special, indeed

Damonito's brother, Joe, and I recently flew to Ohio for a big family gathering. My mom, Damonito's great grandmother, turned 80. Joe and I got to spend a lot of quality time with the family. We were sitting on the plane in Columbus, Ohio getting ready to return to Phoenix and Joe was talking about the trip. Joe is very intrigued by everyone's relationship to each other so we spent a lot of time discussing how he was related to everyone. We were talking about my sister, his aunt, and I was telling Joe that I had an amazing sister. She is the best sister in the whole wide world and I thought I was pretty lucky. Joe said that he had the best brother in the whole wide world. He said that Damonito was very special. "When you are born handicapped, you come out special."
He's right. Damonito is, indeed, a very special boy.

Happy Birthday dear Damonito...

July 27th was Damonito's 6th birthday. His brother, Joe, and I were in Ohio attending my mom's 80th birthday party. It would have been awesome if he could have gone to Ohio, too, but traveling is out of the question. So we had his party Saturday. He wasn't having the best day. He'd had a grand mal in the morning and was pretty dragged out in the afternoon. He seemed sleepy and sedate. Until we brought out the presents.

He loves when you light the candle and sing "Happy Birthday." As I've said before, he has autistic tendencies because of his epilepsy so opening presents and tearing paper is a lot of fun for him. And his new pop-up game is the perfect repetitive motion he seeks.