My Son is too Intelligent for his own good and my dog is too stupid for his own good

We'll start with the dog first, because blogging about Y will take much longer.

Let's just say Goofy is aptly named. He gets a little rough with the other dogs some days, so they try to avoid confinement with him as much as possible. So, when I put him in the back yard this morning, there were no other doggie takers. I had to take my shower, so I tied Squirty (our pit mix) up front and let Miko (our old lab) roam free. He's almost 11, he knows he has it good, and he's not going anywhere except maybe next door.

About ten seconds after I got through the front door, the wailing, woe is me, started from the back yard. I ignored it and went upstairs for my shower. If Goofy is making noise, he's behaving. It's when he's quiet that you have to find out what he's doing. About halfway through my shower, the wailing stopped. Oh, oh! I quickly dried off, got dressed and went downstairs. No Goofy in the back yard, just a big hole in the fence near the back porch. Apparently he ripped the fence off the porch railing and squeezed his 113lb frame through two of the porch rail posts (about 12 inches apart). I'm surprised he doesn't have brush burn. He really had to suck in his gut to escape. I immediately went to the front door, and opened it to see a huge, tail wagging, dark yellow lab just way too happy to see me! Goofy escaped, then ran around front and waited for me to open the front door. Squirt, tied up nearby, kept looking at him like he was an idiot for not exploring. Miko, was waiting at the back door. Two labs who had the world in front of them, and both of them wanted back in the house. Not like we don't treat our pets as family, huh?

Y, on the other hand, is very smart. He has complained for months about the parental restrictions on his computer. A few days ago he showed me how he added a new user account. He even used the same password he used for his parentally protected account. Y was very proud of himself. All he wanted out of this new account was the ability to play on the computer at any time, and not be automatically logged out at midnight. We decided to let this one slide a little bit. So far, last night was the first night he complained when we told him to turn the computer off. BTW, we did activate the parental tracking stuff on that user name, but Y doesn't know. All he ever visits are a couple of game websites, YouTube and Google Video and some music sites. I think Y would live on YouTube if he could.

Y has been acting much better lately, and so has Bill, for that matter. Last night was the first blip we had in about a week. It seems allowing Y to visit his friend C and have him over for a visit has helped tremendously. What has helped Bill the most has been his realization about how his behavior negatively affects his health. Every time he starts yelling, I immediately say to him, calmly, "Please stop yelling," or some version of that; but always calm. I have told him several times that he cannot control what Y does, but he can control his reaction to it.

I'm sure things will get touchy again next week when we start implementing a bed time again. School starts on the 25th. Y knows that his bedtime during school is 10pm. I'm sure he'll be annoyed to start that bedtime 4-5 days early, though. We have learned one thing, if Y goes to bed cranky, he usually wakes up cranky. He doesn't always stay cranky all day, but sometimes he does. Y has also been going to his last acrobatics camp this week from 9a-3p, so he is physically tired, too, which is a good thing. Yesterday he told me he did not walk the dogs because his leg hurt. I'm sure he is doing a little bit too much at acrobatics, but the last time he complained his leg hurt, he went through a growth spurt. Maybe I'll take him for a massage next week. I sure could use one, too.

Tomorrow we are getting together with some other adoptive friends, several of the kids are from Y's internat. We plan on meeting for dinner and then maybe some rollerskating afterward. I hope Bill decides to go with us. We really need to do a family thing right now.

Some really good things happened this past weekend. On Saturday Y had his friend C over for a sleepover. I had to work the mid shift (OT money, like gravy, I'm telling you!), so I said my goodbyes around 8:30pm. Y came downstairs and gave me a hug and a kiss goodbye!!! I can't remember the last time he did that! Then, on Sunday early afternoon I had to run outside to grab the paper before it got wet in the downpour. As I ran back to the front door, Y opened it and said, "I no you son?" I said, "Yes, you're my son." He pointed to the paper and repeated himself, so I had to ask him why he needed to ask that question. He told me that I should have asked my son to get the paper in the rain, and not done it myself. Well. Now I know. And for the third charm, after I picked him up from acrobatics yesterday he gave me another kiss goodbye as I dropped him off at the front door and drove away to work the night shift.

So, three really cool things, and then an "I no sleep!" I guess it was time for one of those.

What did Bill get these past few days? He is back to being called Papa. Baby steps between my boys, I guess.

Natalie

TX