J. has been looking forward to Halloween for weeks now, and I’m afraid that the reality didn’t quite live up to his expectations, but he did get out and collect about 250 pieces of candy. He counted. B. also counted up his stash and made a detailed log of exactly what kinds of candy he’d received. Not sure why, but he feels it’s important to keep this record. K. seems content to just eat her candy.
J. got lots of compliments on his police officer outfit, and a few people thought B. and K. also looked pretty good (Sherlock Holmes and an Autumn Pixie). I’ll get pictures up when I can.
It took a long time to settle from all the excitement, but B. & K. eventually went to bed Monday night. Despite not getting to bed until very late, J. managed to get to school on time on Tuesday, and the remaining days this week. I think it was a bit uncomfortable for him at first to go without the translator, but he seems to have settled to it somewhat.
He’s also (usually) expressing his anger in more appropriate (less violent & disrespectful) ways, and he’s continuing to spend time hanging out with the rest of us playing games and fishing.
We’ve had some bad moments. J. took off from a grocery store last Sunday, scaring us all quite a bit. And then on Thursday, B. got quite sick, and at one point J. got in his face, and I made J. leave the house with Craig–and J. thought I was kicking him out permanently. It took quite a while to straighten out that misunderstanding. But once we apologized for making him think we were getting rid of him, and reassured him that we want him in our house, he seemed to settle down a lot. And he’s still harassing Ben, but not quite as much. It may help that they’ve each come up with role-playing games that they’ve convinced the other to try out. Turns out they have more in common than either of them was willing to admit before.
K. is gearing up for performing in the Nutcracker with her ballet studio over the Thanksgiving weekend, so she’s had lots of rehearsals, and that has added a bit to the overall stress, but I think she’s excited about performing and glad to have something about her life that hasn’t totally changed.
When I look back to where we were a few months ago, I realize that we’ve come a long way, even though many days are still very hard. I’m hopeful that at some point we’ll reach a new normal that will be less miserable for everybody.