The other side

Last night I wrote about the hard side of parenting special needs children.

After writing my post I vented out on my exhausted husband. Then I was finally able to sleep.

We have hard days. Unpredictable days. Frustrating days.

But we also have amazing days. Days when the son in question takes my suggestion to do the listening therapy for 15 minutes before he does his school work and it changes everything.

Days when they know all the answers and we have great, deep discussions and I feel like I can see their brains growing.

We have the days when they eagerly do their chores and don’t fight too much.

Today was about as opposite from yesterday as it could possibly be. I have learned over this year that this is how it usually happens. We have a terrible day in some way and then the next day redeems the previous by leaps and bounds.

Transition phases are hard. When they are in the midst of a developmental change we see the most struggles and the largest shifts between good and hard days. We are entering the puberty years and the testerone is flowing and changing them. I am not a fan of transition years. They are hard and feel like they will never end. But they always do and one day I realize that whatever it was that has been so hard hasn’t been happening for weeks. I know that when we emerge from this transition my little boys will have disappeared and tiny men will be left in their place.

Watching them straddle the line between child and man is hard. But they will make it just like all the boys before them.

Tonight Emory and I did a live paint-along with Let’s Make Art. I purchased the August subscription box and tonight was the first painting of the month. I am finding that I enjoy watercolor very much. I also find I am trying to find time to squeeze in more and more painting.

It was fun painting with Emory tonight. He is my more artistic child. I watched him work his way through and it was fun to see his progression of ability and understanding through the course of the project.

On the good days I can be grateful for the hard days. The good days might not be a sweet without those harder days sprinkled in.