Our Fourth of July

Dog Walking

Kai wanted to earn some extra money so my wife offered to pay him for walking dogs this summer. But she is training her dogs to walk nicely, and he would have to walk with them the same as she does.

Most people walk their dogs on long leashes and let the dog go pretty much where ever they want to go. In that case, the dog decides when they want to walk, when they want to stop and sniff, and it ends up being the dog walking the person rather than the other way around. My wife is working to have her dogs walk next to her, not ahead of her. That way it is safer for everyone and the dog gets good exercise. (After a nice walk, she will then take the dog to a dog park or let them run in our backyard to have play time).

Here she is telling Kai what to do and how to hold the leash.

And here you see him with Volt, a 7-month old puppy. Kai is holding the leash short to keep Volt next to him, but he doesn't need to clutch the leash tightly. In fact, it is better to be relaxed and show the dog you have confidence.

Kai has a nice straight posture that reflects his confidence.

He's doing a nice job of walking with Volt. But either my wife or I will accompany him on all walks until he is older just in case something happens.

Still, it is nice to see him show initiative and take responsibility.

And Volt is the perfect dog to pair with him right now.

Happy New Year (Belatedly)! and Dogs

Better late than never?

We had nine dogs at our peak during the recent holidays. A lot of people ask if Kai likes the dogs. Well, he gets a little jealous that they take up a lot of Mom's time, and there are some he likes more than others, but he does like some of them, and several of them really like him.

The above dog is Mancha, a three-legged dog who was rescued by her owners from a shelter in Mexico.

And above is another of Kai's (and our) favorites, Bruno, a really playful, high-energy cutie. Though here at the end of full day of playing, he's found a comfortable resting spot.

Kai also helped out walking the dogs, taking the smaller ones while my wife handled the bigger ones (and I helped when I was not at work). Here Kai is with Hubert.

Our Christmas

‘Twas the night before Christmas and the creatures were all stirring.

But Santa came to our house anyway.

And Christmas morning brought excitement.

Kai was really good. He didn’t get up too early (unlike some dogs), and helped come up with plans to alternate between opening presents and taking the dogs for a walk, half at a time.

When it came to opening presents, he chose the ones for everyone to open. Some of his he ripped open.

And some he took peek first as if to confirm that it was what he was hoping it would be.

But he enjoyed all of it, as all of his Santas were very generous.

And then it came time to play with his new presents.

He took time our for dinner.

And by the end of the evening, all of the creatures were worn out, not stirring at all.

Hope your holiday was just as delightful.

Holiday Fun

It has been a busy few weeks with numerous holiday activities.

We had two family get-togethers for Hanukkah so Kai has already enjoyed opening and playing with several presents.

We went to get our Christmas tree.

We baked and decorated gingerbread cookies.

And several of our holiday houseguests have arrived (with more yet to come).

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Kai and Cooper

Here are a couple pictures from two weeks ago.

Kai playing with Cooper, an Australian Shepard puppy:

And Cooper giving Kai a kiss, of sorts:

It is so nice that Kai likes dogs, and that they love him.

A Tough Morning; A Fun Weekend

Kai’s attempt to raise his average above the minimum required to earn back his Level 4 privileges at school fell short last week. Though he was partially a victim of circumstances.

It came down to his performance at school on Friday. If he could have a good day, he would regain his lost privileges.

Unfortunately, he never really had a chance.

One of the boys that Kai shares a taxi with in the morning threw up in the cab. The driver turned around to take the boy home. Between the change in the route, the delay in getting to school, and the odor of the vomit, Kai was overwhelmed.

He had an emotional meltdown in the cab and was in no shape to go to his classroom when he arrived at school. The staff took him to the nurse’s office as he was screaming that he was sick and wanted to go home. Eventually he calmed down, and when they took his temperature and he saw that it was normal, he agreed that he was not sick. He went on to have a decent day, but the zero for first period was too much to overcome.

But he will have a chance to raise his average again this week. Though we are worried about how he will do today. Yesterday as we talked about school, he expressed anger at the poor boy who threw up and at the cab driver. He still has trouble feeling empathy, even though he himself threw up in a cab not all that long ago.

Oh well, here’s hoping it goes okay this morning.

* * * * *

When Kai was very young (two or three years old), he was afraid of dogs, especially those that were more active and came near him. So it was amazing to see him with Riley this weekend.

We have known Riley since she was just a few weeks old, and now at a year and a half, she still has the energy and playfulness of a puppy. Except now she is the size of a small bear.

She jumps all over me and Kai whenever she comes over. It can be a little much to have an excited bear all over you, but Kai doesn’t mind at all. He laughs and laughs and loves to grab her toy and run around and have Riley chase him.

And they didn’t just play chase inside the house. They had a lot of fun running around in the backyard as well.

We don’t get too many chances to see Kai interacting with other kids. But if his interactions with Riley are any indication, he is coming along just fine.

Snapshots Of Our Christmas

We’re not sure if Kai still believes in Santa. At nine years of age, I think he’s past the point when most kids stop believing. And when my wife told him in the days before Christmas that he needed to be good or Santa would not come, he responded, “well, if you believe in Santa…”

Still, on Christmas Eve he wanted to track Santa on the Google Santa Tracker. And make Christmas cookies for Santa.

And when it was time for bed, it was his idea to put the milk and cookies out for Santa.

He also asked that we not turn on the security system overnight so that Santa would not have any problems getting into our house.

He had a hard time falling asleep that night; he was too excited. And then he woke me up in the middle of the night and asked me to sleep in his room. At 6AM he woke me up again saying that he had been awake for two hours and could not sleep.

When I finally told him that he could get out of bed, he was excited to check his stocking and to see if Santa brought him something.

After that, he was remarkably patient as we had breakfast before opening the presents under the tree.

That was a lot of fun, of course. The excitement of opening presents perhaps made more so with the flurry of activity from the dogs staying with us.

Though one of the dogs took cover under the tree when the frenzy got to be too much.

After the presents were opened, we took a break to walk the dogs.

And then it was time to play with his presents.

He did several experiments with the chemistry set he got.

We played almost every game he got.

And he polished off a Star Wars sticker book in the afternoon.

He did so many things that I wonder what is left for him to do the rest of winter break. I think I’ll go nuts if I hear him moan about being bored in a few days.

But for now, all is good. Hope you had a merry Christmas, too.

Now That Was a Busy Weekend: Part 1 – Pooch Parade

As if our Saturdays aren’t busy enough with Kai’s special needs activities for ice skating, boxing, and soccer, this week we also went to two additional events on Saturday.

First was the Spooky Pooch Parade at our local botanic garden. We went there with two of the dogs that my wife sees often, and their owners.

There was Riley, who was a beautiful pumpkin ballerina.

And, Momo, who was an adorable witch.

This is an annual event, but it was the first time we had attended. This is the only day of the year that dogs are allowed at the garden, and there were a lot of dogs taking part in the event.

The three-headed dog was one of my favorites.

Many dogs came dressed for the horticultural theme of the botanic garden.

And we also saw a lot of owner and dog combinations.

My guess is that there were over a thousand dogs there, and it was a crush of people and animals as we waited for the judging to be completed before the parade would begin.

My wife and I enjoyed looking at all of the dogs, but Kai was getting grumpy at all the waiting. We thought perhaps that we would take a break from the crowd and go get a snack before the parade began.

Of course, as soon as we go to the cafeteria, Kai started becoming anxious that we would miss the start of the parade. With his loud grumbling, I barely had time to take a bite of a cookie before we hurried back to the area where all the dogs were.

The parade started soon after, and Kai enjoyed marching in it alongside Mom and Riley.

I could have taken hundreds of pictures, but here are just a few of other dogs we saw.

For those of you who want to see more pictures, I direct you to the website of Chicago Botanic Garden.

My wife and Kai did the short route of the parade while I snapped these pictures. It would have been fun to stay a bit longer, but I think Kai had had enough by then.

And besides, we still had a long rest of the day ahead of us.