A Peek at the Poulsens

I posted this to Facebook yesterday: [I had a gift card for Barnes and Noble and the kids were excited about these "1000 facts about...(different topics)" books so I said we could go get them after school. Stockton had a HUGE flaming freakout because I told him we were there for books, not toys, and it was literally 20 minutes of me being calm and collected and trying to safely get us out of the store while holding Claire and shepherding a screaming, crying, flailing Stockton, sweating my buns off and not making  eye contact with anyone. It's interesting to watch other people react...one worker and one older lady separately came over and genuinely wanted to help, which was nice, but you can feel the stares and judgement from other people. I'm glad that I have thick skin and it doesn't bother me and that I don't feel the need to tell everyone why he's freaking out or that he has autism, but it still makes me sad that our outings and opportunities are lim...

Claire is ONE! February 27th dawned a beautiful, clear, birdsong-y morning and we were so excited to celebrate this precious baby's birthday.  Claire was both delighted and mystified by all of the balloons everyewhere!  "helping" her open presents  Claire makes this "ohh" face when she sees something that excites her, and it is usually accompanied with a point. She was very excited about her new rainbow ball. Balls have been her favorite thing lately, so she got lots of different kinds for her birthday! She also got a train with holes to put balls in, and lots of cute clothes. Jack really wanted to pick out a swimsuit for her, which was really cute. (I don't have a picture yet!)  "everyone get around Claire!"  "look at me!"  "guys...look at ME! Stockton, get off Claire..." ...the end result. Too much sibling love haha.  I had a long day yesterday that ended with teaching four pia...

I appreciate Valentine's Day more each year that I'm with Austin. There is less pressure and more intent to show actual love. We had a nice extended V-day this year because of different plans, so it felt like we were celebrating our love all weekend! Austin surprised me with beautiful pink roses (and it truly was a surprise because he very much dislikes buying flowers, but he knows I love them) and he picked out a Six Sisters cookbook that he knew I would like. I told him to choose a recipe out of the new cookbook that I could make for Valentine's dinner, and he chose sweet pork quesadillas. They were so good! I will definitely make them again. I am grateful for family group texts! They keep us unified and connected, uplifted and silly. Makae and Aaron were dateless on Valentine's Day so they sent us this pic of their celebration at Abe's :) HAHA Stockton requested Spongebob for his Valentine box for school, and I delivered! I was so proud of my project...