Just what the doctor ordered.

To say that it hasn't been stressful in our house over the last four weeks would be a lie.

This parenting four kids thing can be tough, and tough is an understatement at times.  Yesterday evening, like many previous evenings was filled with kids in time-out, a whole lot of "ah-ni-dah" ("no" in Korean), plenty of tears to go around between the little ones, and generally not too much fun.  That being true, by the time the kids hit the sack I was about at my wits end, simply trying to find my way through my foggy thoughts for ideas on how to make things easier around the house.  Ideas on how to give the the children the time and attention that they each need.  Ideas on things we can do after work and on the weekends to make those times enjoyable.  That's about the time that Sara called down the steps telling me I had to look at something.

Little did  I know that something was going to make my day, my month, and my year.  It was only eight or nine months ago that Sara and I, and the rest of the family for that matter, where in what seemed like a fight for our family versus Reactive Attachment Disorder.

Such was the diagnosis given to Parker as he fought (literally) his way through some excruciatingly tough times.  Not a day would go by for a long period of time back then when I wasn't fearful of what he might do next.

He was lost.

We were lost.

We didn't know how it was going to end.  Our attempts to resolve the issues he was having seemed futile and the lack of explanation he could give us for his actions was torture.

Very long story short, I couldn't be happier to be able to type that those days are behind us now.  Yet, I never have been completely sure how far behind us, but the paper that Sara shared with me last night went a long way towards illustrating just that...

What is that you might ask.  That is a paper that Parker had to complete for school.  One that listed his favorite book, his favorite food, his favorite movie, etc. and then the pièce de résistance, his proudest accomplishment...

 

 

All it took was a 3rd grader's homework to help me put everything in perspective.

Thanks Parker!

Check out our Back to School Boys

Littlest guy made the trip with Sara and I to see Lleyton off to his first day of school, and he took full advantage of the opportunity to allow me to snap this classic pic!

Smooth transition...with one exception.

If you thought my blogging was a little sporadic with only 3 kids, I am guessing you might think we have disappeared off the face of the earth in between posts with 4 kids.  That being said I wanted to respond to the many of you that have reached out to see how things are going, and I am thrilled to report that Camden is doing wonderfully.  He is awesome!  His transition to this point has been so easy, which I think we were due for.  The kid is a blast.  He is animated.  He is funny.  He is wildly smart.  He is a tad bit crazy.  He is everything we could have hoped he would be, other than calm of course, but we have come to terms with that. 

That being said, there happens to be another 2 year old that lives in our house that may not be doing quite as well with this transition.  This happens to be the stunning little beauty that I speak of…

Addy is struggling a bit.  As I told someone the other day, she is a basket case.  Her tear ducts have to be almost dry, the girl is crying all of the time.  She just doesn’t quite have her arms around the fact that Sara and I’s attention is now being divided by 4 children rather than 3.  She’ll get there.  The girl has always had a flair for the dramatic, but she is now taking that to a new level, just for the time being we hope.  That’s not to say she doesn’t adore her little brother, because she certainly does, as do Lleyton and Parker.  Her struggle seems to be more about yearning for attention than anything else. 

Back to Cam and how he’s doing.  The boy is eating us out of house and home.  All he does is eat, which we really aren’t used to, be it that we are typically used to having to bribe one or two of the others to eat anything.  I venture to say our little guy could be a competitive eater if there was such a thing for two year olds.  We had read that some children cope with change, and stress, and transition with overeating and I’m here to tell you it’s true.  We need to find a way to lock the fridge, the pantry, the fruit bowl, anything in or around the kitchen.  WE are used to being at the grocery store, pretty often, but not every day.  It’s not often you will see this guy without some sort of food or drink in his hand...

It shouldn't be a surprise that one of the best pics of have of our little guy was taken while he was sitting down for lunch, as that is about the only time when he stays in one place.  All of the other pictures I have of him are blurry because the kids never stops moving.  Somehow we adopted Lleyton’s clone.  

We may have some explaining to do when our social worker comes over this weekend, as the boy has bruises and scabs seemingly everywhere, including a doozy of scab on his lower lip where his two bottom teeth went all the way through his lip the other day during what was one of the more spectacular crashes he has had since coming home.  Thankfully he did cry after that one, but now for long.  The kid’s pain tolerance is through the roof, which is scary.