Obsessions

Mike is away on a guy trip this weekend but will be back late tonight. Fortunately, Dom's behaved pretty well, so I haven't felt too stressed by the lack of a break. The exception was when we stopped at a garage sale yesterday morning, and they had some good puzzles I really wanted to look at for Dom, but he would not cooperate. It's to be expected. Despite his brilliance, he's still a two-year-old.

Do all toddlers obsess about objects the way he does about fans and vents? He's about to drive me crazy. Several times a day, he asks to go upstairs, where he'll spend his time running between rooms, pointing to the various wall and ceiling registers and the fan in our bedroom. He'll turn the fan on and off repeatedly, then go visit some vents, then come back. When this is all finished, he faces each object in turn, waving and saying "bye bat" or "bye fat" or "bye door." Then we can finally go back to the first floor, although this usually involves several false starts. Once we make it back downstairs, he goes to the basement door. We do the same things down there, only with speakers, fans, the clock, Spiderman (on Mike's arcade game). I guess Dom think he's telling me something I don't know when he shows me the two fans several times. (Really, I can see them!) The last time we were in the basement, I was forced to carry him upstairs kicking and screaming because he desperately needed a new diaper but wouldn't tear himself away from all the stuff. How glad I will be when Mike is home!

This brings me to speech. Dominick is putting three words together now. Here are some of the things he has said recently:

"Mommy fat off" (Mommy, I know I turned on the fan, but I want you to turn it off.)
"Bats at upstairs" (The vents upstairs just came on. He's so observant.)
"Horse eating flower" (This was when showing me a picture on one of his farm-animal puzzle blocks. He may have said "eat" instead of "eating," but I don't remember for sure.)

He is also very conscientious about plurals and possessives. It's really quite impressive. One time he said "bat offs," then corrected himself and said "bats off." There's my little grammarian!

This week we'll be back to our regular therapy schedule, but next week, we will most likely be gone for both sessions, so I hope we can reschedule them. Carol from First Steps left a message last week regarding our upcoming six-month IFSP review. This is also the time to decide about transferring to the school district when Dominick turns three. If we are considering that, we will need to have a representative at the meeting. Carol suggested doing both meetings at the same time because they'll be due so close together. We haven't set anything up yet, but the meeting will probably occur during the week of August 13.