Empathy Abounding

It seems like there are big changes for Orion going on developmentally right now. I started to see small examples of empathy in relation to his sister recently, and then it was slowly getting more frequent. All kinds of little worries here and there about how I was feeling and if he noticed I had a little mark on my skin that might hurt. He is also telling me he is sorry about certain things, like if I drop something or lose something, he will say, "I'm sorry that happened to you." Then today was like a floodgate all of a sudden.

Ron told him a story about his grandpa he meant to be funny. He was telling him how he made a certain face before he started crying when he was a baby, and his grandpa wanted to get a picture of it, so he scared him to try to make him cry. Orion looked at him in total horror and said, "That's terrible!" and gave him a hug. Awwww.

Then when we got home today we found a flyer on our porch with a picture of a missing dog on it. He asked what it was, and I told him. He seemed really sad about it and kept saying he hoped the dog was OK. Then about a half hour after he had mentioned anything about it, he all of a sudden sighed and said, "I don't feel very exciting today." (His way of saying he doesn't feel happy). When I asked why, he said because of the dog who was lost. :( I told him this was a great neighborhood and to remember what good care those people took of Kona when she was lost. That seemed to make him feel better. This was the first time I had seen something like this bother him for an extended period of time. It was very sweet and sad at the same time.