Celebrating a special Princess:)

We have had a busy few weeks! Lynsey's birthday weekend and just this past weekend, Brian's parents came to visit. Lynsey's birthday was a lot of fun! Her friend Ariaunna came to a movie with us (Lynsey's first time in the theater - "It's nothing like I was expecting!") and then we headed over to Red Robin for dinner. Unfortunately the wait was really long there, so we headed home and had some pizza that Brian had ordered for him and the boys. A bit disappointing, but the girls got over it really quickly. We had some cupcakes and then they had their sleepover! They didn't go to sleep until after 11!! Thank goodness time change was that night, the morning was much easier to handle with that extra hour! A lot of fun all around. Lynsey got to have her Red Robin dinner with us on Sunday, her actual birthday, so that was some consolation for the night before:). She got to be the birthday girl at school the next day, too, since I sent some mini cupcakes for her to share with her class - she really milked this whole birthday thing! I'm glad she enjoyed her day and felt really special, that's what we wanted for her!

Brian's parents were here this past weekend and we had a lot of fun with them! We went to the Aquarium on Saturday, and to be honest, my expectations for this place were not too high. I had heard it was small and didn't have much, but Lynsey had been dying to go since we moved so we wanted to give it a try. It was a lot of fun! All the kids enjoyed it! It was great to see Adam be so interested in some of the animals, and not just the waterfalls! We ended up getting an annual pass since it cost the same as one days admission for all of us, and now I'm really glad we did:). We will be back! We went to the Crab Pot for lunch and then Frances and I went shopping for the afternoon. I ended up splurging on a pair of boots that I didn't desperately need, but they are awesome so it was a good thing haha! Sunday we went to the zoo in the morning and relaxed in the afternoon. It was really nice to see them and the kids really enjoyed having them here as well. We are thinking about flying out to Alberta in February because I think I'm a bit more homesick than I originally thought, so we will see if we can make it work:).

Adam's bad sleeping has hit a bit of a peak in the last week. It just kept getting worse until last week we decided we needed to do a bit of a boot camp with him. We had to come to the realization that letting him have what he was demanding in those rants he gets into was not helping him, but merely making him demand more the next time. I always knew that on some level, but there is always the hope that "it's just a phase" and meeting this need for a short time will make the need go away. I think that is probably true in some cases, but in Adam's case, the more he got, the more he demanded. So I stopped singing, sitting with him, letting him into our bed, and it has been rough. Brian has been doing more of the bedtime and nighttime stuff with him which has been helping a lot, but last night, he went to a movie so I did bedtime alone. He wanted me to stay with him to fall asleep. What an internal battle for me - I knew at 8:30pm that if I just sat there for 10 minutes, he would fall asleep and the rest of the evening would be mine. But, I also knew that would only reinforce his idea that he can command me to do his bidding, and it would never stop there. Sooo I didn't give in, and he screamed until Brian got home just after 10pm:(. I went in to him once in a while to try and calm him down because he was in such a frenzy, but I never know if that helps or makes things worse! How long would he have kept it up? He was still going strong when Brian got home, but he just put him in his bed, tidied up the room a bit and when he left, he was almost asleep. He woke up again at 11 and Brian helped him a bit but he did fall asleep without him in the room, so fingers crossed that tomorrow will be better.

With all these sleep issues going on, we have also noticed that he seems to be more aware of things and communicating a bit more! The other day, he was talking about something "outside" and I assumed he was telling me he wanted to go outside. But he was pointing out the window at the maintenance guy and looking at me - it was like he was telling me about the maintenance guy outside! It was a bit surreal, as I'm not sure he has really done that before. Brian's parents also said that they thought his eye contact and general awareness was greatly improved from the last time they saw him which was good to hear. Also, the Aquarium trip and the zoo trip both showed us that he is becoming more interested in what is going on - Brian took him out of the lion viewing area apparently before he had a chance to see them, so he told Brian he wanted to go back and see the lions! What?? So he took him back, he looked at the lions for a bit, and then he was ready to go. There was a time not too long ago that he never would have cared enough to ask to go back and see the lions. I have been praying for him to turn a corner, and I continue to pray that maybe this is it!