ebb and flow

I was pretty down last week. I was overwhelmed with a variety of issues. Nothing in my life seemed stable, with the exception of work.
Fighting the traffic, to get home and live in a bathroom, make a dinner, care for a dog.. too much
I wasn't speaking to my husband. The last words I said to him for 4 days was probably enough to hold him.
My other two boys are much older then Ben. they're 20 and 18. If you've ever heard the saying little kids, little problems, bigger kids, bigger problems.. Know that someone with experience uttered them first.

Then the weekend came. What I had been dreading. Well, it was actually better then I could have hoped.
Ben did EXCELLENT with his potty training. 2 accidents on Sat and a couple on Sun. We did not stay prisoners in the house as we had expected, just had Ben use MANY public potties. He went at Wegmans, Target, Friendly's, Starbucks, McDonalds.... why not get him used to variety?
The best fun I had with this experience is, Brent, Ben, Fletcher (dog) and I went to Haddonfield. Brent took Ben into Starbucks to "try" Well...... there was a BM waiting for Brent. He gets off Bens underwear and sits him on the pot to pee. He does, but that's after spreading his crap all over the toilet seat. When he's done, Brent is conscientiously cleaning it up, with Ben turning off the light every 10 seconds. Sooooo glad I was sitting on a park bench outside in 70 degree weather wondering what the hell was taking so long!
Ben is also very smart. With one of his accidents he removed his pants and underwear and hid them behind our recliner. If I don't see them, I don't know he went in his pants. Also, everytime he uses the potty his father or I will say "High Five!" If he doesn't feel like sitting he'll start yelling out "High Five!" with the hopes we'll be distracted and just let him down.
Gotta love that kid!

Last night was open arms at the NJ Discovery Museaum. I night for autistic kids and their families. We had a great time. Staff was great, the activities are fun, and it was free!. It's 10 minutes from our house, and we've been there 2 other times. Funny thing, each time we go, a new activity becomes a favorite. I had an interesting thought (at least to me), that last night I almost felt a little sorry for the higher functioning kids. The kids you couldn't really tell if they had an issue, and when they "acted out" didn't recieve the kindly smiles from the other parents, but the look like "is he picking on my kid". Now quite honestly, maybe some of the kids were just brats, but since I wasn't sure.... I packed my big bag of patience and rolled with all.