Thursday, April 22, 2010

Pop Tarts for Dinner

Nathan made a comment tonight, "Zach looks good; his vitals are good; he's healthy, strong, and smart. Why do we worry if he wants a Pop Tart for dinner?"

This is a great question if you ask me. We spend so much time worrying about how our kids act, what our kids eat, what our kids watch and even how are kids fall asleep. Why?  Why are we worrying so much about the things we think make them "normal"?  Why don't we just enjoy them, let them be kids, let them enjoy life?

As much as the next kiddo they just want to be a kid. They want to play all day even if it's just on the floor with their piano and guitar.  They want to eat Pop Tarts for dinner.  They want to watch the same three episodes of a show 10 times in a row.   They want to go down the slide (even if it is laying on their back) a 1,000 times. And sometimes they just want to cuddle with Mom and Dad until they fall asleep.

I know, I know it is very important to have discipline and structure for our kiddos, but there are some days that I just want to let Zach be a kid.  I get tired of taking him from therapy to therapy, making him have to do everything on his own when it is so hard for him; making healthy food because just maybe that veggie (that he hates by the way) will help him focus somehow.  If I get tired doing these things for and with him I can only imagine, as a child, how tired of it he gets.

I can't take Zach to the park or the pool or even our backyard and just let him run around and get all his kid energy out (Nathan likes to call it boy aggression).  He has to work hard at every single task he preforms and that has to get exhausting. Just imagine everything you did in life took the energy of a full-on weight-lifting workout. 

I love my little guy and I never want to do things that would cause him to not be his own person or to not be able to do things on his own.  This being said, we will work, work, work to teach him the things he needs to learn for life but I wholeheartedly believe part of being a kid is doing what you want sometimes and throwing a fit if you don't get to. 

So tonight, we are having Pop Tarts for dinner!!!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Its Time for School

And Zach surprises me again, HE DID AWESOME!!!! I don't know what I was so worried about, I guess the separation issues don't matter when he is doing something fun.

I know so many parents have a really emotional time with sending their kiddos to school for the 1st time but I am so excited for Zach to get to do something new and fun, it is about time that he get some time with other kiddos.  I am just bursting at the seams with how excited I am right now!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

5 years

Our 5 year wedding anniversary is the 16th (day after tax day) but Nathan is traveling for work so we celebrated last weekend with 2 days and a night away together.  We only went 10 mins from home but it is one of our favorite hotels with tons of stuff to do in the area.  We had a great time together getting, massages, going in the hot tub and steam room, seeing a movie, eating yummy food and getting wedding ring tattoos.


It's kind of funny how I react to time away from Zach, all I think about some days is having time away with Nathan or even just by myself but when I get it, it feels so strange. I feel like something is missing when I am away from him and can't wait to see him again. 

With this said I think it is really important to move past these feelings and spend time with your spouse, alone.  Even spending time just taking care of yourself can be so important. 

There is so much emotional stress that comes with raising a child with special needs and if you do not WORK on your relationship it will not make it through.  We get so lost in the things that need to get done on a daily basis that with out time together we would just lose each other.  In my opinion we do not get enough alone time but it makes when we do that much better!!!

 How do you go about getting time alone? Who watches the kids?  How much time away is "enough" time?

Thursday, April 1, 2010

ITS US ON THE COVER!!!!

This really is us on the cover of Exceptional Parent Magazine!!!!  You can subscribe to the magazine at http://www.eparentdigital.com/nxtbooks/exceptionalparent/201004/#/0

Preview

Our teaser/preview for Exceptional Family TV is officially out, check it out at the link below.

We are SO excited!!!

http://www.exceptionalfamilytv.com/video