Weekends

We finally had a weekend free of tantrums and bad attitude!  Princess has been in a dysregulated state most of the time since we changed medication in October (and then changed that med, and that one and so on).  In addition to the med changes, we had her birthday, Christmas, my birthday, some big traumaversaries, tween girl drama, the puppy saga and random life stress.  When kids with emotional and behavioral special needs are struggling their parents get to experience it full on during the weekends.  All that unstructured time away from the distractions of school makes it hard for them to keep it together.  Hubster has been dreading the weekends for months.  I've been trying to keep her busy to minimize the damage.  Most weekends have their good spots, but we've found ourselves looking forward to Monday way too often lately.

BFF slept over Friday night.  It was a last minute plan.  Her mom called me that afternoon and asked if I could drive BFF home when I picked up Princess because she was stuck at work.  On the way to her house, BFF mentioned that she thought she was going to spend the weekend with her other friend.  Princess is really struggling with having to share BFF with this girl.  Princess was so sad as we dropped BFF off at her house and went home. 

After about an hour of being incredibly sad and withdrawn she finally asked if she could invite BFF over to spend the night.  I reminded her that BFF might say no because she said she had plans with the other girl, but gave her the okay to invite her.  Princess anxiously awaited while BFF checked with her mom.  She was so excited when she came back with a "yes"!  We went back to her house to get her and they had a great sleepover.  (Except Princess never really sleeps at sleepovers.) 

I took them to a huge garage sale at a church early the next morning.  I bought them each a bag to fill up for $2.  They had a blast and spent well over an hour poking around.  Then we picked up some donuts and ran home for Princess to change for horse lessons.  BFF called her mom to ask if she could come with us to watch Princess ride.  We went to horse lessons (with a stop at Target along the way) and then dropped BFF off at her house at 11. 

Princess and BFF both got a ton of fabric at the garage sale, though neither of them knows how to sew and neither do I.  Princess played with her fabric for a long while when we came home.  I do know how thread a needle and do simple hand stitches, so I showed her that.  She fashioned me a tube dress and instructed me that it must be worn with leggings because it's only sewed together at the top.  She embellished it with a bit of lace.  She was thrilled when I put it on for a little while, but I had to take it off because it desperately needs some straps to stay up!

We ate lunch and then she watched "Journey to the Center of the Earth" on DVD with Hubster.  She fell asleep when the movie was over and napped until I woke her up for dinner.  She went back to sleep for the night shortly after she ate.

Sunday was wonderfully relaxing!  Hubster and Princess were both up early, but they let me sleep until 8:30.  Hubster played on the computer before I got up and Princess organized her closet and painted her nails.  Princess got in bed with me when I woke up for some chatting and snuggling.  She finished her math homework and then we did some crafting on the patio.

I am so not crafty.  I wish I had the talent, but I just don't.  We have fun trying, though.  I mostly hung out with her while she did the projects.

First she made a crab out of recycled materials for a school project:

Then she painted a wooden "L" she picked up at the garage sale:

Then she and Hubster went to see the sequel to "Journey to the Center of the Earth" at the movies.  Going to the movies is one of their things.  I stayed home to work on decluttering our horribly messy house and putting away the piles of laundry stacked all over.  (And got really bummed out when they got home hours later and asked what I'd been doing while they were gone.  Our house is so disorganized that they couldn't see my work!)

Princess called in tears when the movie let out.  She missed me.  I call it "Mom-sick".   I asked to talk to Hubster to verify that everything was okay and she wasn't wanting me as a result of misbehavior.  He said everything was fine.  I talked to her a bit more.   The plan was for them to go to Target to pick up prescriptions after the movie and then to hit Wal-mart for grocery shopping.  Hubster asked her if she could handle it after she talked to me and she said calling me gave her the power to be away from me for two more hours!

She was so excited to see me when they got home!!!  Huge smiles and hugs!  She and Hubster both complained of the smell of the Brussels sprouts I was cooking as soon as they walked in the door.  Princess helped me put away the groceries and then she reorganized the freezer while I ate some yummy caramelized Brussels sprouts. 

She's been obsessed with a bottle of baby powder the previous owners left in the cabinet over the fridge since she discovered it a couple weeks ago.  I helped her get it down so she didn't tip the fridge over or something.  Hubster hates baby powder and the dusty film it leaves on everything.  Princess swore she would put it on her bathroom shelf and just smell it, but never use it.

I saw problems just waiting with that, so I grabbed the bottle and told her to follow me outside.  I went to the end of our driveway and squeezed the bottle as I spun in a circle.  "It's a dust storm!", I declared.  Of course, Princess wanted a turn at making a dust storm.  Then we squirted it on the grass to make a patch of snow.  We spread it on the driveway to see if we could spy any animal tracks in the morning.  We emptied the whole bottle.  She had a blast and it removed the temptation to spread it through the house next time she's mad at Hubster.   (It later rained and washed it all away.)

We showered off the powder that got on us and then watched "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" in her  room.  We ate dinner and then I sat with Princess again while she painted her L more.  Here's the finished product:

(She admitted this morning that she wishes she would have left it simple like in the first photo.)

She was sound asleep by 7 and woke up in a good mood Monday morning and got to school without a hitch.

I love it when we're all able to enjoy being home together on the weekends.

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