2 grandparents
3 children
3 bottles of juice
1 Chex mix
1 stop at CVS to pick up
2 loaves of white bread
and don't worry duckies - here we come!
It's a lovely sunny 68 degrees in Montgomery, Alabama on a Saturday morning in mid January. You couldn't ask for a better day than this. A soft refreshing breeze graces my hair, as a white heron flies overhead and lands at the edge of the pond. A sparkling ray of sunlight reflects on the calm water, where ducks and geese paddle closer into focus.
My folks, whom I haven't seen in half a year, are in town from Seattle for ten days. We decide to take the kids on an outing, and let Alex stay home and get some much needed rest. We have been back home for about a week and a half, since our return from our road trip to the east coast. It hasn't been easy for the kids to get back to their sleeping routines. Because of that, Alex and I haven't been sleeping well either. Alex has been getting up with the kids at all sorts of ungodly hours of the night, and letting me rest - bless his heart, as they say here in the South. Last night, was the first night that the kids finally slept through the entire night, awaking at 6:30 AM! "Daddy, I slept through the night!" said three year old Miriam to Alex, when he went to get her from her room. Let's hope that we are back to our groove, we both thought, breathing a sigh of relief. This morning, I was informed that my dear daughter was up again in the middle of the night. Alex was up with her, yet again....
We haven't been able to get back to "normal" yet. For our family, this just means that everyone gets back on track with their routines, school, therapies and regular sleeping cycles. It's hard to believe how well Jake has been doing with much of his therapies. He must have really been missing and craving his structured day. He pretty smoothly got back to his groove, almost right away. Usually, a change in routine for him on any sort of level, whether it's Alex going out of town, Alex and I being out of town (which doesn't happen very often), or an entire family trip, involves some sort of serious aftermath and paying for it by us on some level. Typically, this involves undesired sleep deprivation. I have to say, that this is the best that Jake has done post trip, since I can ever recall. My daughter, on the other hand, had not been doing great as far as sleeping goes, and we were really looking forward to getting past this much undesired hump.
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| Montgomery Museum of Fine Art |
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| Alabama Shakespeare Festival Theater |
Alex and I have been walking around like two zombies, just doing what we could, to get through the day. We've returned to that one day at a time mode that we lived by early on in the twins' lives. That's okay, we are able to shift back into that mode, and had become well versed in this respect. "One day at a time", was my life motto during my twin pregnancy and Alex's deployment. It's what I had called the "pre baby boot camp", which had prepared me for the "post baby boot camp" after the twins were born. This was when all of the mishigas (craziness in Yiddish) and the chaos had really began, along the time frame of Jake's new autism diagnosis, back in the summer of 2009. We've had lots of one days at a time. This one day at a time thing, we knew how to do.
Quack, quack, quack, "don't worry duckies, I'll give you more bread," shouts my three year old son Max, as we giggle at his enthusiasm over this morning's chosen activity. One of my favorite spots which we've discovered in Montgomery, pretty early on during our military assignment here, is the Blount Cultural Park. It is a short drive away, and for me, it's one of Montgomery's precious gems. On the grounds, are the Alabama Shakespeare Festival Theater, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, ponds and walking trails. The museum has a large children's art exploration wing and is free entry. It is a great way to spend a hot and humid summer's day for restless out of school kids. Our folks always enjoy coming with us there when they are in town on one of their visits. The kids' favorite spot at this lovely park is inside the bridge's terrace. Overlooking the duck and turtle pond, the kids are delighted to throw chunks of white bread onto their eagerly awaiting audience. This is followed by encore after encore of whatever remaining breadcrumbs are found at the bottom of the bag.
So don't worry duckies, we will be back sometime soon with more bread. Meanwhile, the Roses will get back into their groove. In a few days' time, we'll be hopefully paddling in our own little pond, with some much desired coasting time, staying afloat and steadily moving forward.
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Creationlily
That Max! He is quite the character.
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