Thursday, May 28, 2009

Life, in the way

Yes, it's been an obscenely long time since my last blog post.  I don't feel bad though. Not even a little bit.  My life has gotten a little bit in the way.  In the past two weeks:
  • I had finals for my spring semester courses.  I finished the semester strong and am very pleased with my grades.
  • I spent a week in Chicago with my dad, who had a kidney removed.  The surgery went well, and he is recovering nicely (if impatiently) at home now.
  • I got home and spent a crazy few days with Ry and T before my microbiology class started yesterday.  The upside is that I think it's going to be a really interesting and fun class.  The downside is that they've crammed a 15 week course into 6 weeks.  Each week = 3 normal weeks and I have an exam almost every week.
  • T continues to have aggressive tendencies at school.  Yesterday he headbutted some of the kids.  This behavior baffles me, because he doesn't act out at anything near this level when I or Ry am around.  I spent at hour at school today, both in his room and spying on him via video in the director's office.  He must've known I was watching, because he was a complete angel the entire time.  So, I'm trying to figure out how best to deal with the behavior and how to help his teachers deal with the behavior.  I think part of the problem is that he doesn't know how to deal with frustration.  How do you give a 2-year-old an outlet for frustration?  
  • Oh, and I'm still gestating, and still hurling in the morning.  It's definitely getting better now, but I'm ready for it to be over.  I've already extracted a promise for a big, diner breakfast on the morning I awake without the urge to puke.
So there you go, 2 weeks in a nutshell.

4 comments:

Amanda said...

First of all I don't have kids- so who knows if this actually works but 'theoretically' it should help (based on educational psychology).

Since he rarely demonstrates these behaviors around you two you won't be able to scaffold from his current actions to positive behaviors. Instead, ed. psych would suggest that you should go 'above and beyond' modeling and explaining appropriate behavior when you two get frustrated. Show how you pull yourself away from the situation or turn your attention to something positive. I don't even think you are supposed to mention that he should do it as well but just explain yourself when the situation arises.

This could all be 'ivory tower' craziness but figured I'd share :)

Cathy said...

Good advise from above. We use all the brain-based stuff here so would say for example "Man, I am frustrated (sad, mad, excited, etc.) So I am going to...(take a deep breath, take space, etc.) Again, I never get to see "normal" kids in action so this may or may not work!

Unknown said...

Wow, this kind of advice usually costs 300 bucks an hour!

Cathy said...

Good thing for you your sister works with the most difficult kiddoes around! Sometimes I forget how to act around normal kids though. Ex: At the playground I saw 2 kids playing and basically climbing over one another and I wanted to shout "That is bad space!!" Then remebered that maybe regular kids actually touch each other and it is not innappropriate!

 
Designed by Lena