(This is a post that I started while Rich was gone but then started having computer issues so I couldn’t finish or post it. Finishing it and posting it for memory’s sake.)
While daddy is gone we are still truckin’ along. I went to Arabella’s class Thanksgiving party and it was SO CUTE! The kids sang a couple of songs.
Arabella's Thanksgiving Program
After Thanksgiving we put up the tree.
I took a moment to remember our friends, Emily and Derek, who passed away last year the day after giving us this homemade ornament. I can’t believe it’s been a year.
I’ve had a hard time finding a place for all of our Christmas decorations because our place is so small and we have limited wall space but I found the perfect place for our shotgun shell lights.
We’ve continued our new Baker Sunday Selfie tradition.
Unfortunately, the kids asked if our elf was going to come this year. Because they asked he did *insert eye roll* They all just love him because I give him credit for all of the nice things I do, hahaha!
What a fun night I had with the Mill’s. Laura and Doug live in the building right next to mine. After finding out that I’m a yerba mate fan they both wanted to come over for some mate done right. She brought over some pan dulce and the most delicious grapefruit mate I’ve ever had. We stayed up talking and laughing until 11pm. Such a fun couple! I can’t wait for Rich to meet them when he gets back.
Last week there was a Japanese band playing at the Exchange so I started videoing and captured this awesome moment!
He had no idea I video’d him until we got home and I showed him the video. He’s so cute!
So, I like to keep things real so here’s the challenging part of the 5 weeks Rich was gone. The first 3 weeks were cake. Everything was going smoothly and I was giving myself a pat on the back for keeping it together better than I had expected. Then, the *you know what* hit the fan. The kids had been having a lot of time off of school, 2-4 day weekends and 1-3 day weekend. On top of the fact that Rich was gone the kids schedule was changing a lot. Aidan never does well with change. In the past he has reacted to stress by acting out and then having tics which puts a lot of stress on me and then in turn I put more stress on him. It’s such a vicious cycle that is really hard to deal with. So, here we were, 3 weeks in with 2 weeks to go and mine and Aidan’s stress levels at an all time high. He hasn’t been diagnosed or anything but in an attempt to find a way to survive the next 2 weeks I was doing a ton of research into his symptoms. I decided that Aidan has one of two conditions- transient tic disorder or a mild case of tourettes. He always has tics but when life is “normal” and stable they are reduced to physical tics like flicking his fingers, rolling his eyes or shrugging his shoulders. These tics are so mild that I’ve come to accept them as being just a part of who he is in that they aren’t constant or consuming. Now, when there is a big change in our lives like moving, school ending or dad leaving for a few weeks, that is when the vocal tics start. This time it started as a “whoo” and morphed into a high pitched whimper that was constant, like every 3-5 seconds. This was so overwhelmingly stressful for me. Not only the sound but also just knowing that he was stressed and feeling guilty that I may have been the cause of that stress. He was also extremely sensitive. He just needed a lot of extra one-on-one time and attention and I could see a notable difference in him when he got it.
There, I kept it real. Rich being gone was so hard! It was hard facing trials without any support. I’m a pretty private person in that I don’t like telling everybody I know all about my problems and I don’t really like being on the recieving end of service. I know that if I would have reached out to my home teacher his wife would have taken my kids for the remainder of the 5 week TDY, she’s THAT awesome! Even without knowing our struggle she brought us many delicous meals and then had us over for FHE where we had her awesome homemade pizza and the kids decorated one of her homemade gingerbread houses.
We love the Hatt’s so much!
Some other adventures we had…Eva’s favorite place to poop is in the bathtub. I happened to notice her a little too focused and quickly stuck her on her little potty. She did it!
This sweet girl lost her front tooth!
Then she literally lost it and had to write the tooth fairy a note.
We did survive 2 more Baker Sunday Selfies!
Finally, our family was complete again.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Drop me a line!