Birthday Exhaustion
Heads up, this is a rambly post. Its purpose is to share all of the social and sensory extravaganza that has been going on. Amazingly, we are all holding up and no meltdowns. However, I do expect that some may arrive in this coming week. After writing this out, I realize that we have been and will be stretched. It is good, but it will also require a lot of downtime for each of us.
Ok, now onto my ramblings and musing.
Yes! I am still talking about my birthday. I love birthdays. I love my birthday. Some people do not get into the whole birthday thing. I cannot say that I truly “get” into it because I do not ask for presents and I really do not mind if I do not get anything. I have made my own birthday cake for a long time now, if I decide that I want a cake.
I mainly make a big ta-do for the kids.
Still I do enjoy the day of me being born. I wrote a post that I will share, again; for any of my new followers that explains why my birthday is a big deal for me. AND HI! New followers, I am so excited to have new followers and thankful for my “old-timers.” hee hee Here is the post What’s In A Birthday? If you cannot tell, I am a bit goofy today.
I think it is from exhaustion.
Last week was packed full of adventures, but the last three days have been tops! I am surprised at how well the kids and I have handled it. We discovered not too long ago that this house had no instillation at all in the ceiling. The owners decided to put it in, and it was supposed to be two weeks ago. The maintenance people cancelled on me after I had already made plans to take the kids out for the day. For other families this may not be a big deal, for us it is HUGE. I have to prepare the kids, especially Daniel ahead of time. I have to pack all of our food because we cannot just pop in somewhere because of diet issues, not to mention sensory issues in restaurants.
Ok, so they cancelled last minutes and rescheduled for yesterday.
I tried to prepare by trying to have the kids get ahead with their schoolwork … yeah, that did not happen. Now they are a day behind, but spring break for starts on Monday so we have time to make it up. At some point, they called David and said that they were coming at 3:00 pm Thursday to deliver the pallets of instillation. They called me on Thursday at 1:00 pm and said, “We are in the drive-way.” They were here for a couple of hours. In the middle of that my grandma showed up expecting to give me a break, and Daniel is doing his virtual reading help class. Grandma got confused and thought we switched to Thursdays. We are back to Friday’s for my break day.
I skipped the whole conversation.
She arrived at 2:00 pm, with Easter gifts for the kids; school did not move forward and the day was shot. I had already made plans to go to a Piloxing class. I went and the regular instructor cancelled last minute in her place was a woman who had to have been somewhere in her 60′s. She was a powerhouse! She did boxing and Pilates, but no dancing. Let me just say she was an inspiration. She had her hip completely replaced last year, she made me, and the other younger women in there sweat like beasts. It was awesome! She had a great spirit about her too, very kind and full of positivity. I am going next week to try the Piloxing, but I am very glad to have had her for my first time trying.
Do you see the pattern here?
Things keep changing! Plans are being all messed up and everything is chaos! Well, maybe not that bad, but for me it throws me off. I made plans to take the kids swimming at the YMCA and then, spend the day at grandma’s house. Because of all of the “unexpectedness” and my change in schedule by going to work out Daniel was on the verge of meltdown Thursday night. When I came home, he was not very happy about me being gone. I was unable to get our lunches packed and ready like I had planned. I did get our clothes and other things ready. I had to get up earlier than expected because the men were supposed to be here by 8:00 am. I told them I would have the kids and myself out by 9:00 am.
Everything was going smoothly, UNTIL they turned on the machine to blow some sort stuff.
I have been over this several times with them. You cannot just turn on any sort of loud noise-making thing without giving Daniel forewarning and still there is no guarantee that he will be ok. The unexpected noise caused a spiral of noise fears for the rest of the day. He is already not a fan of the toilets in the family changing room at the YMCA – it was a major challenge to get him along with the other kids dressed. They all refused to take showers there so when we left I had to dress them and change plans to shower them (and me) at grandmas. Now the swimming was great, expect the water was so cold that I could hardly move and when I was splashed, I literally screamed because it felt like daggers tearing at my flesh.
It sucked the life force right out of me.
Everything started to go well at grandma’s house, but then I saw texts message from David. Apparently, the guys did not put anything down over our kitchen, living room, or garbage and within 20 minutes, they were all covered with almost two inches of dust. The whole situation was awful. Long story short, they stopped and covered things up, called for a cleaning crew to come, and will be back on Monday to clean all of the boxes and our personal items that are covered with dust. They wanted to come clean on Monday! They expected us to bring our three little one, who already have allergy issues, into this home for the next three days with almost two inches of dust, um, no! How was I supposed to make food? Good grief.
They ruined our toaster and our Sea Monkey’s may die.
That has caused spouts of death anxiety again with Daniel. He watching them closely and is afraid that they will die. Then, he asked if he was going to die because he is breathing dust. Urg! They ensured us that the machine would not blow anything into our house and even when they saw that it was blowing all over everything they did not stop. They kept going. David grabbed all of the items that I had on the counters, it included toys, books, electronic items, and I was in such a hurry that I did not think of putting anything away. They also said that, “it will not blow into your house.” Sigh…
In the midst of that I received several texts and my sister called me to wish me happy birthday.
Now I was happy about that, but it was a lot of social interaction. Grandma is a talker too so the whole day was packed with talking, talking, talking! By the time I came home, I was exhausted. Daniel was in a fury because nothing was in their place and his toys were in bags. Thankfully, I did not have to cook.
We ordered Biaggi’s I had gluten-free yumminess!
I was actually so tired I went to bed with the kids at 8:00 pm unfortunately; my body and mind were unwilling to sleep. I was up all night. Then, Joshua and I went out to get Easter items for tomorrow. That was not bad, but still more sensory and social overload. We did dye eggs and we ate my cake. Tomorrow I will hide eggs out in the yard if it doesn’t rain and we will have a fun Easter morning then, head off to my aunt’s house for lunch.
More sensory and social!
I am excited about it, but there will be a ton of people and I have no idea how Daniel is going to hold up. Ariel and Joshua normally do ok until we get home. In a way, I am glad that we have spring break this week because we need a break. Next weekend my dad is throwing me a birthday party at my aunt’s house so that will be another big thing. I am doing really well for the moment; I think I am definitely going to need more downtime this week. I will also need to make sure I do workouts because that helps me a lot. I will have to do the same for the kids. I hope the weather is not bad then, I can take them to the park. I will try swimming too as long as everyone is feeling up for it.
I am taking the kids to get their eye exams on Thursday too!
Geez, I forgot about that. I have also been engaging in email interaction to sign Ariel up for a fine arts co-op. I have also been trying to stay in contact with the woman who heads the adult Aspie group in town. We have not thought of any good meeting ideas. Anyone, have any ideas?? I just downloaded a bunch of stuff. I have had a major shift in how I respond to all of this and that is great.
I am not feeling anxious or stressed.
I am only tired. If I get some good rest tonight I think that will be good. Please brain and body sleep! I have been able to help the kids too which, feels really good. The changes that I have been making have given a clearer mind to be there for my kids too. I am doing well so far, not to say I may not crack in the next few days, but so far, it is going pretty, pretty well.
Want some cake?? (The cake is a lie!! Not really, it is only gluten-free it is still cake.)
- Here is a piece for you. :-)
- Cake.
- Whaaa??
- This thing is HUGE!
- Sea Monkey’s Live!!!
- Eggs!
- Eater Bunny??














