Smiley Face for Mom

We are wrapping up the last week of school before the summer.  However, we are trying to jam in as much as possible into this week.  Today Ramona got her chipped tooth fixed, Beezus had a play date, the little man had his first haircut (which I gave him and might have botched a bit) and I organized an art club for the summer and a dinner party for tomorrow night.

Needless to say the kids and I were a little tired tonight.

I was tired, not just from the activities of the day, but also the night before I stayed up till between 1am and 2am cleaning my daughters' room, because Beezus called a friend for a play date. 

This might not seem like a big deal, but sometimes calling another child for a play date can be very intimidating for her.  She struggles with social anxiety, especially in a situation that she is unsure what to say, what is expected, and what the end result will be.  She tends to build these moments into an insurmountable challenge in her head - and it is hard to talk her out of it. 

I have been working with her this year on making this one phone call.  I talked to the other mom in front of her about having the phone call, so Beezus would know the mom expected her to call.  Beezus would not have called if she thought she was surprising the other mom.  And Beezus talked to her friend at school about the call too.  Heck, her and I went over exactly what to say several times before the phone call.  This seems like a lot of extra preparation just to make a phone call, that everybody already knows will be to schedule a play date, but for my daughter that takes the unknown variables out, and almost relieves her anxieties enough to actually make the call.  I did have to bribe her with a reward to get her on the phone - it went great!

The look of pride on her face when she hung up the phone - knowing that she had a play date and, at least for the moment, got over the fear of the phone was awesome for us! 

When we got home she began to panic that her room was too messy.  I told her to clean it.  However, as the night wore on, and as she ran out of time to finish cleaning it (not that she had really started), I told her I would finish cleaning her room.  I would not normally do this, but I knew I needed to relieve her anxiety over the room so she could enjoy her play date the next day.  We worked too hard just to get her to make the play date, to have it fail over a messy room.  So, this one time I cleaned the girls' room into the night.  I had to wait till everyone was asleep to get the time.

So there I was, 1 am, sorting bins, tossing trash, dusting, organizing books, sighing and listening to everyone in my family snore in their respective beds, including our dog (who is the loudest snorer in the house).  To keep a positive frame of mind I reminded myself how ecstatic Beezus is to have this play date - how excited I am for her to have it!  Just had to keep remembering what big steps we were taking.

Anyway, so tonight, as I was holding my little 9 month old man, who is cranky from missing his morning nap during Ramona's dentist appointment, his afternoon nap during Beezus's play date, and is letting me know it with kicking and fussing, I am staring at the stove, willing it to cook dinner for me, Ramona walks into the kitchen and says,

"Mom, since my room is clean can I have a smiley face sticker?"

Happy Mid-Week Everyone!