Man, what a wonderful day with my sweet Ollie! Two days in a row of blissfulness. I don’t know what has brought this on, but I’m going to rejoice and bask in it’s glory while it’s here! Oliver and I went to the nursery this morning with Grandma to pick flowers for her planters. It was so much fun. He had a smile on his face the entire time and was descriptive of all of the flowers. Then when we got home and were planting together, he told us that the flowers were lovely and that they were a little bit sad because they wanted to be planted. When he gets into these modes of happiness, his verbal abilities grow immensely. I’m beginning to see some pattern of him shutting down, lashing out, angry, incapable of communicating himself to us, spacing out. But then when he comes out of it, he grows and expands. Yesterday he went on and on about his dog, ‘Puff’. Puff is a stuffed dog. Oliver talked very specifically how Puff’s mom was Libby, Grandma’s dog. Oliver has a great imagination. He was telling someone yesterday that he used to have a dog, but he died 3 weeks ago because he ate too much food. Julian and I were listening to him in awe. Where does this kid get this stuff? But, the expression on his face and his body language will tell you that he believes this with all of his heart.

Today he took my hand in his and said, ‘Mom, you’re glowing, just like me!’ Yes, Oliver, I am glowing. When I see my sons happy, I do glow. That is what being a parent is all about. Thank you for making me glow today. I needed that.