Grant’s new medication has been working really well for him. It’s let him get organized in a way heretofore unimagined, and possibly to be feared. He’s organized, he’s got a plan, and he’s bossy as hell.

The other day he “picked me up” after work (aka, came into my office and stared at me until I closed my laptop and then said, “can we spend time together?”), and took me to the screen room where he had laid out two sheets of paper and two pencils. He sat in one chair and suggested I sit in the other, and said, “we are having an art lesson! Tell me what to do.” So we talked about drawing from a reference photo, and how you should keep looking at it, even if you know exactly what an owl looks like.

On Monday, he drew up a schedule of how he would like his meals to go over the weekend.

It says (transliterated)

“Dad Saturday schedule for food

Breakfast: Tim Hortons

Lunch: pasta

Dinner: Friendly’s

Mom

Me and mom Sunday we will make pancakes.”

He stressed to me that Friendly’s for dinner on Saturday was negotiable (he’s a reasonable boy) but he didn’t extend the same impression to pancakes. While we were in Florida, he made pancakes with me, and got to be very hands on (the bossiness), so it is an experience he would love to repeat.

Yesterday after work, he sat me down and handed me a pencil. He put down a piece of paper between us, and said, “ok mom, now I’m going to teach you to draw something. I watched a ‘learn to draw’ on YouTube, so I know what to do.” And he walked me through drawing a Minecraft zombie. After each step he would give me immediate feedback (I made the mouth too wide and had to start over, but I did an excellent job on the arms), and then he would draw the next step, while narrating what he was doing. He was very pleased with the outcome.

After that, he worked on his Crunch Labs crate, which was building a strobe light animator. We like to watch the tutorials on Mark Rober’s channel (QR code is included in the box), and follow the step-by-step, pausing as needed. He’s gotten very adept at manipulating small o-rings and connecting the red and black wires. Once in awhile I help him hold a part in place, or hand him a piece, but mostly I just sit with him for company.

I don’t mind that he’s channeling his natural confidence this way, in fact it makes me so happy and proud. He can be my bossy boots all day long.