A Thoroughly Enjoyable Day/Long Rambly Post

I've prematurely scooched a post about a great giveaway on my friend's site. So scroll down to the next post to get to that link!

Except for the fact that the day began and ended with horribly poopy 4-year old underpants, today was a great day. After 3 weeks of being sick, we're all well. During these past weeks, B has been incredibly challenging. I've been chalking it up to being sick and completely out of our routine, but i'm watching him to see if he improves or if maybe we need to have a tuneup with our occupational therapist. He'd been doing awesome (and i need to post specifically about his improvements) but he's really had a hard time these past weeks. He's been extra stubborn and defiant, had really low frustration tolerance and just plain difficult. Sensory overload? Or what?

So what was so great about today? It was just a very normal day. B finally went back to school. He brought cupcakes for his class to celebrate his birthday since he missed it when he was sick. K and i went to the park while B was at school. Didn't last long since K is kind of wimpy when it comes to the cold. But i used to spend everyday at the park with B and i need to start doing more of that with K (and need to stop letting the weather dictate so much!). So we went home and we just played together. I haven't been doing that nearly enough. Once again, i used to play one-on-one with B all the time and K hasn't gotten as much of that kind of interaction with me. K also went off and played upstairs BY HIMSELF at one point which is utterly amazing. I think he's so used to having a built-in playmate in B that he hasn't learned to play by himself as well, so that was nice to see. We picked B up from school. He was happy and the cupcakes were a hit. We came home and the boys played really well. Like, shockingly well. For a long time. I could get used to that. Had a little lunch. Played some more. K went down for a nap. And B told me he'd rather take a nap with me than do quiet time in his room. I was skeptical and told him if he was just going to thrash and be obnoxious and not sleep that he'd have to leave and go finish quiet time in his room. He assured me he wouldn't do such things. And he was right. He fell asleep within about 15 minutes. I napped with him for about 30 more and then snuck off to read my book and let him sleep for TWO WHOLE HOURS. I got two whole hours to myself!!!! I got to watch Oprah for the first time in YEARS! K took a nice, long nap too. Beautiful.

Once both boys were up, it was 4:30. We took off to dinner at Ruby's (which was great) and then a fun shopping trip for B. The point of the shopping trip was for him to see the reward in his new potty chart. FOREVER i have offered things in reward for him using the potty and he's never been interested. But the other night, i had a talk with him before bed about having a sticker chart for it and he was actually interested and possibly even mildly excited. I fully realize that a sticker chart for potty usage is far from original or new. It just happens to be the first time he's actually responded positively about it. Anyway. Apart from still not pooping in the potty (ARGH!) he's done really well staying dry, which is HUGE since it felt like we were slipping back to day one (a whole year ago)(another problem since we've been sick). Anywho. He was very excited. He had FIVE WHOLE DOLLARS to blow and he knew exactly what he wanted. It ended up being $8 so i made up the difference for him this time and boy was he happy. We've done nothing but talk positively about his excellent potty usage (OK. I admit i wasn't very positive when he casually informed me he was poopy this evening but that's because that WASN'T potty usage!). And dare i hope/say he'll get it this time?

It ended up being a much later night than usual for the boys (which was fine since they both took long naps much later in the day than normal) which was weirdly a nice change of pace. I'm usually so past ready to get them in bed and instead when we got home we enjoyed his new toy for awhile and then did the bedtime routine; etc.

Part of what is helping me with my dear sweet B is the book i'm reading Raising Your Spirited Child. I've known about it for a long time and am so happy that i'm finally reading it. I'll have to do a separate post on that one soon.

And i have another long post in my head, but it's 1AM here and i really need to go (back) to bed!