Pointing Can Be Very Good

 October 11, 2022

Bradley went back to school today, but I honestly sort of sat around waiting to see if they were going to call me about him. Kind of a wasted day for me, but hey…sometimes you just have to have a day like that I think. No call came and when he got off the bus he was in different clothes. His bus aide is no longer an aide for his class, she’s in the other class - so she never knows what kind of day he has had…I have to wait for his book to see if it tells me what happened. And if that doesn’t work, when I take the dirty clothes out of the bag, and get a very quick answer. The book said nothing about an accident, so that was weird. But his clothes were only wet (big relief) so into the laundry they went anyway. 

I had emailed his teacher, checking on him. I also asked about a weird GPS tracking notification that told  Eric and I that Bradley had left school at 1:00 today. Since school gets out at 2:15, that was a strange notification to get and I admit that it made me slightly nervous. Then Eric called me, also worried. And it’s not that I thought that Bradley was off campus on his own, but I did wonder if I had missed a field trip or walking to the park out of his little circle? So many questions. But I was most nervous about the Tracker showing me that he was moving at 65mph…his bus and the city shuttle would never move that fast over city streets. But then seven minutes later, he was back at his classroom. So weird!  

His teacher emailed me back that he had been at school all day and all was well. She also mentioned that (for the SECOND time this year) Bradley found a puddle on the playground to go have a seat in. Why? I get jumping into muddy puddles, or any puddle mud or not, he is a Peppa Pig fan…but, sitting? Huh?! So yeah, new change of clothes. 

This evening we headed up to the mall and replaced his IPad because the battery swelled in his old one and that was all she wrote.  And yeah he’s had it since 2014, but still it stings to replace. But we did because life is better when he has it. 

What else, we toured the new K-Pop store which was super fun and cute, then we went to dinner. We got him chicken, mashed potatoes and carrots. Between us, Eric and I helped him get his food on his fork and he took bites, then he’d drink. Bradley has never been a huge mashed potatoes guy, but apparently, there was magic in the ones he had tonight. At one point, I gave him a fork with mashed potatoes and after he took the bite he put the fork down and then he looked at me and pointed to himself. Surprised, I got his fork ready with more potatoes, he grabbed that up and popped it into his mouth.  He looked at me and then looked at Eric and pointed to himself again! So I pointed to his food, asking about each one until he pointed to his mashed potatoes, so I fixed his fork again and he popped that into his mouth again. 

He’s been interactive with food at times; but tonight was different, more determined - more decisively planned. Definitely a lot more celebration from Mom and Dad. But a lot more enthusiastic eating from Bradley. I thought his grilled chicken a little dry, and his potatoes weren’t garlic or anything crazy…but it was really good to him. Guess who’s buying potatoes and restocking my chicken supply tomorrow at store? Yep, this mom. If I can get this kid to eat more of his calories than drink them, I will be over-joyed! 

What did Walt Disney say: “Keep moving forward” - we may slide sideways at times, but we’ll keep Bradley moving forward all the same! 

31For21 Blog Challenge for Down Syndrome Awareness and Acceptance.