Happy belated Thanksgiving! After a very busy couple of weeks, we had a nice and relaxing day yesterday. Well, aside from the 5K that I ran in the morning and aside from the cooking and baking we had to get done before dinner. Aside from all of that, it was relaxing! Ha!
The day after Thanksgiving is the day every year when we go to pick out a Christmas tree. We spend the day putting it up and decorating it....and resting. TRULY resting. No exercising, no cooking, no working, no nothing except enjoying each other. Just the four of us. I remember last year being snowy, windy and COLD, so it felt balmy this year at 20-something degrees. We picked out our tree pretty quickly and the boys got to meet a few of Santa's reindeer.
Giving each other the eye.
Sammy wanted NOTHING to do with Santa this year. Elijah was eager to get onto the sleigh and chat with him. He told Santa he'd like some Legos. We always try to downplay Santa, so I was glad he asked for a relatively little thing.
Loaded up and ready to get our tree back home! The boys were very concerned that the tree would fly off the back of the car.
The majority of Elijah's days in school lately involve some struggling. It is really really difficult to hear about the things he says and does and not know what to do to help him. I feel like we are doing absolutely everything we possibly can as his parents, and I try to be content with that.
I don't remember who I was saying this to the other day, but Elijah needs not only super strict rules but he needs about 10 amendments and 5 sub-amendments to each rule. It feels so complicated and overwhelming sometimes. There are a bunch of "little" things that we are constantly working on with him, but they all add up and they end up complicating one another (if that makes sense).
We continue to do light therapy and we have tried to put him to bed no earlier than 7:00 every night, even though some nights he is ready for bed at 5:00. For about five days last week he was waking up between 5:00-6:00, which was GREAT! Then he had four days in a row of 3:00-3:30 wake-up times. I have a gut feeling this was a result of the antibiotics he was taking for his strep. This morning he slept till 6:00! On the mornings when he is awake at 3:00, we give him a tiny dose of melatonin, although it doesn't seem to help much.
He tends to get into moods where he literally seems to want to upset/annoy everyone around him. It's really tough trying to stay positive while managing this behavior. We enforce the no "icky" words rule, so he resorts to making horrible noises and using icky tones with regular words. This is where the sub-amendments come into play. Suddenly an innocent word like "baby" becomes just as bad as an actual bad word. When we enforce no bad tones, he finds other ways to get under our skin. I so often wonder what is going through his smart little brain. Is there something he needs that I'm not giving him? He's such a complex little guy. He always has been, and we love him for it. I was just thinking tonight about what a relatively easy kid Sammy has been. I was thinking about what life would be like if we would have had two Sammys and I thought, Wait a second! If we had two kids like Sammy, Dan and I would have missed out on so much! In all honestly, it can be tough sometimes, but I wouldn't trade any of it. Elijah is EXACTLY who he was meant to be and we accept him 100% and love him TO PIECES. If you know us personally, you KNOW I mean that.
Here are some GOOD tidbits for you because we do have a mostly happy home and happy family!
Whenever all four of us are at home in the morning, we all crawl into Dan's and my bed. The boys LOVE our "fluffy blankets and pillows" (I do have a mild obsession with pillows) and snuggle and watch cartoons and hold hands and say "I love you" to each other every couple of minutes.
I have been extra smitten with Elijah and Sammy lately. I think it's because I've been working so much away from home. My heart will literally ache in the middle of the day when I think of how soft Sammy's cheeks are or how Elijah's arms feel around my neck when he hugs me or how he will not allow me to leave home without "a hug and a kiss!" I love my boys so much!
Here is a funny conversation that took place last night:
Me: Hey Sammy, what's up?
S: Ohhh, just pickin' my nose. Trying to find a booger.
Me: Icky! Do you need a tissue?
S: No, I didn't find any.
We have another couple of busy weeks ahead, but two weeks from today we leave for Elijah's Make-a-Wish trip! We cannot wait! The boys are sooo excited!
We pray that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you have a peaceful rest of your long weekend! Thank you for checking in!
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