Playing at Grandma and Granddad's House

We went up to my parent's house today, and despite the VERY strong winds, the kids had a lot of fun running around for hours, jumping on the trampoline, getting tractor rides, etc. I am so proud of Hayden today. He has been dealing with lots of fears lately, and has not been very brave or daring at all. Things have been scaring him for about a year now. And when I say "things" I mean everything! We've been working through a lot of his anxiety and I've definitely seen some improvement. He used to be terrified of any type of bug, now he is fascinated by them! He's always had a hard time going on amusement/carnival rides (he was the saddest boy ever at Walt Disney World), but today he ASKED to get a ride in Granddad's tractor bucket, even after he saw how rough Granddad was being with the older boys! He had so much fun and begged to go again and again and kept wanting Granddad to make the bucket go higher! I couldn't have been a happier mom at that moment! He also did really well jumping high on the trampoline and playing trampoline games with his cousins. He was really curious about some red fire ants Grandad had found and got really close (maybe a little too close?). He let me push him really high on the swing, even after he saw me get all the spiderwebs off it. And he was even brave enough to try and pet the baby horse (though still a little nervous). Seriously, I can not express how proud of him I am today! We are making progress with this boy!

We've recently been going to counseling with him weekly, to work through some of anxiety, behavior, and anxiety issues. It's been really hard to realize that our little Hayden just isn't the type of boy we expected him to be, and difficult to change our ways in raising him and dealing with his issues. Now that we have realized just how different he is, it has made things so much easier!

Anyway- here are some photos from today.