Every "normal" day becomes extraordinary.
Every special thing that happens is multiplied by 1000.
Every outing we survive without, say, vomit (Violet's), injury (mine) or an enormous amount of tears (any of us) is a huge accomplishment.
Here are little yet phenomenal things that have happened lately:
1. After dropping the twins off at preschool, another mom asked if I was Violet's mom. She said she had heard all about Violet from her daughter, and they had shared a seat on the bus together to the pumpkin farm. Your daughter talks about PLAYING with my daughter? My daughter PLAYS with her? And sits WITH her on the bus. UNREAL.
2. Knock-knock jokes are in full swing in our home. One of the many (many) reasons I'm glad I have twins- they can knock-knock to each other for an hour and I just have to listen. Here's their favorite:
Knock knock
Who's there?
Banana
Banana who?
Banana come to the door to say hello!
and then they laugh hysterically.
3. For as long as I can remember, Violet has smacked me in the face whenever I sing to her. It's very disheartening, not to mention painful. I try to tell her that sometimes people PAY mommy to sing, but she won't have it. We've been working in therapy on getting her to use her words instead of lashing out or screaming incoherently when she doesn't like something. FINALLY, yesterday as I was singing the clean up song, she approached me, and I braced myself she got within inches of my face and murmured,
"no sing, Mama!!"
Beautiful.
4. Speaking of singing, I performed in this last Saturday. It was the first time the twins saw me at "work" and with about 600 people there, I was so apprehensive about bringing Violet. She did so well! Plugged her ears, yes, but stayed, listened, smiled when they lit up the Christmas tree. And, so worth it, as Ollie and Violet have been serenading me with "ha-yoo-yah!" ever since. Big time smiles.
5. Halloween. The kids had a blast over a VERY busy weekend. Violet had a little bit of trouble with some of the noises (or rather, she anticipated a lot of noise), so spent a great deal of the evening with the hands covering her ears. But I think that's okay- she knows what bothers her, and she's found a way to help herself. For now. Oliver was Larry the Cucumber and Violet was both a bunny and then a chicken (a quick costume change is always appropriate on Halloween). Neither of my kids like candy (Yep. NO clue how that happened, and I know it won't last much longer), so were content going from house to house with their buddies and looking at the other kids' costumes.
That's all for today, although my head is FULL of other amazing things I could write about. Honestly, I could also easily think of a handful of worries, concerns and stresses, and maybe that post will come later.
But maybe not. Funny how the blessing always seem to overtake everything else!
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| ollie and vi picking pumpkins on the school trip. these were photos that our beloved ABA therapist who shadows violet in school texted me. Can you imagine getting these on your phone? |
Have you ever tried noise canceling headphones? We use them ALL the time...and you can buy them cheap at a place like harbor freight. You can pick how strong of canceling you want. They've been a miracle in our house!
ReplyDeleteThis post made me smile so much! Thank you. It's awesome to hear what that girl's mom said! Sometimes I feel the same way when someone says their child talked about Sumner playing with them.