How is it that sun, sand, surf, oh... and 3 kids, can make one so very tired? Phew. But tired in a good sun-drenched kind of way. :) Although the weather didn't go above 70 today, that did not stop the kids from enjoying everything they wanted to do! First up... lazy river. Whoever named it the lazy river must not have had kids with them at the time. :) Then, you know kids...they don't stay in one place for very long; plus, it was chilly so you had to keep moving to stay warm. So it went something like this today: lazy river. pool. hot tub. pool. hot tub. pool. hot tub. pool. water slide. pool. hot tub. water slide. water slide. water slide. water slide. pool. hot tub. pool. hot tub. pool. beach. sand. water. sand. sand. seashell collecting. sand. trench digging. water. sand. sand. seashell collecting. more digging. rinse off in ocean. time to go in. sand. sand. rinse off again in ocean. sand. squirrel (just checking if you were still reading this! plus we just watched 'Up' the other day...) where was I. oh. rinse off again in ocean. finally leave beach. rinse off in outdoor shower. take 20 minutes for the kids to actually stand together and smile for a picture by a palm tree. hotel. shower. super late lunch. lunch. shower. bath. lunch. car. outdoor shopping area. dinner. hotel. movie. bed. yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, goodnight. Jk!! You know something else I discovered today? I really hate being the adult sometimes. And cleaning up after playing at the beach is almost as icky as cleaning up after playing in the snow. I'm not complaining, oh wait, yes I am. :)
I would love to say that today was all sunshine and blue skies. Well, it was. But it wasn't. I suppose that if all 3 of my children behaved 100% of the time all the time, I would have nothing to write about or complain about, or yell about. So, there are things that happen with each on of my children throughout the day that don't go perfectly as planned. Probably about 100 or so things. Same with you? But the thing is, when it happens with Joey or Ally, it may be significant at the time, or irritating, or whatever, but it is usually does not make or break our whole family's day. (Well, I don't know... Ally is definitely acting like a pre-teen at the age of 6!) But lets look at some of the things that happened with her today. Well, poor thing... this morning she looked like a little bird flying into a window pane over and over again. It was hard not to laugh, so I did. :p But I did feel bad. Ally thought the balcony door was open and walked right into it, face first. Then less than 5 minutes later she tripped over the threshold and got a bump on her leg which my husband then iced for 20 minutes much to Ally's dismay. Joey, well, oh... this was cool... he saw a pod of dolphins in the ocean from our balcony. So that was fun. He mopes, yes, even at the beach. He doesn't pay attention to things- except of course, the pod of dolphins he spotted. I have to call his name 20 times before he hears me. And, what kid showers and then when I go in to the bathroom and ask him what soap he used because the wrapper is still on the one in the shower, he says, oh... I forgot to use soap. That would be Joey. But even though these things affect our day, they don't make or break an activity for the most part.
I will count today as being a win - in the plus column for our family- and a loss in autism's column. That's how I feel like a lot. Was the day a net gain or a net loss? It's Daddy, Mommy, Joey, Vicki and Ally verse Autism. So today, in large part, thanks to Daddy, I will call it a win for us. :) Heck, the 5 of us are together today enjoying some great memories at the beach. Just being able to share a smile and the gift of a day should be enough to put us in the win column, right?
Like I said, my husband can get Vicki to do a heck of a lot more than I can get her to do. And, quite frankly, it irritates the crap out of me. Autism or not, why is it that when Daddy says something, it works, when Mommy says the same thing, the kids laugh. Really? So annoying! And so grateful at the same time! Vicki loves the beach and everything associated with it. But even with the ocean sprawled out in front of her this morning, she didn't want to get her swimsuit on. It took about 30 minutes to get her to do it. And it was even on her visual schedule. Blah. I've noticed something the last few weeks, sometimes it's like Vicki's in slow motion. Super slow motion, or even like she is frozen in a spot. I know I've said that she has been hesitating a lot more lately, like she is trying to decide whether she should do something or not. But this morning, when she was standing getting ready to put her swimsuit on, I had to actually tap her legs for her to lift them up. It was odd. And she was doing that stutter step thing a lot too... like she would move forward, but lean back at the same time and push back into us.
Anyway, there are always lots of little things that happen, but they stayed little for the most part because Daddy was with us. But while we were out at the outdoor shopping tonight walking around, Vicki got really mad. It was about something very minuscule at the time, but turned into a full blown tantrum. I would not have been able to get Vicki to walk back to the car if I was by myself with her. It was kind of a crappy ending to a pretty good day. But we made sure to not hurry Joey or Ally who were enjoying watching 3 tigers at a refuge display. It's hard not to let a tantrum win for me sometimes... I just want to get it over with. But that does nothing for anyone and it ends up scoring a point in autism's column. So we waited it out, enjoyed the tigers and made our way slowly back to the car.
One thing that makes me nervous is that Vicki internalizes a schedule so quickly that when we do something spontaneous, it has already become routine in Vicki's eyes. For example... last night I made the kids hot cocoa and popped some popcorn. Tonight Vicki wanted it again. And I didn't have it. (But it was kinda cool... she said 'coffee cup' because that's what she drank the cocoa out of last night... and she must not have remembered 'cocoa' so she said 'coffee cup' Yay Vicki!!!) So, I'm a bit nervous that tomorrow she is going to want an exact repeat of today. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it tomorrow though!
Geeze... sorry I wrote a lot. Guess I like having this time at the beach, enjoying the sound of the ocean in the background as I type... Which reminded me of something I was thinking about today. I, myself, love finding seashells; and it's one of the things I love most about the beach. I love being right out there in the water, right where there is a little shelf of sand, and each time the waves pound the sand and the tide rolls in and out, I love the feeling of each new wave. Each new wave brings with it all the hope to find that perfect shell- unique and colorful and amazing. And when you grasp it as it's rolling back out to sea, you feel that moment of 'ahhhh.... yes. got 'ch!' I feel like I hit the seashell jackpot with my 3 gems. They are each perfect to me- so unique and colorful and amazing. And even though my 3 shells may come out of the ocean of life a bit sandy and dirty at times... just a quick rinse off and they are just as beautiful as ever. I am full of silly metaphors lately. But, gosh, I hope you all get that feeling of 'ahhhh. yes!' when you look at your seashells. Goodnight. xoxo Looking forward to another beautiful sunrise tomorrow!
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