Dancing in Water and Words

A note on my faithful Tatonka. With some rough recovery, he has healed and is in the stage of rebuilding lost muscle. He is happy and getting strong with lots of love from the kids, food and of course the tennis ball. We are happy to have him.

Now this picture is representative of the stage Nobunaga is in at this time. Within the last 2 months he has experienced an onslaught of language, mimicry, communication, play, and recognition of the faces of his peers.

His gentle spirit is becoming much more playful. Here in the water he splashed, laughing and dancing, and then went on to the bank and back into the water in a circle. He repeated this a number of times and you can see the wonder on his face.

Nobunaga, particularly, is thrilled with the recovery of Tatonka, who by the way has become more of an indoor dog. Nobu has lots of hugs for him and pets, but mostly he can tell Tatonka to "Drop the ball." That way he can throw it. They have great fun at this, and as you can guess, Tatonka's love of the ball and Nobu's love of repetition, they can keep themselves occupied for quite a while.

The crowning moment was "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" sung over and over at home in preparation for the Christmas show. He was front and center and beaming he was so proud. He was singing happily when I saw one of the student aids, who is almost a 1-to-1 aid for him sitting right behind him, helping him with his hand movements. I never did ask her if she was singing also.

The day I am able to have a conversation with Bu is near.