Murphy

Murphy turned one in February. We had a "birthday party" for him where hot dogs were served. Unfortunately for Murphy, he spent most of the party in his crate after he managed to steal the wiener right out of Grandma's bun. He did the exact same thing about two weeks later while we were in Mexico. This time he stole it from a wonderful little girl named Hunter whose parents were brave enough to look after Murphy while we were away. The result was somewhat similar in that once again Murphy found himself with a human hand shoved halfway down his throat. Apparently the intrepid Jenn (mother to Hunter) had her hands down Murphy's throat approximately 100 times a day. That statistic is similar to what we experience here at home.

Which leads me to my next Murphy related topic - Obedience School. Murphy finished his final class last night. Over the course of eight weeks, these are some of the comments we heard, "I love your dog - he's got character", "Oh - that Murphy - he's a free spirit" and finally, "Some of you might want to repeat the class". As you might guess, that's what we'll be doing. His behaviour last night left me not knowing whether to laugh or cry - so I went with laughing until I cried. Without a doubt Murphy was the worst pupil in the class. On the bright side, he probably was the most popular.

Murphy can best be described as an INCORRIGIBLE LOTHARIO. Two words that probably belong together but preferably don't belong to your dog (or your husband).

Incorrigible: impervious to correction

Lothario: a successful seducer

He is almost impossible to resist though - as I've said, he loves love and his approach to everything in life is to pretty much force that love upon you with reckless enthusiasm. He introduced himself to the obedience instructor the first night by french kissing her - despite her initial reaction, I think she may have enjoyed it a bit as she stumbled away muttering about his incredibly soft mouth. A couple weeks ago, I think he got to at least second base with the guy that came to fix the hot tub - or at least I suspect so. I didn't witness the entire event, but Roger had a suspiciously flushed look on his face. Murphy also managed to orally assault one of the obedience trainers last week. But I'll give him a break for that one - after all, SHE was the one who spilled chili on her shirt before class and then forgot to change it.

Despite it all, we love him - we love him a lot. He keeps us on our toes and makes us laugh every single day. And he loves Bennett - so much. Happy Birthday Murphy.

Botox Update

Tomorrow will be one month since Bennett had Botox. I wish I could report good news. Unfortunately, the Botox has had a minimal effect. Jim, myself, our pediatrician and physiotherapist are all in agreement - the Botox has done very little. There may have been a very slight improvement in that his right leg isn't as tight. We may also be really stretching to try and see something - anything. We had hoped for more - frankly, we expected more but I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. I've been reading about Botox for a long time now and it really seems to be a mixed bag. Our experience although disappointing is certainly not unusual.

So, what's next? I don't know. I'm assuming he'll be reassessed at some point but I'm not sure what the doctor will suggest. Perhaps he'll want to do more injections. I don't know and once again I don't know what we'll do. It's a hard decision to make - it's painful, expensive and not without risk. All that for something we may have achieved with extra stretching.

The effects of the Botox are supposed to last for about 3 months. Hopefully we'll see a bit more improvement - I'll keep you updated.

Where We Were Last Week

I spend way too much time on these silly videos....

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

True Love

Murphy and Jack staring wistfully at each other for at least 20 minutes through the window. These two have a definite "bromance" going on. Jack comes over to get Murhpy and if they're lucky Jim is home and will take them out and if they're even luckier, Jack's mommy takes both of them out to play and go for a walk. Sometimes, though, they have to settle for just gazing at each other longingly through our living room window.

Climbing to the top of a Mayan pyramid with two sprained ankles (another blog post) for your wife who can't and who as a child dreamed of growing up to be Indiana Jones - just so she could see what it looked like from the top....

Thank you so much to everyone for your condolences for my grandfather.