What can I say? Today was just one of those days that is a whirlwind of emotions. I think it will be easiest to go chronologically.
4AM - Spencer awakens. I gently tell him that he woke up by accident, it is not morning yet and he needs to go back to sleep. I went back to bed with virtually no hope that it would work. I went back about 10 minutes later and he'd turned the light on. I opened the door just enough to reach the switch, saw him dozing on the floor and flipped it off. I stood outside his room for 10 minutes (though it seemed like an hour), but he didn't turn the light back on again. He slept until 8 - that's way, way, way late for him.
6:17AM - Rachel wakes up sobbing for no apparent reason. I think maybe her stuffy nose combined with thumb in mouth caused a terrifying inability to breathe. I brought her back into our bed. Something I never do, but it wasn't so much of a choice than an instinctual need for more sleep on my part. She cooperated for about 20 minutes and then she'd had enough so we got up. I got her an oatmeal bar and milk, cuddled her up to me, turned on Dora and snoozed through the episode. Then I snoozed through Diego.
8AM - Spencer awakens and I get started on breakfast. Followed by baths.
9:30ish AM - Mike awakes and is awash in self pity over the AppleTV. Trying to find some way, anyway to just justify getting a new tv so that it would work. Knowing that it's just not a good time for so many reasons. Always wanting, wanting, wanting more, more, more and absolutely devastated when he can't have it.
11:30 AM - Mike leaves, still sulking to return the AppleTV and go hang out with friends all day. I silently predict that he will arrive home just in time to tuck Spencer into bed or later. (I was right.)
12pm - My mom arrives to spend some time with the kids and watch Rachel while I take Spencer to his first birthday party.
12:50pm - I notice that the invitation says 1pm, not 1:30pm and practically pull Spencer out the door.
1:02pm - We aren't the last ones there and they haven't started yet. Good sign.
1:10pm - I realize that this will be yet another exercise in despair as I see how different Spencer is from the other kids. I begin mentally kicking myself for not having prepared for this possibility. Spencer gets his first time out for hitting me when I tried to direct his attention to something other than what he was doing (the nerve of me!)
1:12pm - Spencer participates and does fantastic. It's evident that he's not been exposed to a class type situation, but other than that he's great.
1:35pm - I joined in to help Spencer 'get' what he's supposed to do and several other parents follow my lead. He had even more fun if that's possible. He did get one more time out for the same reason as the first, but I realize that both times he simply needed a break. Poor kid just doesn't know how to ask.
2ish - We moved into the party room for cake and ice cream. He did fantastic sat where they asked him to, ate politely. It was interesting to see 12 children of roughly the same age approach cake and ice cream entirely differently. Some ate only ice cream, others only the icing, but every single child had a different approach. Fascinating. Aside - I don't know why I became a teacher, my passion is obviously in psychology and sociology, maybe that's why I'm not so eager to go back to work.
4pm - we arrive home with goodies from the party, Costco and pizza. Spencer claims that he doesn't feel good, but doesn't know why. He also tells me he misses Rachel.
5pm - Spencer pushed the 1-2-3 thing so he can go to his room. While he's there he poops. Hmmm, that's new. I realize that that's probably why he didn't feel good. He's starting to recognize that feeling. Very interesting.
6:30pm - an exhausted Rachel practically passes out the moment her head hits the pillow. She was really upset when we left without her :o(.
6:45pm - As I'm changing Spencer into his pj's he says poopy. I ask him he went poopy, he says no, I ask him if he needs to go poopy, he says yes. I ask him if he wants to go poopy on the potty, he says YES! So we go into the bathroom and I give him the choice of big potty or little potty (secretly hoping he chooses big and less clean up). He chooses big and lifts the lid - including the seat - and tried to climb on. Which would have been climb in if I hadn't intervened. So, I pull out the elmo seat cover and put him on the potty. He immediately starts farting. And peeing. And peeing some more. And farting some more. Then he picks up a magazine that was sitting next to the toilet. For the record I had been reading it during bath time this morning. He continues peeing a little bit at a time and is VERY VERY proud of himself. Mike comes home while he is sitting there and all of our other issues seem to fly out the window. We are so proud of him. Just when I start to contemplate how long before I tell him that potty time is over, he tells me that he's done. So we go into his room and he opts for diaper over big boy pants. I tuck him in and tell him that if he wants to go again in the morning he can, but if he doesn't want to, that's okay too. I check back on him a little while later, he has the light on and is still reading the magazine in bed.
Like a roller coaster today. But at least it ended on an up swing.
I'm so excited to see what happens tomorrow morning!!!