Resiliency, Imaginary Friends, and One Imaginary Uterus.

After a week of pure anarchy, things have finally started to settle down in the Sogn-Dewar household.  In the past seven days have all had trouble finding our words.  I can’t even begin to imagine the toll that last Monday had on the kids and by Thursday I really questioned whether or not we’d find our balance again.  Everyone kept on telling me that children are resilient and that if I just gave it a little time things would be okay.  I found that hard to believe as my children were walking around like zombies and by the time Thursday rolled around (with a call from the school regarding failing grades during the week and Gavin sucking his thumb) I was about ready to throw my hands in the air and admit defeat,  and then Gavin started to come around.  While driving to school he said to me:

Gavin:  Mom is it okay if I have imaginary friends?
Me:  As long as it is okay that I have an imaginary boyfriend.
Gavin:  Fine…as long as you don’t have any imaginary kids, you’ve got your hands full with us.
Me:  Good Lord!  How am I supposed to have imaginary kids?
Gavin:  With your imaginary uterus.
And then it happened…without even thinking about it, I did a face palm!  EUREKA!  The moment I was waiting for!

And then came the second moment.  I was trying to convince Gavin that he did, indeed, need to go to bed and used common ‘mom logic’ to illustrate my point:

Me:  Gavin, if you don’t go to bed you are going to fall asleep in school.  If you fall asleep in school your teacher is going to send me into space…POW to the moon with mom!
Gavin:  Without a helmet?
Me:  What?
Gavin:  If you go into outer space without a helmet your eyes will pop out.  Just sayin’.
*FACEPALM*

At this point Gavin was obviously on the right track.  Paige, on the other hand, was still sullen and as hard as I tried I just couldn’t snap her out of it.  Enter in Lee Bee.  Lee is a friend of mine who the kids and I consider family…especially Paige.  Lee calls her ‘pajama jeans’ and Paige calls him the ‘greasy Italian’.  After telling the greasy Italian about my inability to get through to Paige he asked that I let him give it a shot.  And so yesterday we went out to eat at Bdubs, Paige’s favorite, and bowling.   It didn’t take long for Lee to break through the wall that she had fortified and by the end of the night she was back to being the Paige that I know and love.  I know that all this stuff will take time and seeing a glimpse of  Paige being herself after this horrendous week meant more to me than words can express.  I am so very thankful to Lee for helping her find her spark again.   

There is something to be said about children being resilient.  There is, also, something to be said about being a parent who does everything in their power never to test the resiliency of their children.  For now, life is slowly becoming normal, our normal.  I crave the laughter and crazy experiments and I know that it will take time…but all that I have said tonight is a start.  We can only go up from here.