Ending the "vacation" week...

So, tomorrow is actually my last day before we return to the therapist for another two weeks, I guess.

We spend roughly 12 hours a week in going to the therapist including travel. This splits the family three days out of the week. This week not having therapy felt like I gained, well, a life.

We had 2 tantrums by The Boy: one the day before yesterday and one today. The day before yesterday he seemed to be playing with his food trying to buy time to stay up past bedtime. I told him as soon as the clock hit bedtime he was gone finished or not. He smiled at me and said ok. Then when the clock hit 8, I told him goodbye and he went into a fit. I knew it was because he didn' finish his food but his sisters quickly said it was because he was scared of the hallway and his bedroom and the bathroom. I could see in his eyes he thought it was an opportunity so he ran with it tantruming even harder.

Fine. I had ordered from Netflix some Goosebump movies for the kids. Just in case he really was scared of things, I previewed them and decided that they couldn't watch the first one but could watch the second one about an aunt who gives her nephews prune juice to make them old so she could sell them as grooms to her elderly friends. They find out the antidote to the prune juice is baby food. It will make them young again. Anyhow, not scary at all.

But I wasn't sure if the boy was truly scared and I didn't want to make him have those feelings in anticipation just before bed time. So I went to ask him what was the truth about his other tantrum. I was going to ask him if he wanted to do something like a puzzle or play cars with me instead, when I see him all out crying. Let me take the time to remind you, Hubs and I had talked about whether he should see it or not, we had not talked to any of the kids or the boy about whether he was going to see it or not. He starts screaming at me "I want to watch it."

At first I was confused as to why he was screaming and crying and then I just said "Look if you are throwing a fit then you are not old enough to watch it." I walked him to his room where he continued to jump and scream at me from the top of his lungs. I shut the door and went about my business. When he was done, I went and talked to him.

I told him we were going to be treating him like he acts, 2 years old. We've been doing that with Poufy. I don't know if it's right or not. But she actually seems content. I feed her and give her baby portions to start with, cut up like you would for a two year old. She's not eating as much as she used to. It seems like feeding her is giving her whatever she needed.

If I tell her babies don't do that or 2 year olds can't do that, etc... she doesn't even pout or tantrum about it. It seems like she is taking it in as information. She's enjoying being two. I know it's not the same but if I can give that to her to help make her feel better, than I will do my best. Hopefully it will work with the boy. I've already started thinking up ways of creating activities for the two of them that are around that age level.

Anyway, the difference in this week is that I felt like I could follow through with things. I had time, I could sit in a chair and just talk to my husband or one of the kids without feeling like "I don't have time for this." I baked cookies with CDQ and Hubs made a cake with all the kids. We had two movie nights. We never made it to our picnic because of monsoons, maybe tomorrow. We still need a game night.

Things weren't perfect but they were good and they were managable because I didn't feel rushed, even with all the home improvement, girl scouts, school for the kids, and school registration for myself, it was still better. I even did some gardening and chatted a few times with the new neighbors, oh, and even though I've been staying up until 6 am working on the house...I still got SLEEP.

I think my decision to suspend therapy for now is the right one. I think it's the time we need to unwind after all the foster drama and to finally bond with one another and attach the way we need to.