Things That Make Me Happy

• Being able to talk to John without him averting his eyes... and he smiles, too!

• Yuli's cute little "mucho, mucho, mucho, mucho, mucho" when I tell her that I love her.

• A great big hug for Diana out of the blue when she's really happy.

• Mornings AND afternoons in the park with my family.

• A trip to the grocery store all. by. myself.

• Giggles in the dark after bedtime lights out... although, if it goes on for too long it has the opposite affect.  Lucky for me, Ken puts the gigglers to bed.

• Cody taking the toy away from me because he "wants to play with John."  Not that I'm happy to not play with John because I'm really having fun with it but I'm happy Cody likes to, too.

• Watching Rylan, athlete of all athletes, tone down his game to play 'easy' with his little sister.

• Listening to Connor try and teach Diana how to make her trombo go.

• Being able to pick John up occasionally without him screaming.

• Having Rylan jump right in helping Ken clean up after cooking without being asked because he knows we are stretched thin.

• Seeing Cody put John's shoes on him.

• Not just knowing and using the word cosquilla (tickle) but actually putting words to action.

• Listening to Connor do his very best to make Spanish come out of his mouth.

• Crawling into bed at the end of the day with the best man on the face of the planet.  How could I be so lucky?

• Witnessing Diana actually choose Door #2 when she was mid-tantrum.

• Being able to do Yuli's hair in about half the time it took last week.

• Not having to cook breakfast or dinner AND not having to clean up the kitchen after those meals.

There's lots more babysteps.  We are still having some turbulent issues several times a day, but we are also seeing a LOT of improvement.  These kids are amazing and when I think that two weeks ago tomorrow, their whole life was turned inside out upside down, I'm just in awe of how well they are doing.  It's hard, really hard, but good.  I'm sorry y'all.  I took pictures today of Yuli's hairdo and of the kids at the park but I'm just too tired to wait for them to upload.  You are going to have to wait.