Back to Life, Back to Reality

Call me Nancy Drew because I have a hunch.

I think Lily is making us pay for being gone last week.

A different schedule can really wreak havoc with lots of kids, but especially those with special needs.

We're lucky in that Lily has always been a fairly flexible kid.  She's not one of those who lines up her toys in certain ways or needs to eat the same thing for breakfast every day.

But for the past year, her schedule has remained 99% the same.  School Monday through Friday, family hang out time on Saturday, church on Sunday.  Then repeat for the next 52 weeks.

Take one week to basically do the same thing, minus Mom and Dad, wouldn't make that much difference, one would think.

Oh, but it does.

The Bird's therapists told us she really missed us.  My in-laws said she woke up in the mornings and headed straight for our bedroom to see if we were there.  Ryley and Reagan said she would walk around the house and they thought she was looking for us.

Kind of makes my heart hurt.  And feel like a total heel for leaving for a whole week.

But now that we are back, instead of acting like she missed us and that she's completely grateful to have us home again, she's more or less acting like a "little toot", as we say around here.

Over-reacting to the least little things.  Doing stuff she knows she's not supposed to do.  Throwing open the refrigerator door and running away.  Opening the back door to the garage and letting in all that nice trapped heat.  Stomping her feet when we say no and even though she can't say the exact words, I know she's cussing us.

So it's back to the daily grind around here.

Putting routines back in place.  Maintaining our typical schedule when she comes home from school in the afternoon.  Not letting her get away with things that her grandparents did - which is exactly what grandparents are supposed to do, by the way!  And making sure she's not eating dyes and additives and all that yucky stuff.

Speaking of dyes and additives, Lily developed a strange obsession with Lucky Charms while we were gone.  Namely, the little marshmallows in the cereal.

It's like she knows they're in the pantry so she can't stop thinking about them.  I imagine she has this little voice in her head saying, "Must get the Lucky Charms.  Must eat the Lucky Charms."  Much like the voice in my head that says, "Must get the chocolate chip cookies.  Must eat the chocolate chip cookies."

I'm hoping this goes away soon.  The Lucky Charms, that is.  Not the chocolate chip cookies.

I shared this with Reagan, who is the child we buy Lucky Charms for, and she said, "I developed that Lucky Charms obsession around age 5 and it's never gone away."

Well.  That's good news.

So my goal this week.  Are you ready for this?

I'm going to try making homemade marshmallows with natural ingredients.  Then I'm going to let them get a bit dried out, like those little Lucky Charms marshmallows.  Then I can let Lily have some without worrying about all the fake stuff in the cereal.

I could even go crazy and try tinting some of them with natural dyes.

Woo - I hope you were sitting down before I said that last sentence.  Let it never be said that I don't know how to have a good time!

Here's the recipe for marshmallows I think I'm going to try.  But if you have one that's a real winner that you wouldn't mind passing along, I'd be most appreciative.

Of course, now reading that marshmallow recipe makes me want to also try her recipe for homemade graham crackers.

Then you know what that means - s'mores!

Someone stop me now.

Things might just get a little crazy around here.

Have a great Monday!