Thursday, July 16, 2015

On the Lanai

Each afternoon when Grammy leaves for the day, it is always a high anxiety time for us at work. We never know if Henry is going to stressed out until we come home or if he is going to stay calm until we can get home from work. Some days he is perfectly fine. Other days he melts down (some days on the early side and other days not until one of us is closer to home). On Henry's super good afternoons, though, he will make his rounds to gobble the goodies that Grammy leaves for him. First, it is the small handful of cereal that Grammy leaves in a bowl near the water bowl. Next, he usually chomps the chewy stick that Grammy leaves on his bed. And finally, he will finish off the trio of treats by licking out all the peanut butter in the kong left on the shag rug in the living room.

After he's downed his goodies, on his good days, he typically will settle near the front door (to "watch" for us to drive up---we are pretty sure he notices reflections from the sun as we come into the driveway) OR he will settle by the laundry room door in hopes of hearing the garage door go up when we arrive home. Which sometimes he does hear and other times he has not noticed. Obviously, this is all just speculation as to what he is THINKING but that that is what it seems.

On Henry's WONDERFUL days, though, Henry will be a relaxed boy and fall back into his Henry pattern of going out into the yard and soaking in some rays and occasionally he will then hang out on the lanai. As we were watching him on camera one day, we snapped a photo from the ipad. (This was the type of picture where you take a photo of your screen. So, it was like a screen shot of what was going on.) But you can see that Henry is awake and alert but not melting down. He is outside on the lanai and still paying attention to the front door. Cupid, however, who is not far behind Henry is completely relaxed and may not even realize that Henry is so close to her. But since he is not facing her way, he's fine in her book. (For now!)

I think we have finally reached the midway point with Henry and maybe it is at last tipping towards the good side. We seem to be having slightly more better days than rocky days. I say that, but many a morning we have had to call Grammy to the house considerably earlier than her shift time. (Fortunately, while she is a busy woman, she is not too busy for Henry!) But I still think he is getting better. It would be terrific, however, to have one full week of no meltdowns (AM or PM). I hope in time we will eventually get there. We live life at Henry's pace and that is slow & steady.