Easter & Birthday Update

We sure did have a wonderful time of celebrating during Easter! We have joyfully reflected on our salvation through Jesus and joyfully reflected on his resurrection! We placed the cross with the different color cloths...purple, then black, and then white for different days! Grant requested this cross when he was 4 yrs old (He wanted one so badly) and our friends Raymond and Claudia surprised him with one they had made for him back then. I cannot tell you how much he has always loved this cross. When it got pulled down from the attic this year...he made sure it was kept in his room and not being touched until it went in the ground.Then, Vitali developed a love for the cross in the yard the next day...when everyone else was at school...he told me that he wanted to sit in the driveway and watch the cross. So, I sat with him and I couldnt believe all the questions he asked me about Jesus that were prompted by him...he really was making a connection and telling me things that I did not know there was a capacity for him to understand yet. I really know that Grant and Vitali's love for this cross is not because of the piece of wood that it is, but because of the love of Jesus that it represents to them and they are drawn to that love...this was so obvious to me through all of the things they shared with me! We had a fun-filled day starting with celebration at church, eating a great lunch, and Easter egg hunt at home.

Well, I guess I will end in a moment with the good birthday update, but before I do I guess this is a good section to post about the hard lesson Jason and I learned after having 2 occasions back to back with the Birthday and Easter. We are aware of Vitali's struggles with hyperactivity and impulse control, etc... and we try to watch for triggers that we know will send him completely out of control physically and mentally...sometimes it can be social situations that overwhelm him, any setting that looks institutional like doctors offices does it EVERY TIME, and some other things. We have SOMEWHAT limited his sweets as we know that can be a trigger, but we had no idea to what level that could have an effect until Birthday/Easter weekend and after having some sweets for 2 days in a row. We paid dearly! (also, having 2 days of overstimulation that he is not used to I am sure contributed some also) By the evening of the 2nd day, he became completely out of control, very destructive, trying to injure himself (running his head full force into a brick wall and laughing..... among many other ways of trying to hurt himself), destroying his favorite toys on purpose when normally he loves these favorite toys and carries them around with him all day...I really cannot even touch the surface of all that happened constantly for about 24-48 hrs. I was even very close to calling his doctor and seeing if there needed to be sedation (Normally, I wouldnt even think of doing something like this, except that it was this severe) to keep him from really hurting himself until he could Detox as nothing I tried was helping, but I was able to get him to sleep right before I was going to call and so I opted against it. He has had some of these behaviors now and then on a smaller scale, but nothing like this extreme in a while now~ I know there are medications also for these type things, but he has had a severe reaction to even the medicine to where I had to rush him to the doctor after only taking 2 tsps of it when we tried what the doctors had prescribed for his needs. Needless to say, we have been trying to get all sweets, dyes, etc... out of his system and it got a little better after a few days until he found a way to get to Grant's chocolate bunny while I was at the grocery store and daddy was home doing taxes and Vitali ate the whole thing and started back up again. (It has been so bad, that even when out in public and at places like getting our haircut and they would offer him a lollipop and Me, Grant, and Inna would all run toward the candy before it hit his hand and almost scream at the same time, "NOOOOOOOOOOOO" like in a slow motion echoing scream :) (Since it wasnt a huge issue before, I had never really noticed before I had Vitali how many times in public people offer children sweets...haircuts, banks, restaurants, church, school, people that just think he is cute, ha!!....AAAAHHHH!!! When I came home from the store, Grant and Inna ran up to me in a panic and told me he ate the chocolate bunny, my first thought was, "Melanie, drop the groceries and run" haha! But, I put on my big girl pants and dealt with another out of control day! Not only is it hard for us, but a doctor told me one time when we first came home to imagine how bad it must feel to him also being so out of control at these times (And they werent even thinking about what it would be like after sweets). Now that we know his reaction to this too, I guess I better get some creative ideas for sweet alternatives, huh?

Now, on a better note....He did have a great time at his 1st ever birthday party...he was definitely quiet as he knew all the attention was on him that day, but at the same time, I know he loved it because he told me so several times and he kept telling me after we got home, "I love mommy and daddy". It was a small party with family at Pratt Park and it was a beautiful day! He rode his bike most of the day, but also loved swinging and feeding the ducks. I did take some cupcakes and juice boxses on his actual birthday to his school (obviously, this was before the sweet attack) and I threw in those pics too...I think I will let the pics tell the rest of the story....
School party:
When I arrived to his class, the teacher was reading a story, but he was so excited he couldnt stand it...he wanted to run and give me a hug and was trying his hardest to wait until the story was over...

His teachers gave him this "Happy Birthday" tag to wear all day at school and he got to be line leader for the day

Blowing out candle...I dont think he had noticed anyone blowing out a candle before on a cake since he had been here...so when we first asked him to blow it out, he said, " I can't" and then we showed him and he did it


Birthday Party at Park with fam:


Family: Jordan, Dan, Josh:


Inna with Nanny and one of Inna's favorite cousins, Charlotte:


Niki, Inna, and Patsy:


Aunt Theresa, Inna, and Grant:


Big brother pushing little brother on swing:


The ducks trying to eat Jason's shoe when we ran out of bread:



Cousins pic:
Vitali in his new fireman outfit from his b-day: