Our Week

First, I would like to thank everyone for the words of encouragement you sent me this week. You have no idea how much they were appreciated!!! Monday was just not the best way to start off a week after a rough weekend :)

Tuesday through Thursday went MUCH better! I know it has to do with all the prayers - so thank you everyone!! We decided to keep Drew home from church Wednesday evening to try and avoid another meltdown like he had the Thursday before. The previous week he hadn't gotten in bed until almost 10pm mainly do to church being a late night. I HATE him missing out on Joy Bells (the little kids choir at our church), but I think we need to get him into a solid routine and we are finding more and more how important the sleep is to his being able to control his behavior the next day. Every day when I have picked him up from school, his teacher has said he started to get mad (he would cross his arms & scrunch up his face), but he got himself back under control without her intervening and before a big outburst. Which is GREAT for him!

Last night was a parents' meeting and open house at Drew's school. Since it didn't even start until 7pm and Drew's bedtime is 7:30, John stayed home with the boys while I ran up to the meeting. I am so excited to find out that his class will be taking a field trip to an orchard in October! I have been trying to find a local one that will let us go pick our own apples, but haven't found one yet. Now I am just hoping John will be actually home the day of the field trip (he has two weeks he travels in Oct) so I am able to leave Zach with him and go with Drew's class. I felt bad that Drew wasn't able to go show us around his classroom and tell us all about the things he has done, but again sleep is MUCH more important right now! He did have a rough night with lots of waking up do to bad dreams :( So I knew we were in for it this morning.

And it all hit this morning about 6:30am when he came in demanding breakfast. I have told him over and over that breakfast is at 7:30 and that if he wakes up before then he can come into our room, but he won't get anything to eat until then (you are probably thinking, "Why didn't she just give him breakfast and avoid the fit??", but we are really trying to teach him how to wait and how he can't rudely demand something from us). That was NOT flying with him this morning and he start yelling that he wanted breakfast...which doesn't fly with Mommy :) It ended up being a complete meltdown for about 5-10 minutes...after which he was a different child. He was polite and cooperative and even crawled in bed with us until the alarm went off. I was thinking that he would not be going to school today since he seemed to be in such a bad mood, but after the fit he never argued with me even once the rest of the morning. He and I even spent some time working on a 550 piece puzzle together The boy LOVES puzzles! As I am typing this, it is almost 2:30 (I pick him up at 3 usually) and I am still almost holding my breath (and doing LOTS of praying) that I don't end up getting a call from the school that he has ended up losing it there.

**Update (Friday @ 9:10pm): Drew had another good day at school!! *cheer* Thank you Lord! His teacher did say he needed to work on his inside voice and also not tattle-tailing so much -- two things we have been trying to work on at home already.
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Zach's mouth looks to be all back to normal! *cheer* Although he seems to still be having trouble sleeping through the night :( I have no idea what that is all about unless it is those darn molars trying to come in. He was up every at least once every hour last night. UGH!
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Butterfly Update
First a couple of pictures of the big moving of the cocoons :)
Well, we are now up to 3 butterflies and have just one left to make it's appearance. I tried to take photos through the butterfly hut, but they just were NOT coming out This was what I was trying to take pictures through...
So on Wednesday, I carried the little hut outside and braved opening the little door part way to try and get a couple shots. I just HAD to try because one of the chrysalises was so great looking...the butterfly was just about to emerge and it was transparent! You could see the butterfly inside it - so neat to see! I think I was more excited about it than Drew. lol Here are a couple I took through the slightly opened door (please excuse the blurred edges - that is the side of the door)....I wanted to move the remains of the cocoon that were right in front of it, but was afraid to disturb the one that was about to join us.