Exhibit A: He came home the other day to find our big cooler sitting in the living room (a friend had just returned it). His eyes went from the window blinds, to the cooler, back to the blinds. Then he proceeded to tie the cooler to the string that pulls down the blinds, before announcing, "A zip line!" and sending his toys zooming down the string.
The whole process of evaluating someone's personality and characteristics has been fascinating for me. It's like, we all have unusual tendencies and compulsions but we don't necessarily have a label to slap on them. Sometimes when I was reading through the behavioral questionnaires I would even think, "That doesn't sound like Zach at all, but it fits Luke to a T." Another example: When I told the psych doctor that Zach had gone through a phase where he was obsessed with water heaters, the doc took extreme notice. But then I said, "That's nothing - his older brother went through a few months where he didn't want to talk about anything except hazard lights!" Uh, OK, I guess we'll just need to file that under, "The whole family is weird."
Anyhow, I just need to slip into sap mode for a second to say I really believe that we have the kids we have for a reason. We have been divinely entrusted as guardians of these little spirits because there's something about them, and there's something about us, that is a perfect match. So while Luke may test our patience with his endless questions ("How can a person wear a beard of bees?" "How long does it take for rocks to break down into sand?"), I have to remind myself that there is no other set of parents in the world that is so uniquely suited to help him flourish. And when Zach confounds us with his endless experimentation ("What happens if you put seashells in a blender?"), his mad-scientist building projects ("Mom, I am making some fireworks") or his screw-loose enthusiasm (dancing around the kitchen with unbridled joy when I tell him he can have leftover shrimp/lobster/dill pasta salad for lunch), I again have to remind myself that for some reason we were chosen because we were exactly right for him.
Zach has another round of behavioral testing next week, and the next step on the medical front is to demolish the inner ear infection that has been plaguing him for the better part of a year. The infectious disease doc prescribed such a high dose of antibiotics that it even gave the pharmacist pause. I worried about how to get him to take the medicine, but the ID doc said, "Just take the powder from the capsules and mix it with chocolate syrup." This seemed like an ideal solution until I discovered just how awful the medicine tastes -- I'm not even sure you could stir it into a chocolate fountain without tasting it. Currently we are working on teaching Zach to swallow a capsule. Not many kids can do it, but there are quite a few pediatricians who say that every kid should learn how. And if he masters it, we'll be able to add it to his growing list of unusual skills.
On the hernia front, Dave is doing much better save for the occasional wince and grimace. He's still not lifting heavy stuff, but I swear he can pad up and down the stairs faster now than before the surgery. His comedian/surgeon reported that when Dave first opened his eyes after the surgery, the surgeon declared, "You survived!" - to which Dave groggily replied, "That's really not appropriate."
Last, for my top-secret news (really, this is top secret) - I am going to be in a flash mob! I can't say when or where but I have been rehearsing and trying to make sure I don't look like a complete idiot. Luke, who is an expert at memorizing karate routines, started helping me once he learned what a flash mob was. Now he enjoys watching them on You Tube. I'm only mentioning this because the other morning he ran in to my room saying, "Let's look at flash mobs!" Then he cocked his head to do sort of an imitation of himself and added, "Twenty years later: 'Let's look at babes!'"
As they say, out of the mouths of...well...
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