Judah stayed home from school today as his cough was hard not to be concerned about every time I heard it and his nose was gushing from time to time. He seemed fine as the day went on. The cough is still there, but he is very obviously feeling better as he is playing & even went outside to play today! Unfortunately, while we were outside, he wouldn't stop putting his cars in the mud & rocks - expensive, large cars.. it was hard to just turn my head & pretend not to think anything of it. After many, many times of asking him to stop & removing him and/or the cars from the rocks, I finally just had to take him inside. That was the only thing he wanted to do - play with his cars in the rocks & mud. At the same time, miss Willow is dashing down the sidewalk, sitting on the ground against the neighbor's garage door and hitting Judah's toys with a bat as he played with them. Sufficed to say, she went inside at the same time. Judah put up a fight though. I could hardly lift him - that took a while. He took many attempts at scratching my face. He got in a few good scratches at the top of my nose. Scott also has a scratch from Judah on his face - his is much more noticeable though. Judah was pulling my hair as well. This physical aggression has been seen before but has never stuck around for long. This is a pretty new cycle & definitely the most aggressive he's been. He hits his aide on a daily basis - this has been going on for at least a week. Sometimes he even butts heads with her.. yes, completely on purpose!
Throughout the outside time, Sebastian was helping keep an eye on Willow. He was being good. He wanted the other 2 to ride in the wagon while I pulled. He was planning on attaching his plasma car to the back of the wagon & riding it. He had to wait as I was putting batteries in a couple of toys for Judah & Willow. I could have easily stopped what I was doing & gotten everyone in the wagon.. Willow & Judah certainly weren't paying any attention. But I decided to take some baby steps off the egg shells (his good behavior is very new - 2 days so far). He had to wait.. not more than 10 minutes.. and began getting agitated, finally saying, "I'm getting angry! My counselor says I have SUV!!" When I explained to him that an SUV was a sports utility vehicle he thought that was pretty funny. I told him the correct terminology. Much later, while I was on the phone with Pa Rock, Sebastian was screaming in the background, "I have ADHD!!!" Maybe I shouldn't have reminded him what the correct letters were.
Anyway, when I was struggling to get Judah inside, Sebastian put all of the toys in the garage without being told (this NEVER happens) & told me he would go inside & turn on Mario so Judah would calm down. I had already given him permission to stay outside a bit longer since he wasn't really doing anything wrong, but he chose to help instead. That was pretty incredible.
Sebastian had a few blow-outs with Willow today - short ones, but more so than yesterday, when he only had one towards her & one towards me. While doing his homework he had a very difficult time remaining focused. He was able to figure out his math problems with ease though! He would focus for a minute (sometimes less), become distracted, focus for a minute, becoming distracted even more, focus, etc. It took a while to get through his 12 questions. And he was becoming more jumpy and active - flying around the room. This started quickly after the homework began. Dinner came not long after - as did his old behaviors, unfortunately. It went back to pretty much as bad as it had been before. Very unfortunate, but I am reassuring him that he can do it and that it will take time.
The homework from his new teacher was very organized & inventive, thank goodness. It was short & simple as well. Sebastian said the questions were similar to problems they had done in class that day, which is excellent for remembering how to do them & building self confidence!!
I think discussing Sebastian's diagnosis with him was really helpful in sparking the good behavior. He has a better understanding of what is happening, thus giving him some control where before he felt as if he had none. When Scott & I told him about his diagnosis, Sebastian ended our talk with giving me a big hug and apologizing for all of the times he had said that he hated me - telling me that he didn't mean it. He didn't do the same for Scott, but he had spent the time before & after our conversation openly connecting with him & enjoying his company.. which was huge.
Throughout the outside time, Sebastian was helping keep an eye on Willow. He was being good. He wanted the other 2 to ride in the wagon while I pulled. He was planning on attaching his plasma car to the back of the wagon & riding it. He had to wait as I was putting batteries in a couple of toys for Judah & Willow. I could have easily stopped what I was doing & gotten everyone in the wagon.. Willow & Judah certainly weren't paying any attention. But I decided to take some baby steps off the egg shells (his good behavior is very new - 2 days so far). He had to wait.. not more than 10 minutes.. and began getting agitated, finally saying, "I'm getting angry! My counselor says I have SUV!!" When I explained to him that an SUV was a sports utility vehicle he thought that was pretty funny. I told him the correct terminology. Much later, while I was on the phone with Pa Rock, Sebastian was screaming in the background, "I have ADHD!!!" Maybe I shouldn't have reminded him what the correct letters were.
Anyway, when I was struggling to get Judah inside, Sebastian put all of the toys in the garage without being told (this NEVER happens) & told me he would go inside & turn on Mario so Judah would calm down. I had already given him permission to stay outside a bit longer since he wasn't really doing anything wrong, but he chose to help instead. That was pretty incredible.
Sebastian had a few blow-outs with Willow today - short ones, but more so than yesterday, when he only had one towards her & one towards me. While doing his homework he had a very difficult time remaining focused. He was able to figure out his math problems with ease though! He would focus for a minute (sometimes less), become distracted, focus for a minute, becoming distracted even more, focus, etc. It took a while to get through his 12 questions. And he was becoming more jumpy and active - flying around the room. This started quickly after the homework began. Dinner came not long after - as did his old behaviors, unfortunately. It went back to pretty much as bad as it had been before. Very unfortunate, but I am reassuring him that he can do it and that it will take time.
The homework from his new teacher was very organized & inventive, thank goodness. It was short & simple as well. Sebastian said the questions were similar to problems they had done in class that day, which is excellent for remembering how to do them & building self confidence!!
I think discussing Sebastian's diagnosis with him was really helpful in sparking the good behavior. He has a better understanding of what is happening, thus giving him some control where before he felt as if he had none. When Scott & I told him about his diagnosis, Sebastian ended our talk with giving me a big hug and apologizing for all of the times he had said that he hated me - telling me that he didn't mean it. He didn't do the same for Scott, but he had spent the time before & after our conversation openly connecting with him & enjoying his company.. which was huge.
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