The Crew - Miss Fabulous, Lil Bro, Big Sis and Mr. Man

Saturday, December 19, 2009

How Long Is Winter Break?

Well Winter Break 2009 is off with a bang! Mr. C has been on a slippery slop lately and yesterday he flat out crashed and burned. He had A 3 HOUR TANTRUM. I had to call his Dad to come home from work because I could not handle him physically. He becomes so strong during these episodes. I am battered and bruised and my finger may be cracked or something. It seems messed up at the joint.

He damaged his closet door so badly that it has to be replaced. For whatever reason it became a kicking board at one point.

I contacted his psychiatrist and he has altered his ADHD med dose. His attention and focus have not been good in the last week or more and he has had a few minor struggles in school as well. From what his teacher shared they seemed focus and attention related.

After 3 hours of tantruming once he finally came back down to earth I was drained. I had a good cry that exhausted overwhelmed kind of cry. Apparently this made an impression on Mr. C. We had a detailed discussion again about how violence is not acceptable and how his actions are called "assault". He made a sincere effort today to do nice things for Mom. He had better control over his frustration level, I don't know if that is the med dose change or what. This med has an immediate effect, not accumulated like other types of meds.

I kind of got back to basics with him too. We stuck with a more rigid schedule today. Not only did his behavior choices determine if he had earned Wii/Computer time but I made a sign in sheet. He could choose 15 minutes of time every hour or 30 minutes of time every 2 hours. He stuck with 30 minutes every 2 hours. I directed him to engage in lots of positive brain activities, always with a few choices to pick from. He likes to destroy things, knock things over and what not especially the more agitated or frustrated he is. Knocking down block towers with cars is acceptable; destroying your room is not. So one of the first activities he choose was building with blocks and knocking them down.




He also did a lot of drawing today and asked to play with the leggos. He never got into the play-doh today but that will probably be of interest tomorrow. Although he had a lot of difficulty choosing what he wanted to do and getting started once I got him started in the play he took off from there on his own. Lil Bro joined him often and they did well together.

My girls did FABULOUS yesterday while Mom dealt with a 3 hour tantrum. Nan has been home sick with Shingles, horrible virus just AWFUL! Poor poor Nanster not even the Snuggie has saved her this time.


She is on meds for the virus and the nerve pain. The up side to this was she was feeling a little more human yesterday and was an extra pair of adult eyes to monitor the other Loo-Loos while I dealt with Mr.

Because they had done so well yesterday, Miss M never piggy backed on brothers bad behavior and Big Sis was helpful overall, so they got a day out with Dad. They headed out with him to a job he had to do and from there they had lunch and went to see the new Princess cartoon. He also took them on a hike.

Miss M was dealing with lots of emotional triggers today but she bounced back quickly each time.

At this point Winter Break seems Longgggggggggggggg!

Thanks to my Sister-In-Law for this funny!

5 comments:

Debbie said...

oh gosh, a 3 hour tantrum is horrible. i've had a few of those here as well. Exhausting for everyone.

Dia por Dia said...

It must be crash and burn time. Our 10 year old has been on that slippery slope for a little while and after a wonderful day/evening Friday he RAGED for 2 hours then ran away! Hang in there. The structure and schedule seem to help here too!

Rose said...

Oh, those long tantrums are so hard on everyone, physically and emotionally. I'm glad today went better.

The LaBelle Family said...

Oh, I'm so sorry you're having to deal with that AGAIN! Out of the frying pan, into the fire. That's the way life seems these days. Hang in there! You're doing a super job!!! This, too, shall pass. (Just not fast enough.)

PWNort64 said...

We had more struggles than normal last week, too. I attribute the additional stress of the holidays and having to make a stand and be different. All energies are focused there and the trade-off is the focus and self-control. Hang in there.