In celebration of today’s date (09/09/09), Restaurant.com has a promotion going where you can get 90% off the cost of their gift certificates. I just got $55 worth of certificates for $2.20!! SO FUN! We’ll get four date nights off of that.

There isn’t much left so go check it out.

Amy – they have Bailey’s Chocolate Bar and I almost bought you two ($.40 for $20!) but wasn’t sure when I read the purchasing requirements. GO LOOK.

Last night Honey put Little to bed. Little has really developed some bad sleeping habits over the past month, one of which is yelling after we leave her room. She yells, “I neeeeeed you.” and “I don’t WANT to go to sleep.” There’s more but thinking about it makes my head woozy so I’ll move on.

Last night Honey put Little to bed and when he left the yelling commenced. Honey’s response was to call through the door, “Little, stop screaming and go to sleep.” Little’s response was to yell, “I don’t WANT to go to sleep.” (I’ll be right back. I need to lie down.)

Okay, then Honey said, “Little, I am your father and I am telling you to go to sleep. Obey.”
What did our sweet daughter with the special brain say?

Using the sweetest tone and complete sincerity: “Oooh. Thank you for telling me that, Dad. You are my father. You are not my mother. You are not Bubba. Thank you for telling me that.”

And she went to sleep.
That’s the roller coaster we ride here at the Blue Hutch.

It’s kinda like a variation of what Joseph says in the Bible, “You meant it for evil but God meant it for good.” At our house it’s, “Most folks would mean that to be smart and sarcastic but Little just meant it.”

Those of you who chose to sit through the Around The Table post heard Bubba singing a song about everything changing. This is a song his music therapist taught him at school to help him through unexpected changes in his daily routine. Music has an AMAZING affect on our little man and this song can work some magic in situations that would have once caused meltdowns.

Basically the words are as follows:
Sometimes things stay the same. Sometimes things change.
Sometimes we _______________. Sometimes we _______________.
Everything changes and that’s okay.

Last week we were all in the car after two errands (grocery and Target). Our quickie grocery store (Schnucks) is across the street from Target and has our bank right out front (this is important, sorta). We had gone to Schnucks and the bagger had given each child an absurd amount of Schnucks stickers. Little and KB had their bodies covered by the time we got to the car; Bubba held his strip of stickers and kept them neat and clean.

We proceeded to Target and by the time we were all back in the car to return home, one of Bubba’s stickers had torn. How do I know? I heard a little voice say, “Momma, mine is broken.” After an immediate Pretty Woman trigger went off in my head, I regained myself and asked what was broken. As I pulled out of the parking lot my son answered, “My sticker is broken, Momma. You need to fix it.”

I explained that I could not fix it while I was driving but we could take a look at it when we got home. What was my son’s response? He broke into song. .

“Sometimes things stay the same. Sometimes things change.
Sometimes we broke a sticker; sometimes we . . . (pause to think – sees our bank as we drive by) go to the bank.
Everything changes – and that’s okay.”

Now, if that wasn’t cute and dear enough, the next few minutes gave me unbelievable insight into the anxieties and issues that are truly important to my son. He continued singing (I am not going to type the whole song each time, but he sang the entire song each time. You’ll get the drift.)

“Sometimes we go to Memom’s. Sometimes we go to home.”
“Sometimes we go to school. Sometimes we go to church.”
“Sometimes we change our clothes. Sometimes we play awhile.”
“Sometimes we go to the zoo. Sometimes we ride the carousel.”
“Sometimes we ride the cat. Sometimes we ride the frog.” (on the carousel)

Now you may wonder how I still remember all these. I pulled over and wrote them down! Seriously! I just don’t know that I realized how much the variety of life means to my son – and not always in a good way. I feel like this insight was such a gift.