{January 30-February 5th}
This week's vignette:
It is dark and quiet, only the hush of the fan as it rotates over us, first him, then me, spanning the distance of the room which has two twin beds, soldiers side by side, in a room that my twin sons are rapidly outgrowing. He lies still, a black silky sleep mask over his eyes. I watch his chest to see if his breath is regular, if he is asleep.
The side effects of the COVID booster we opted to get him have been brutal; fever, body aches, chills, and a headache that is giving him a run for his money. I pull together my arsenal of mom tools to try and soothe him. Tylenol, fresh ice water, a cool cloth, a heating pad. But all he really wants is me. And so I sit, barely aware of the din downstairs, dinner being made, his siblings doing homework, dogs barking, and read an ebook in the dark while he tries to sleep on the bed across from me.
To be honest, there's nowhere else I'd rather be.
Thankful for this little bit of inspiration from my friend Brittany. I hung it on my mirror so I can read it on the daily. Thanks B! |
In the end, I did my own research and decided we would not be a good household for an axolotl. They like calm environments with little stimulation and nearly zero sunlight. They also require really specific water conditions that I am not up to figuring out. Wyatt was disappointed, but Josh reminded him that we did get him a puppy less than a month ago. Ha!
Basically Carly has a really rare type of stutter that is related to anxiety, called an Atypical Dysfluency where she takes mid-word breaks (like "wha-at") and does final word repetitions (like "store-ore"). It's uncommon, but there is a type of word play we can do with her to help it. It was comforting to know that I wasn't being overdramatic (she really is doing something strange) and to know exactly what we can do to help her with it.
Thankfully she isn't bothered by it, so we just congratulate her, "Hey! You didn't do any bumpy talk. That was all smooth talking!" Or encourage her to try again another way "Let's do robot talk" (breaking her speech up into syllables like "Carl.y.what.are.you.do.ing.to.day?") and then she can correct her speech and move on.
I was also mommin' pretty hard this week at morning drop off as Carly cried a lot and I tried to come up with ways to keep her feeling positive. We added more fun songs to our morning playlist for in the car and I've been trying really hard to make sure we aren't rushing, and that she has plenty of time for morning recess so that if she's sad at drop off, she has time to turn it around while playing with her friends.
She was so sweet to the vet and his assistant's, just giving them kisses and wanting to be held by them. I am proud to report that she is potty trained, and only has a pee pad in her crate for night times. So awesome. She is still waking up a bit earlier than I would like, but I'm hoping that will improve.
Also loving how she makes each day special. One morning she said she wanted a strawberry on the edge of her water cup. Let's all remember to do fancy things whenever we feel like it!
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