A Much Better Week
I wanted to thank everyone for their encouraging comments and posts to my latest entry. It always helps to know that I'm not alone in this, and to hear some reassurance from others who have their own history of experience to pull from. I imagine all parents need validation at certain points in their life, and I'm grateful I have such a strong resource to pull from in the readers of this blog. I appreciate always your comments and feedback.
As difficult as last week was, this week has been a thousand times easier. While Aisling is still suffering from allergies (the most recently developed symptom being a violent, hacking cough) she seems to be feeling better overall, which I think has improved her mood. I've encouraged her to slightly alter her sleeping habits: she'd started wanting me to wake her up at 4:30 AM each morning so that she would have a long period of time to play on the computer before going to school, which meant she was going to bed at 7:30 PM each evening. This week, in order for us to spend more time together as a family, I've coached her into changing her bedtime to 8:30 PM each night with the understanding that I would be waking her up at 5:30 AM each morning. This way, she still has *some* time to play her favorite games and watch Pokemon cartoons on YouTube before heading to school, but she's not completely overdosing on passive forms of entertainment at the very beginning of each day. She's started attending a new day care center in the afternoons after school, and while the usual struggles and difficulties have already begun (kids making fun of her, Aisling being unable to make new friends, etc.) she seems to be much more comfortable with the place than with her previous after-school arrangement, which is good news. She's managed to get her homework done each day either at school or at the day care center, so we haven't had to struggle as much with that (we'll see if that holds true tonight, since she has a Social Studies test tomorrow that I don't think she's quite prepared for.) I also think that our work with the Feelings Book is helping her develop better coping mechanisms, in addition to giving me a clear vocabulary I can pull from to offer suggestions for her in times of stress and aggravation. Overall, she's been a much more pleasant child this week, with a much better and brighter attitude -- which, of course, comforts me a great deal.
One of the things she's started doing every night at bedtime that just warms my heart is demanding "cuddle time." Basically, "cuddle time" consists of Aisling, me, and Thomas all piling her bed in a big Hug Sandwich and just staying there, hugging and holding for a few minutes. Usually, our cat, Pantoufle, wants in on the action, and will climb over the top of us and nuzzle our faces. It's such a tangible, physical example of love, support, nurturing, and family, that I know my own heart just fills with warmth and love whenever it happens, and I hope that Aisling's does, too. I forget sometimes, because Aisling has made *so* much progress in verbal communication in her lifetime, how important physical communication has always been for her, especially ever since her experience with the Wilbarger Brushing Protocol helped make her more tolerant to touching and hugs. I still have a lot to share about this, actually -- about her first experiences with speech therapy, about the Hanen Program, about the amazing progress she made after sensory integration therapy with her occupational therapist. Aisling's future-step-grandmother mentioned to me this week how incredible it was that Aisling had made so much progress in her lifetime, that it was difficult to believe she was ever non-verbal and completely withdrawn. I definitely want to go back to those topics and explore them, soon -- again, partially because Aisling *is* such a success story when it comes to the intervention and services she received.
But, today, I just wanted to take a few moments to remind myself that, for every bad day, there's a good day; for every moment of pain and frustration, there's a moment of beauty and love. Yesterday, as we were driving home from the day care center, Aisling saw our house come into view. "There's our house!" she exclaimed. "Yes," I agreed, "there's our very, very tiny house." (Our home is only 900 square feet in size -- when I made the purchase, I pretty much assumed it would just be Aisling and I for the rest of our lives. Just goes to show I shouldn't assume!) "Yes," Aisling agreed that the house is small, "but at least we can fit inside!"
And it's those moments of delightful, simplistic wisdom that make every meltdown worth it. At least we can fit inside, indeed.