Apart from that we had a nice chilled end to the week. Lots of reading, drawing and painting from DD - her bedroom looks like a junior art gallery! I will try and sneak some snaps sometime :-)
DS found an online tutorial on how to draw Cut The Rope characters. It really motivated him to have a go - he followed the instructions beautifully and was so excited to learn there could be rules and a 'science' behind drawing - in this tutorial it was drawing your basic shape first then marking your points of features before drawing them. I think he should be justifiably proud of the results -
I also decided to get out my old jewellery making stuff............
and sat and taught DD how to work the various jewellery findings to make clip on earrings and a necklace. Well, to say she LOVED it would be a complete understatement!! And she made these little beauties -
In the end she made herself two pairs of earrings and a necklace and we had the most wonderful Mum & daughter bonding time :-)
The weekend was a more difficult time of meltdowns for DS - starting on Friday night at a social club he goes to with his sister, there was a packet of sweets given out as a prize during one of the team games. This is something DS finds MONUMENTALLY difficult - he, quite literally, cannot bear it if he does not win these things. He takes it very much as a personal failure and a judgement upon himself. So that was an emotional evening to manage.
Then on Saturday, we had a largely peaceful and successful day, until he asked if we were having home made pizzas for dinner (this has kind of, unofficially, become a Saturday night tradition in our house recently - and I hadn't factored in how much he loved it). I hadn't bought the ingredients this week, so (foolishly) answered "not tonight, I'm making a curry". Oh my Lord! The poor thing, just dissolved in to floods of tears and gasping breathes for many minutes. I felt terrible, as I normally would've totally got that and prepped him well in advance of a change of such magnitude. Long story short, we ended up treating ourselves to take away pizza instead, which was almost as good!
And today we had ALOT of meltdowns. Firstly because we went to town after their gym rehearsals, and there was a new stall selling ice creams, donuts and slushies. The choice was unbearable, and to make matters worse the seller was not sympathetic to this (even though we were the only customers and there was no queue!). Full, rocking melt down occurred and we retired to as private a place as possible (in an open Mall!!) - which ended up being in a toy bus ride on!! During this, we managed to get calm enough to choose a slush but then he realised he could've had a milkshake! And he hadn't known that! But now he did..... and he tried the slushie but it felt too cold, so there were many more tears. Hand in hand we talked about how sometimes the feelings get so big, and then the thing we wanted doesn't feel or taste good any more, even though we wanted it, but now kind of don't want it. It was a Big Chat and so we found a bench to sit down and cuddle away all those huge feelings. I cradled DS on my knee and we sat and gently rocked for a while. He found the words to tell me that all the Bad Things were Crowding In on him, and kept saying he was sorry. So I rocked and I soothed, and he was super brave, and there was nothing to be sorry for, and after a good while he felt he might have some slush and be able to walk with me to the shop I needed to go to. DD kindly offered him a donut (as this is what she had chosen) - he took one, bit it and half promptly fell on the ground! There was no screaming (because he was so tired by now) but lots of silent tears. DD immediately offered him some of her donut, which I thought was super sweet of her. But he didn't want it, because that wasn't right either.
Poor darling :-(
We got to the shop, got what we needed and then asked the kids whether they wanted to go home or the park. Both chose park, not the wisest idea it turned out. We had an ok game of frisbee, but then DS went sprinting off to the playground and promptly fell down the slide, banging his face above his eye. Luckily I was right at the foot of the slide as he came off, so I was able to scoop him up as there was lots of crying and "I want to go home"s.
I felt so bad for him, he was being so brave. He said "I want to say this are the worst day ever, but I know it aren't so I'm not sayin' it!" Oh, my heart! We cuddled, and soothed, and chatted the bad things away until he felt ready to go on the swing - but not for long as that all felt Too Much after everything else. The small water feature was on in the toddler area of the park and he decided "that would be a Peaceful thing to do". So we let him have a few minutes there, playing peacefully with the water, so we could leave and come home on a happy note.
I am SO proud of this boy, and this girl, in all that they do and achieve. The great and good, and what seems to be totally insignificant but actually is HUGE. In every victory. They are warriors and they are champions. And because of that, this was not The Worst Day Ever and we had a peaceful bath and bedtime, with no Bad Feelings left over from the day and (hopefully) sweet dreams for my darlings who deserve them :-)
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