Encouragement

It's been a rough couple of weeks with the developmental evaluation (and aftermath) and then Z getting a bad cold. He was very clingy and needy for many days. It brought out the nurturer in me for the first couple days, but then I just got really tired of it. On top of the cold, Z started another round of fit-throwing. It was so discouraging to be back working on tantrums again. I know that it's not like they get "cured" one day of a bad behavior, but we hadn't had it too bad since the first struggle when Z was 18 months. Anyway, I couldn't help but link some of his communication frustration with the tantrums, so that made it even harder [to think that he was (we were) struggling because of the speech delay].

However, as it goes with parenting (and life in general), the rough period has smoothed out a little and I'm feeling hopeful again. Z started to feel better and our discipline of the tantrums started to show some fruit. We started using time-outs more regularly and I was so surprised to see Z understand and accept them quickly. I'll do another post on that, but the bottom line is that things are going better. We've had a few really fun outings and visits where Z was his most charming self. It was so much fun to see other people enjoy him and remember all the really wonderful gifts that Z has. It's so easy to lose perspective and see only the negative behavior. This makes me remember another reason to blog-- writing down the good stuff will help me hang on to hope when we hit another tough time.