Sweet & Sour Saturday

After the horrible night we had last night w/ Autumn’s melt down, I woke up resolved this morning to have a great day.  I had a nail appointment at 11:00 and Autumn didn’t want to stay w/ Uncle Nick, so I took her w/ me.  She asked if she could have some lotion b/c her arms and legs were dry and ashy.  I was driving, but we stopped at a stop light so I reached back and squeezed some into her hand.  I had no idea how much I had given her until we got to the nail place and I turned around to see this!!!  It was the Japanese cherry blossom kind from Bath & Body Works, so at least she smelled good!

She was such a good girl while I was getting my nails done, so I said we could go out on a special lunch date.  We went to Market Street to get our favorite penne dolcelatta.  While it was being made, we walked around the store for a little bit.  I instantly fell in love w/ this tree when I saw it.  It’s sparkly and glittery and festive and completely blinged out…my type of tree.

We got our food and went upstairs to eat on the 2nd floor of the store.  Autumn likes to look over the edge at all the people below us.  We had a nice and enjoyable lunch while we ate our good food and talked.

After that, we came home so that she could work on her Valentine’s for her class next week.  She put them all in piles by color and then wrote out their names from her class list and also wrote her own name.

She did such a good job, and her penmanship is excellent.  I love this picture I got of her concentrating so hard.  Then when she was done w/ all of those, we put the candies in between the slits and put them in a box to take to school on Thursday.

We had some extras, so she filled one out for Papa & Uncle Nick & Mimi (she said Mimi can’t have candy b/c of her diabetes so she ate Mimi’s candy for her) and little did I know, she also made one for me.  She ran into my room and then came back and told me she had a surprise for me that I had to come and see.  I went in my room and told me to look under my pillow.  This is what I found!  I was so impressed that she had thought of giving me one.  I thought we were over the bad day we had yesterday.  Little did I know what was about to happen…

She said that she wanted to play a game w/ me, so I had her go upstairs and pick which one she wanted to play.  She came back down w/ Candyland, so we sat on the floor and started to play.  We were 1/2 way into the game when I happened to pull a card for Queen Frostine, which jumped me way ahead.  A few turns later, Autumn got the card for the candy cane and she had to go back to the Peppermint Forest.  She started whining about how it wasn’t fair that I was ahead and I was winning and she was losing.  I hadn’t been gloating or even saying a word about me being ahead or her being behind, I just told her that it’s part of the game and sometimes she wins and sometimes I win.  I reminded her that I don’t whine and cry when she gets ahead of me, but she wasn’t listening and something snapped inside of her and she LOST IT!

She took the board and threw it across the room.  Then she took the cards and started crumpling them up.  I was calm and told her she needed to stop or she could go to her room.  Then that’s when she turned and tried to hit me, kick me, scratch me, or do anything to hurt me.  It took me by surprise, so I just grabbed her and held her so she could hurt me.  She threw her head back and caught me in the nose and I let go and just started sobbing uncontrollably.  It wasn’t that she had hurt my nose, it just all was too much and I didn’t know how to handle her.  She eventually came over and gave me a hug while I just sat and cried.

Once I was able to stop crying so I could talk, we discussed what has been going on w/ her lately and how her actions are not ok.  I have always been very cognizant of making sure I separate her from her actions.  I told her that I love her no matter what, but that I don’t love her bad choices.  We were both emotionally drained, and I know one of the main reasons I’m so tired is b/c I’ve been staying up late the past few nights playing this super addicting game on my phone that Mom introduced me to.  I tried to get her to come and lay down w/ me so we could snuggle (and hopefully both take a nap), but she said she wanted to watch a movie w/ me.  So, I let her pick a movie (she picked a Barbie movie) and we snuggled on the couch.

At 7:30, the girls came and picked me up and we all went out to eat at El Fenix to celebrate Melanie’s birthday, which was yesterday.  Their chips and salsa are SO GOOD and I love how the chips have little tiny air pockets that make them so crispy.  We told our waiter that it was Melanie’s birthday when we first got there.  We were eating and talking when all of a sudden from around the corner came a group of servers w/ this huge sombrero.  I had to scramble to get my camera, but was able to capture some cute shots of everyone singing to Melanie.

We didn’t realize how late it was, but we were there until 10:00 and they had to kick us out b/c they were closing!  I was able to tell them about the struggles I’ve been having w/ Autumn and get some advice and support for them.  I’m so thankful for their friendships!  They dropped me off at home and I stayed up and talked to Nick for a little while and then went to bed.  Those late nights of playing Candy Crush Saga are catching up w/ me and I need my sleep so I’m emotionally & physically strong to handle Autumn.