The Holidays

Insanity has struck again.  It is the holidays.  We seemed to weather the Halloween to Thanksgiving stretch pretty well this year.  It has been nothing short of a mess since.  Routines are disrupted, excitement about the holidays rising, increased excitement with holiday preparations at school, increased energy levels due to weather decreasing outdoor play opportunities = WILD times. 

We have had a really good stretch in November so it is catching me off guard.  Academically speaking we are on much better footing.  He is engaged in school, he is staying on task, he is attentive.  He is doing better with reading and with homework as well. I'm very proud of the progress he is making.

Things always seem to be 2 steps forward and 1 step back.  Don't get me wrong, I know the net is still positive but it is frustrating and challenging.  K isn't verbalizing what is going on and the problem solver in me is really struggling with it.  Is it just the regular holiday crazies?  Excitement about Santa, school programs, vacations, and the holidays in general?  Or is something else going on that we haven't figured out. 

This week we even had an instance of K swapping food with a classmate.  As an allergy kid, that is so far beyond not a good idea it is mindboggling.  He is usually so good self-regulating with potential food risks and then swapping for candy?  That can be a deadly mistake and it scares me to death.  It is hard enough relinquishing control and knowingly sending your child into an environment that can be deadly, only to then have instances like this that could literally be fatal. 

Parenting is hard, very hard.  We have fantastic automated diagnostic systems and manuals for so many things in today' society that we have gotten quite spoiled.  It is generally so easy to figure things out.  Humans are clearly so much more complex.  Intersect the human brain, emotions, hormones, external factors and OH MY! 

Thinking peaceful, calming thoughts and looking forward to a weekend of family time and a lot of hugs and snuggles.  Perhaps it will help us create a bit of a sense of calm and normalcy.  It certainly cannot hurt.  Right?

The annual insanity

Life is a blur from late October through late January. Holidays and events come at us one after another and sometimes in groups. With young kids in the house there is a certain degree of insanity that occurs from Halloween through Christmas and in our house we are further blessed with both kids having birthdays in January. Yes, insanity from October through the last weekend of January. Fun!

We are in the home stretch. We enjoyed the holidays and are moving towards the birthdays. How are they turning 2 and 6? That absolutely amazes me. The time has gone so quickly but yet it seems I’ve been a mom for a long time now. They are a blessing and are so much fun. They throw us curves but they bring so much joy. But I still have to pull off their birthdays. It always catches me off guard even though I know they are there.

The theme for K this year is under the sea. He wants a cake shaped like a 6 with 2 divers a shark and an octopus. Specificity is good, but daunting. For those who don’t know, the reason it is daunting is because I have to actually produce said cake due to K’s food allergies. Allergies are another post for another day but they are always a part of our daily life.

So, here I am trying to figure out how to create this masterpiece. I set the bar high last year with his rainforest cake. Safari Ltd Rainforest Toob provided the accessories quite nicely for me. I’ve not yet found a comparable under the sea set. I’m leaning towards buying Playmobil Divers in Tropical Reef.

http://store.playmobilusa.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-US-Site/en_US/Product-Show?pid=4488&cgid=Meerestierexpedition

Thankfully T is too young to really care. His cake will be Elmo, or Mehmo as he would say :-) They are growing up so quickly.