Break

While pondering what I should blog about this evening, my lovely husband suggested I write about how he so generously gave me a break this afternoon.  I enjoyed the support, so here goes...

Sunday.  A time to relax and gear up for the week ahead.  We begin our Sundays with church; it is a great way to refocus and find peace after a week of chaos, to recharge and prepare for the upcoming days.  This morning was no different.  We enjoyed a wonderful service, and were ready to head home and move on to the next part of our day (a trip to the library).

I should totally know, by now, that my best laid plans are quickly revised by Alex.

As we were making our way out of the church, Mr Alex decided (for a still unknown reason) that he wasn't ready to leave.  Instead, he apparently thought it would be more fun to drop to the floor and refuse to move. Good times.  We just started working with a behaviorist, who will hopefully guide us in maneuvering these tantrums, so I started to employ some of our newly learned tactics.  I let him tantrum.  Ad and I stood with him while he sat on the floor, letting him know that he could sit as long as he wanted, but we would still need to walk to the car to go home.  He was not impressed.  After about ten minutes, I was done.  Patience gone. I helped him to his feet and began to assist him in walking down the hall.  We made it a few steps and he dropped to a bench.  I decided to start over, and let him know that we needed to go to the car so we could go home.  This went on for a while, and then my patience was gone again.  I hoisted him up and began to carry him out to the car; this is not an easy task when you have 50 pounds of squirming, angry boy in your arms!

After another 10 minutes or so, we made it to the car.  Not without a scene in front of visitors to our church from Mexico, of course; it wouldn't happen any other way.  Ha!  At least I can giggle about what they must have been thinking as I struggled to get Alex to the car.  Oh, well.

When we finally made it to the car, Al would not get buckled.  At that point, I didn't care; we were in the car, and this introvert could, at long last, exhale.  Another 10 minutes went by, and Alex was buckled in his seat and ready to go.  It took us about a half hour to get to that point.

We made it home, and I went to find Mark (who had stayed home today), and I quickly told him that I was taking Addie out for a lunch date.  I needed to get away from the chaos, I was hungry, and I felt like Ad needed rewarded for not complaining once when we were dealing with Al's latest episode.  She helped carry our stuff to the car, she patiently waited, and I felt like treating her to lunch.

Mark instantly recognized that I needed a break, and he accepted the spontaneous change of our afternoon plans without question.  He's awesome like that.  He doesn't spend as much time with the kids, as he works full time (while I work part time and escort the kids to most of their after-school activities), so he doesn't get to deal with quite as many fits as I do.  He knows how much a well-timed getaway is needed to help restore my patience, so he encouraged us to go.

Ad and I had a lovely time at lunch; we did a little shopping, and we returned home.  I had a headache (go figure) and spent the rest of the day lounging on the couch, watching basketball.  I haven't had a "lazy day" in a long time.  It was nice.

I am very thankful to all of those in our lives that help and support us.  Alex can certainly be a handful sometimes (but mostly for me...go figure, again!).  I tend to play it off like it either doesn't happen as much, or that I can easily handle it, but the truth is that it is very difficult.  It wears on me.  But, because I have a partner who sees right through me and has the insight to not say a word when I decide on a whim to change our plans, I manage it.  If not for his support and understanding, this ride would be much wilder.

Now, I'm off to enjoy the last couple of hours of my "lazy day" so I can suit up and be ready to tackle the world tomorrow.