Tuesday (Happy Birthday, Mom!)

Dom was sick much of last week with a fever but has been better since Saturday. Despite Dom's illness, he did manage a new word Thursday: applesauce. It came out very clearly. He asks for applesauce a lot now. Also, he's been using "up" and "out" a lot, which are both very helpful. Other favorite words are "guck" or "uck" for truck and "uck" for milk. This morning he said "bye-bye, duck" to the garbage truck, and just now when I put him down for his nap, he said "sory" for story. It's good that he's attempting so many words, but he's dropping lots of letters, which may be completely normal. Sometimes, though, his words are very clear.

Mike said that Thursday night after the phone rang, Dom brought it to him and said "Dad." It's happened so gradually that I don't know when Dominick began calling Mike "Daddy." He even called my dad "Pop," both when looking at his picture last week and when we were in Joplin recently. I'm still waiting for "Mama," though!

Dom's having major meltdowns around people again. We went to a Memorial Day barbeque, and for a solid two hours, he cried and had to be taken away from everybody else. Eventually he came closer but sat still in the grass without moving for the rest of the time. Playgroup today was about the same. I'm going to ask the new OT tomorrow if she thinks this is related to sensory problems and, if so, if there is anything we can do about it. For now, I need to make sure we get back to brushing. Once we stopped our routine, it was hard to start again, but we'll just have to make ourselves get back into the habit.