I shot this the other day while walking the track with my kids. Mr. Emmett was not in the walking mood. He was in a riding on Daddy's shoulders for as long as he can get away with it kinda mood. 😀 Hey, I was looking for exercise and adding another 50 lbs or so to my shoulders was exactly that. lol Emmett ended up walking half and riding half of the 1.5 miles. https://youtu.be/y0-uIlGfsBE
The boys are ready to go to their overnight visit with their Mom. I was even ready about 30 minutes early. 😀 No one is particularly upset about going. In fact, Elliott even said he was looking forward to it but I suspect I know why. Once again, I have absolutely no plans for tonight except for treating myself to a giant burrito from Chipotle. It's almost my birthday and 1 of only 2 nights off a month I get. I figured I'd splurge a little bit in myself. 😏 It will be nice to eventually get to a point where I'm making plans with someone special but I'm in no particular rush.
My boys all have their unique challenges but one of the ones that's the difficult for me to personally understand is pain perception. This particular challenges is isolated to Gavin alone and I'm really grateful for that. Well, I'm not grateful he has this issue but instead that it doesn't impact the other boy's as well. Anyways, this particular issue is very much sensory based from what I understand and I don't think there is much that can be done to help him with this.. Here's the problem. Ever since Gavin was little, he would freak out over the most minor of injuries, like a hangnail or paper-cut. More serious injuries like a sprained ankle, serious cut or dislocated joint.. He didn't like any of these but never gets too…
I had a really bad night, amounting to less than 2 hours of sleep. Emmett got up extremely early and was not going back to bed. The boys let me nap this morning and I'm grateful for that beyond words because I couldn't even get my eyes to focus. I'm lucky because as long as I'm right there, I can close my eyes for a short period of time without the universe imploding. I say I'm lucky because not everyone will even get that.. 😟 The sleep that I did get was shrouded in a disorienting theme that I'm struggling with, long after they ceased to be. Truthfully, I probably need to get a bit more help with this than I am and perhaps I'll be better able to…
While at therapy tonight, Gavin was building with this castle set. It wasn't going together easily and he began to get frustrated. I asked him if he was okay and suggested he take a break. Gavin got really upset and started standing on the side of his ankles, if you can picture that. When he does this, it looks like his foot was just snapped off. Anyway, he was starting to hit himself but nothing too serious. I tried to de-escalate the situation but the meltdown engine had already turned over. This is scary for me because I'm beginning to see him slipping more and more. On the positive side and much to Gavin's credit, this wasn't anything super significant. Dr. Pattie and I eventually back out of it and…
For the most part, the boys are doing pretty well this morning. I'm exhausted from yesterday and going on about 4 hours of sleep. While I'm grateful for the 4 hours, it's just not enough after an emotionally draining day like yeasterday. I'm going to try for a nap this morning because I just can't see myself making it the rest of the day without recharging my batteries. This is one of those things I need to do in order to be better for the boys..
The day began at 7am with everyone in a pretty good mood.. I don't believe we have much going on in the way of errands today. The boys have therapy tonight with Dr. Pattie and that's about it. I would love to get caught up on some writing today and maybe some laundry. I'm still really tired because I didn't sleep well but I'm in a good mood and open to the day's possibilities.
We met with Dr. Pattie for therapy again today. Our main focus is on trying to help the boys stabilize after everything with their Mother. To be fair, some of these issues were present before she left but her leaving exacerbated everything as well as create new problems. I'm so overwhelmed by the boys anymore and stabilizing them often feels like a pipe dream. I'm not angry with the boys or anything like that because in my opinion, they're victims of a trauma that they're ill equipped to cope with. It's not their fault but that doesn't make dealing with the fallout any easier. They each have their own unique struggles but they also have some in common as well. All three of the boys are having bathroom issues…