Inner-lasting gom-stompers

One of the many things I have learned in the past few years is that nobody wants to hear me complain about how busy we are. Our busy-ness is no different from your busy-ness. We're all running the same rat race, trying to earn money and spend time with our kids and balance a hundred spinning plates simultaneously.

Like the rest of you, we are desperately trying to keep our plates spinning. I feel guilty constantly about not spending enough time with my three boys, but I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The time I do get with them is so sweet. I sped home from work tonight and made it in time to catch the tail end of pizza-movie night. Sammy snuggles have never felt soooo good and the love bouncing around our little living room walls has never made my heart feel so full.

I have to throw in some light-hearted goodies first tonight! Sammy says things constantly that make us laugh. He has always been so funny and creative with his words. I have not been as good lately about writing everything down, but have remembered a few.

We haven't let the boys watch Willy Wonka in a while because Elijah was imitating Veruca Salt's whiny, icky talking way too much. One of the things from the movie that the boys still talk about is everlasting gobstoppers. Except, Sammy pronounces it "inner-lasting gom-stompers."

When I get home from work or when I'm putting the boys to bed, Sammy says to me, "Mommmmmmmmy! I want you to be with me forever. Never leave me. Stay with me for 101 hours!" He likes to wrap his entire torso around one of my arms and say, "I missed you sooooooooooooo much." Sometimes he adds, "And I missed your phone." :)

Tonight Sammy was trying to convince all of us that he had a second middle finger on his left hand and that it got stolen. "A policeman came to get it. My second middle finger is in jail!"

Elijah's behavior at school and at home has been up and down, slooooowly descending out of the boiling point (but still very much in the boiling range). He's had some great days and some not-so-great days. Still, his sleep continues to suffer due to his brain being overwhelmed and exhausted. Every third night or so he sleeps great, but the other nights are awful! This morning he was up FOR THE DAY at 1:00am. You did indeed read that correctly.

I just got done reading an awesome book. I want Dan to read it and then I want to implement some strategies from it. It focuses on understanding that kids like Elijah are severely delayed in certain ways and are totally incapable of handling frustration and change and responding to direction like most others. The author suggests an approach to parenting that Dan and I have never tried. I'll explain more once we start!

We continue to trudge on, hoping that his brain will eventually catch up and be at a more peaceful place. A long weekend next week will help, but throw in a little surgery and family commotion and it might not be as much of a recovery as we'd like. It feels like we will never get him back to a good spot, but I have to remember that we are doing our BEST right now. Literally, we are doing everything we possibly can, short of removing him from school until he is recovered (this would take weeks, so isn't exactly feasible). Just keep swimming....just keep swimming...

We have a few fun things planned for tomorrow that the boys are super excited about! We have to squeeze them into a compact timeframe in order to lessen stimulation for E, but it'll still be tons of fun. Thanks for checking in and have a great weekend!