My head had been spinning since late last night about this post. How I planned to highlight some of the great and beautiful moments of the week amidst the difficult moments. I guess today was just meant to start off difficult - and give more reason to look to the positives and how I find God amidst it all!
The Lows:
There were many tough moments this week in therapy. Zachary has easy weeks and hard weeks - all depending on his mood. There were lots of tears and screams and attitude in our daily sessions.
Eating is still a major battle. The screams start the moment I walk towards the high chair and he refuses to let me put him in. Getting him to eat is like trying to serve him everything on a restaurant menu and hoping one item he'll open his mouth for and take a bite.
One thing I've learned raising Zachary is that I have to be okay with changing my parenting methods. I would NEVER had allowed my other children to act this way. But when you're child cannot express himself with words at all and on top of that in many areas has the comprehension of a 1 year old, my previous parenting techniques have been thrown out the window. Many days I'm aching to know how to parent this kid!
We're professional puke cleaners again. Yep - we had a couple weeks of vomit-free bliss but I'm once again on puke alert. It's like my ears are trained to hear the beginning sounds of gagging from a mile away and I can jump out of my chair faster than an Olympic runner when he starts throwing up.
The Highs:
Thursday's Speech Therapy in clinic was so much fun and filled with smiles, cooperation, and pretend play! There will be footage up later on our Vlog of Zachary with his therapist. I love this pic of "Z" putting a hamburger in the microwave!
Honestly, I didn't smile as much at the sounds he was making but the genuine "pretend play" she got out of him. Zachary's play time is typically filled with light up baby toys. He'll push the buttons over and over again and press his eyes up against the bright lights. If he's not staring at the lights, he's lying on the floor flapping his arms like he's dancing to the music. Getting him to play let alone pretend to eat from a toy spoon is something I don't expect him to do anytime soon. But yesterday? His AMAZING therapist Kari got it out of him. It was a beautiful moment - a gift from God. And you can be sure I was immediately thinking where I can get cheap toy play dishes to try to encourage this at home!
THANK YOU JESUS for the encouraging moments! While there are many lows during the weeks with Zachary, there are beautiful moments that erase the gloom that may find it's way into my heart.
I find favorite moments in remembering the evenings this week lying on the floor and letting him climb and jump all over me. We had nightly bath playtime and he learned to pour the water out from a cup! And then the moment last night he fell asleep quickly and easily at bedtime. I'm grateful. SO very grateful.
Each week has it's moments of joy and heartache. Remembering these moments each Friday is life giving!
But enough of Zachary - ha! Let's have some fun with some of my favorite things this week online.
I am SO excited for the upcoming release of this new book from a website I love, Frugal Fun 4 Boys & Girls. You can head over to Amazon and pre-order it now. I see hours of fun in our future and no need to rush out and buy new lego sets! If only we didn't have to wait until October to get a copy!
Do you listen to podcasts? I love to listen while folding laundry, driving in the car, etc. One of my favorites is Mom Struggling Well. I met Emily Thomas in Dallas at a conference a few years ago. She's super fun, keeps me laughing, and her podcasts speak straight to my heart. Check it out! You'll thank me later.
I very much dislike cardio. The jumping, jogging, sweating...I'd much rather break a sweat lifting heavy weights. But my body reallllly needs cardio. So Peter and I have been alternating our workouts between Body Beast (yay muscle work) and T25. (I'm sweating thinking about it!) Guys - I feel SO good and accomplished after that 25 minute cardio session. So T25 makes my favorites list this week. Need a good cardio workout? This is where it's at. And I'm SO grateful I get a major workout done in less than 30 minutes!
If you want to try T25 for FREE for a month, consider Beachbody On Demand. We stream all our workouts to our TV from our Amazon Firestick so we're never popping in a DVD. And there's TONS of workouts on the On Demand app.
My final favorite has to be our new hobby of "VLOGGING." This new journey started as an idea and dream we had been mulling over for months. It's something we talked about doing but never took the plunge. I'm so glad we decided to quit talking about it and just give it a try. We're still learning - but it's been so much fun to document our days. Not only will we have hours of family memories to look back on for ourselves, we do have a passion and purpose to share our journey as a special needs family in the hopes others are encouraged and don't feel alone. Take a look! We're really looking to reach our first goal of 100 subscribers so we can unlock the feature of getting our own URL. May seem silly, but it would be easier to share the link. So do it - head on over to our Newland Chronicles page and click the RED Subscribe button! We appreciate it!
Have a wonderful weekend!
-Jessica
0 comments:
Post a Comment