More Dogs, and Our Fourth of July

We usually visit grandparents on the Fourth of July, but with the holiday falling in the middle of the week this year, Kai not wanting to miss any school (or more accurately his school’s afternoon social activities), and an opportunity to sit for more dogs, we decided to stay at home this year.

After our success hosting a dog over the weekend, a pair of Miniature Pinschers stayed with us for four days beginning Sunday afternoon.

Becky and Lucy were quite different than Kix. Whereas the toy poodle was mellow and quiet, these two were high strung. They barked every time I walked into the room. Forget that, they barked pretty much any time anyone moved. And when you have a boy like Kai who can be a whirlwind of movement and emotions, you can imagine how much barking we heard over the past few days.

There were times when it seemed like an endless loop. Kai would do something to get the dogs excited, and their barking would get him to laugh and run even more, which in turn would rev up the dogs further.

Fortunately, all the barking did not bother Kai at all. He was not scared at all, and actually rather seemed to like it. While they did not fetch balls for him too often, I think the barking satisfied some of his desire to interact with them.

As with Kix, Kai insisted on going along on every walk with the dogs, even with the oppressive heat we’ve had the past several days.

After a day or so, Becky and Lucy started to feel more comfortable in our house. Oh, they still barked, but they warmed up to us, allowing my wife, especially, to hold and cuddle them, something they resisted at first. They even were able to relax around Kai.

Kai was also excited about the Fourth of July holiday. This boy loves his holidays and this one was no exception.

He helped Mom make the cake for the little cookout we had.


Quite festive, don’t you think?

In the afternoon, we found relief from the 100-degree heat with a visit to the local pool.

And after that, we had friends over for our cookout. Kai enjoyed playing with their kids. Although Kai doesn’t interact with other kids the way typical children do, he looks forward to getting together with these boys.

After eating, Kai wanted to do water balloons. Usually, I am the one who does this activity with him. On this muggy evening, I did not feel like running around and getting soaked, so I was grateful that one of the boys agreed to do this with Kai.

Aidan is very understanding and patient with Kai. On this occasion, when Kai started to get frustrated that he could not get the other boy with the balloon, Aidan stopped running to allow Kai to connect. And then they took turns soaking each other with the hose.

When it was getting dark, we went to our town’s fireworks display. Kai was excited (I feel like I am writing that word a lot, but it is all true). He even wore his Uncle Sam/Yankee Doodle hat.

We found a good spot for viewing, and Kai occupied himself with the iPad while we waited.

And once the fireworks started, he provided a play-by-play.

“That’s a giant one!”

“That one looks like an eye.”

“That one looks like a Poké Ball. That’s my favorite.”

As Kai was speaking, I recalled the time when therapists worked to get Kai to say even one word to describe something. Now, he was prattling on with ease.

Afterward, it looked like we would be stuck in the parking lot for hours, but my wife knew of the rarely used back way out and we escaped the traffic and avoided car agony.

Back home, we lit up the backyard for a last bit of fun.

It was a fun, busy, Fourth. And now that the dogs are gone and Kai is back in school, it sure is quiet around here.

Ahhh. ☺