Lessons in Special Parenting: Progress!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about incremental changes that I saw in my girls since we started on our path to safer eating.   I sat up last night thinking about it, though, and I’m not sure that the changes are so incremental.  For example, a HUGE hurdle was overcome in the last few weeks with Zoe’s sleeping, capped off by the last night.  Without melatonin and with lights off, Zoe went to bed, and slept through the night without waking up until morning.  Part of me thought she might be sick, but, no, she is fine.  And mom and dad are sleeping, which is really critical if you want to raise children, lol!

I also mentioned Amelia’s improvements in that post but it’s been a big deal to her teachers. Yesterday, her goals at school were changed to include more practical ones (like knowing your address) and to improve her reading comprehension, which is not quite there. However, her time in the “time out” chair has greatly reduced and while she may still somewhat act up at school, she’s never had event to have the director come into her class.  I’m very proud of her myself, and I hope to make a lot more strides in this area – between supplements, further diet research, and more structure at home (yea, from my lips to God’s ears!)

In the meantime, I’m thrilled because I’ve just created a goal for myself with the girls to spend 1 hour a weekday with them (we are with them all weekend long usually.  That means, an hour outside of my chores, getting ready for school, dinnertime, bathing them, etc.  I’m not sure if I’m quite up to an hour, but it’s been SO much fun. I”ve been playing games with Amelia, and reading books to both girls (no small feat), as well as your general parent-kiddo fun like tickling and gobbling feeties.  It’s amazing how that little window of time makes me feel like a good mommy when I got to bed. It’s so exciting!

I’m not perfect. I had a hissy fit when I accidentally dropped half of Zoe’s dinner on the floor, especially since I STILL hate to cook.  (And yes, multiple people yelled back, sigh.) But I’m forgiving myself faster and learning to fit it all in without losing my sanity.

Lessons learned: a little can mean a lot – time, progress, food changes.

What small things have added up to a big difference for you? Share your stories here!