"And the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down/In rushing, rising riv'lets..." - from Winnie the Pooh.
Yes that was most of the night before last and yesterday morning. For the most part it was nice, we got to have Daddy home till noon since he can't work in the rain. And once the front moved out everything was extra bright and crisp looking outside.
After Vic was finally able to head out for the day, our afternoon here got very busy, but not in the ways I had hoped.
Kit was having very clingy day. And a wanting-to-be-naked day. And a let's-get-into-everything-and-make-lots-of-messes day. It was evident very early that any attempts to get housework done were going to beundone, helped with. So I gave in and decided I'd simply dedicate the rest of the day to the kids.
In doing so I gave them permission to make plenty of (controlled) messes. And freed myself from all of the frustration, turning into anger, when they are busy making messes while I am trying to clean up the ones we already have. That can become a vicious cycle that just ends up making all of us unhappy.
I was venting to my mom the other night about feeling so swamped and feeling pretty helpless some days when progress comes at a snails pace, if at all. And she said something that really stuck. She recalled a particularly challenging time in her life when there were a very large number of things that she couldn't change: her preschooler from being a preschooler, her teenagers from being teenagers, etc. But she did decide that she could change who she worked for, and so she did. She put in her notice, and was almost immediately offered a position under a much more supportive and kind boss.
I don't have a secular job, and I happen to have a great boss! But there are many days when I am truly wearing so many hats that I think my spine might compress under the strain.
Today, I couldn't change my toddler from being a toddler, my middle child from being a middle child, or my preteen (there, I finally said it!) from being a preteen. I couldn't make the effects of SPD suddenly stop causing my children to behave in ways that were bothersome or exhausting. Nor could I change my father-in-law from having illnesses of his mind. There was only one thing I could change. Which hats I would put on for the rest of the day.
I chose activity coordinator. I provided the kids, Kit especially, with the supervision and provisions to make plenty of mess that was not in a place, or of materials, that are hard to clean up. I let them take the lead by asking what activities they were most interested in doing.
Kit found the baby powder on the table and was very interested in spreading it around on the table. So I let her, and Grace quickly joined in the fun. And soon our table was very well powdered and protected from any further chaffing. Plus it smelled pretty good too!
Then they had just as much fun with wet rags cleaning it all up!
Grace choose her violin lesson next, and aside from tiring out quickly because she's not used to it yet, she did an excellent job!
Then Grace choose art, which she has been begging for all week. So we spread our art table cloth over the table and pulled out the paint box. They painted their dinosaurs from the sensory bin. Kit painted hers for a minute then painted the plate for her paints, both pieces of paper I gave her, the table cloth, herself, and splashed paint on both of the other kids and their dinosaurs.
I gave her a bath while the others finished painting. Then she actually nursed and fell asleep! It was wonderful. Grace continued to paint for a while, then joined Zak outside.
The rest of the evening was mostly a clothes relay between us and Kit. She would run to another room, wriggle out of her clothes and diaper, and race around the house until on of us caught her and put at least a diaper back on. After Grandpa retired to his room for the evening, I was more lax about her clothes, even giving her a couple of bare naked stretches. But she's kind of like a puppy, she just pees wherever she happens to be standing or sitting, and I'm not a big fan of slipping on laminate floors greased with bodily fluids (or scrubbing it put of the couch, again). So usually at least a diaper and a snug snapping onesie is the acceptable baby uniform.
All in all it was a good day. I didn't get any of my chores done, including cooking dinner. And Kit didn't go to sleep until 12:30! But she slept until 6:30 in her spot on top of her weighted blanket and under a big square couch pillow before climbing on me to nurse and snuggle. So a small win!
I asked Victor after she fell asleep if maybe he could occasionally just take Kit out of the house for a few hours now and then so that I might have a decent shot at getting the dishes washed without her flooding the kitchen, and maybe even get dinner made. So today, he did. Whew!
Yes that was most of the night before last and yesterday morning. For the most part it was nice, we got to have Daddy home till noon since he can't work in the rain. And once the front moved out everything was extra bright and crisp looking outside.
After Vic was finally able to head out for the day, our afternoon here got very busy, but not in the ways I had hoped.
Kit was having very clingy day. And a wanting-to-be-naked day. And a let's-get-into-everything-and-make-lots-of-messes day. It was evident very early that any attempts to get housework done were going to be
In doing so I gave them permission to make plenty of (controlled) messes. And freed myself from all of the frustration, turning into anger, when they are busy making messes while I am trying to clean up the ones we already have. That can become a vicious cycle that just ends up making all of us unhappy.
I was venting to my mom the other night about feeling so swamped and feeling pretty helpless some days when progress comes at a snails pace, if at all. And she said something that really stuck. She recalled a particularly challenging time in her life when there were a very large number of things that she couldn't change: her preschooler from being a preschooler, her teenagers from being teenagers, etc. But she did decide that she could change who she worked for, and so she did. She put in her notice, and was almost immediately offered a position under a much more supportive and kind boss.
I don't have a secular job, and I happen to have a great boss! But there are many days when I am truly wearing so many hats that I think my spine might compress under the strain.
Today, I couldn't change my toddler from being a toddler, my middle child from being a middle child, or my preteen (there, I finally said it!) from being a preteen. I couldn't make the effects of SPD suddenly stop causing my children to behave in ways that were bothersome or exhausting. Nor could I change my father-in-law from having illnesses of his mind. There was only one thing I could change. Which hats I would put on for the rest of the day.
I chose activity coordinator. I provided the kids, Kit especially, with the supervision and provisions to make plenty of mess that was not in a place, or of materials, that are hard to clean up. I let them take the lead by asking what activities they were most interested in doing.
Kit found the baby powder on the table and was very interested in spreading it around on the table. So I let her, and Grace quickly joined in the fun. And soon our table was very well powdered and protected from any further chaffing. Plus it smelled pretty good too!
Then they had just as much fun with wet rags cleaning it all up!
Grace choose her violin lesson next, and aside from tiring out quickly because she's not used to it yet, she did an excellent job!
Then Grace choose art, which she has been begging for all week. So we spread our art table cloth over the table and pulled out the paint box. They painted their dinosaurs from the sensory bin. Kit painted hers for a minute then painted the plate for her paints, both pieces of paper I gave her, the table cloth, herself, and splashed paint on both of the other kids and their dinosaurs.
I gave her a bath while the others finished painting. Then she actually nursed and fell asleep! It was wonderful. Grace continued to paint for a while, then joined Zak outside.
The rest of the evening was mostly a clothes relay between us and Kit. She would run to another room, wriggle out of her clothes and diaper, and race around the house until on of us caught her and put at least a diaper back on. After Grandpa retired to his room for the evening, I was more lax about her clothes, even giving her a couple of bare naked stretches. But she's kind of like a puppy, she just pees wherever she happens to be standing or sitting, and I'm not a big fan of slipping on laminate floors greased with bodily fluids (or scrubbing it put of the couch, again). So usually at least a diaper and a snug snapping onesie is the acceptable baby uniform.
All in all it was a good day. I didn't get any of my chores done, including cooking dinner. And Kit didn't go to sleep until 12:30! But she slept until 6:30 in her spot on top of her weighted blanket and under a big square couch pillow before climbing on me to nurse and snuggle. So a small win!
I asked Victor after she fell asleep if maybe he could occasionally just take Kit out of the house for a few hours now and then so that I might have a decent shot at getting the dishes washed without her flooding the kitchen, and maybe even get dinner made. So today, he did. Whew!
I had a whole series of photos of the day, edited and already loaded onto the blog. Somehow my phone went into psyco mode and deleted a bunch of stuff that I had including all of these photos from off the blog (but oddly enough restored emails that I had already deleted, so weird)! I don't know how it did that!! And I had already deleted the pictures from off my phone because I have way too many on there and it is making my phone run at dial-up speed and do whack stuff like suddenly freeze up and then delete pictures off my blog! Arghhhhhh! So these were the only two I had left. I'm so mad cuz the painting pics were really cute. :( Thankfully, I should be getting my new phone any day and my pictures will be so much better now! WOO HOO!!!
Comments
Post a Comment