Great Valentines Day for us!

We had a wonderful valentine's day at our household. Colin and Melea made Eric and I such cute gifts at school and real cards. Colin was so excited to give me mine!

They all seemed to love going through their Valentine bags and eating all the candy (of course), but it was just so much fun to see the light in their eyes.

I took Melea, Adrian and Mirnada to the mall for a girls night out...... and to get our birthday photos done for Melea and Miranda.

We actually had an amazing night .....this would be after changing outfits three times on Melea and twice on Miranda..... not mentioning about how non cooperative they were at wanting to get their photos done.

But we played in the mall play area, drank a cup of expensive coffee from starbucks and three glasses of milk and ate some cookies, then went to build a bear and bought some accessories for our bears and monkey!

Actually I was surprised....but Melea wanted to buy the wheel chair....she kept asking me about Nana. I was really taken aback because it has been over a year since Nana passed away and I didn't think she would remember her....let alone that she had a wheel chair..... but she was adamament her monkey needed a chair like Nana. SO I let her pick that one....and of course she also got another purse. Adrian picked out a Mulan dress and Miranda bought a pair of shoes and sequin purse. I am absolutely positive their bears have more purses than I do!

We then ate dinner at the food court! The girls had chicken strips and tots from Sonic and I ate a baked potato. I really do love food courts so we can all get something we like to eat. Course I am sure it will be more fun when they can go get their own food!

However it always seems to take us about 45 to 60 minutes to eat..... no matter how much of a hurry we are in. So in this time I did a lot of people / child watching.

I sat there again and realized how lucky my four little special ones are (mostly). They will always wear their disability in a way that most "resonable" people will recognize it and make accomadations.

I saw a mom fighting with her little guy for 10 minutes trying to get him to go ....he was fighting.... I heard a few people make a lot of ugly comments about what a "bad" parent she must be..... I on the other hand saw exasperation from her and saw the lack of eye contact, lack of speech (accept for a few not so nice word he repeated over and over).

As a parent of several disabled children who attend resource rooms...I have seen a lot of different disabilites that have no "immediate visual component" that is easily identifiable..... so I understood why this little guy was throwing a fit, I understood why mom couldn't give in, and I know she was not a "bad parent" just someone in the wrong place with a child with severe sensory issues and was probably autisitc among other issues...... but the rest of the crowd did not!

I realized at that moment how lucky all my kids are. Colin, Melea, Eliza and Miranda are easily identifiable as disabled! Allowances are made and there are certain expectations they have to live with because of this..... but in all ways this is somewhat easier than many of the other typical disabilities.

So I guess I have another reason to be thankful....besides a wonderful night with the girls (Eliza had a cold....and I am not that insane to take four tot he mall for photos by myself)..... persepective and understanding of other parents with "special" children.

So I may have not spent is with my "spouse" he sure gave me a wonderful gift though..... a night with the girls by taking care of the boys and the sick one (though..... I ded arrage for dinner and a babysitter to help him)

Hope you all had a great time with your loved ones too!