Good Week part two

As I mentioned in the last post, this past week has been good.  Erin has been a lot more calmer, she continues to get mad, but she is controlling it a lot better and changing her attitude fast.  She appears to be more accepting of me correcting her or showing her or explaining things to her.  She is smiling a little bit more and being a little more playful with her sisters. Wednesday night Monika, Katie and Erin were playing the Wii, there was a lot of laughing and playing around with each other.  A couple of times they started to get out of hand I would tell Monika and Katie to remember they were playing the Wii, and that would help them to settle down and Erin usually follow their lead.  The last game they were playing, Erin went to far with Monika, hitting her on purpose so that Monika would lose.  Monika got upset and started to cry and told me (I was in the room with them) what Erin did, I signed to Monika (Erin could see me signing) that she needed to tell Erin that hurt her feelings or make her mad, when Monika turned to Erin, Erin had this "I'm Sorry" look on her face and was saying sorry.  I think it helped Erin to see what can happen when you go to far sometimes.  Monika stopped crying pretty quick after that.  Friday we made cookie cut outs and decorated them.  Erin didn't want to participate with the younger girls, so the 3 girls and I did them while she was on the computer.  

Monika cutting out her cookies

 

Jenny cutting out her cookies

Katie cutting out her cookies

Monika eating her cookies, she decorated them all blue, her favorite color

Katie decorated hers all green

Jenny was so tired from mulit color decorating her cookies.

Friday afternoon, Erin had a winter play at school, my sister, my MIL and I saw her.  I didn't get a chance to record her, because I was waiting for her turn on the stage, when she all of sudden was there, by the time I got the camera on and focus she was finished with her poem.  She did a good job on it.  Afterwards we talked with her for a few minutes and I got to meet her 1:1 finally.  She was there with her mom and kids.  I found out that her 1:1 was adopted when she was 11 months old and she is also deaf, so that was cool.  Erin refuses to wear a winter coat, so she goes out with  two sweat jackets.  Wen her 1:1 was telling her to have a good vacation and to make sure she goes outside and go sleeding, Erin was very adament that she was not going to do that and was kinda stomping her feet and saying "I don't like that" like she was angry.  Her 1:1 was telling her that she was going to take her kids out and she was looking forward to it and it was going to be a lot of fun and so forth and Erin wanted no part of it.  I was caught off guard that Erin reacted that way in front of her.  The 1:1's mom said she looks like she is an angry girl, and I said she is having some issues with adjusting to us.  We talked for a couple of minutes and then the 1:1 asked Erin about her "winter" coat and Erin was saying she didn't have one and so forth and I said you have 3 of them, and Erin said I don't like them (My sister told Erin's 1:1 about the kind of coat Erin wants which she is getting for Christmas, her 1:1 said that is the kind all the other girls wear, so that is more then likely stems from there).  Then she preceeded to say she didn't care if she got sick.  When we left, my sister and I talked about how to point out to Erin about not a good thing to be sick.  We feel eventhoug Erin got really angry with me when she had to go to her room last week when she was sick, that she probably figuring it wasn't that bad now that she thinks about it, get to sit on the computer all day and watch videos and so forth.  So now we are brainstorming about how to tell Erin that if she gets sick because she doesn't take precautions (like not wearing coats, hats, gloves and so forth), that she will be stuck in her room all day long and not just when siblings are home.  We want to explain this before it happens and make sure she gets it.
Right before I went to bed on Friday night, I came into the living room where Erin was on the computer.  She had a big bowl of noodles with her.  She has been told many times and corrected very nicely that she isn't to eat noodles or soup at the computer, because of the liquid and keyboard.  She doesn't like the fact that I make her eat that at the table.  I have let her eat snacks at the computer but not that and have explained to her many times before why I don't want her to.  So I catched her, and I wasn't nice at all and said to right off the bat, Erin if you can't follow the rule with the noodles, then you don't get the computer anymore and you can't eat at the computer at all, she didn't fully understand me the first time, so I explained it to her again, she got mad, grab the bowl of noodles, went to the sink and acted like she was going to dump them out while she is glaring at me.  I said it is your decision, you can either eat them at the table like I asked or you can stop eating all food at the computer.  She then sat down at the table and ate them.  I talked to her and explained to her that she needed to respect my rule.  I explained that I allow you to eat almost everything you want at the computer except for a couple of things and I didn't think it was to hard for her to respect that, I went on saying that we can make it a rule of no food at the computer or no noodles/soups at the computer, she thought for about a minute and said no noodles at the computer.  I said then next time it happens, you will be taken of the computer, do you understand and she said yes, she then started to sign (nope not "I don't like you") something about school and had moved on. 
Erin also discovered for the first time, that Dave has seen me naked.  She is very body and clothing conscious.  I was wearing my pj still on Thursday morning when she got up and she noticed I didn't have a bra on yet, she questioned me about it and I explained that I don't put one on right away in the morning unless I get dressed.  She then said aren't you worried that Dad might see them (my top was "v" shaped so I suppose if I bent over or anything you probably could see something), I said, dad seen me naked before, so it is not big deal, her eyes popped out and she had such a shocked look on her face and informed me no boy will ever see me naked.  I hope she keeps that thought in her head for a very long time.  I told her that was good that she thinks that way, she looked at me and shooked her head at me, give me a disgusted look (like I can't believe you let a man see your body) and walked away.  I just laughed under my breath. 
I continue to thank Jesus for the babysteps we make with Erin.  Each night when I am laying in bed, I talk with Jesus, sometimes it is asking for guidance, sometimes it asking for strength, sometimes it is wisdom.  And if it is a good day I thanking him.  Sometimes it just me sorting out my thoughts and feelings and when I awake, I am ready to take on a new fresh day and hope for the best.  I truly feel that you need to look at each day as a new day no matter how bad or rough the day before was.  The new day may  not be better then the day before, but if you can at least start fresh and try to be positive right away, then you will have a better chance of a better day then the day before. 
Other good news on the homefront.  My adorable grandnephew was taken out of NICU, hoping to go home on Monday.  Jade aced her religion paper and feels good about some of her finals.  Katie had her last class of her current gymnastic group today as after today is advancing to the next level.  Monika had her first class with her new gymnastic group.  Jenny is getting excited to start her dancing again in 2 weeks.  Erin is out of school until after the first of the year.  Dave is out right now with his grades school friend Reunion, and me?  I am signing off, taking a nice warm bath while reading "When God Winks at You" and then go to bed and prepare for my 16 hour shift at work starting in less then 8 hours.