We’re having a string of good days here!  Friday, Mom and I took Emil and Ollie to the pet store for an outing. It was pouring rain out and we needed a low key adventure that did not involve a lot of people and too much noise (the less external sensory input the better!). It was great fun! Emil ran around like the crazy dude that he is. He most liked the mini-hamster. Gross. We spent a great deal of time watching the dogs being groomed, the lady cleaning out the cat cages, and the guy removing the dead fish from the fish tanks. Oliver’s birthday is coming up this month and he’s being really funny about it. He keeps on telling different people what he’s getting for his birthday. Yesterday he told Teacher Heather that he’s getting a HUGE trampoline for his birthday. Hmmm…news to me! When we were at the pet store, he started to get fixated on buying a fish tank with real, live fish in it. So, I said, maybe for your birthday.  That wasn’t met with a warm reception. I thought that a meltdown was coming on. The body language said, ‘meltdown is coming’. I don’t know why, but I was able to coax him out of it by asking him to help me choose a dog treat for Libby. For some miraculous reason, he complied. It’s so strange how on some days he’s so easy to redirect, and on others you can’t redirect him at all.

The funniest story…when we were watching the cat cages get cleaned out, a true cat lady came up and started talking to Oliver. Oliver was in a super chatty mood and was enthralled with the cats. The lady asked Oliver if he had any cats. He went into a litany about our cats. This is most funny because we have no cats! He and the cooky cat lady were one with each other as they discussed their cats. But then Oliver said that his mommy’s cats died 4 weeks ago. Cooky cat lady was devastated!