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

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Ummm? Life As We Know It

Our bath time pass earning program seems to be crumbling a bit.  It has lasted longer than we ever anticipated it would but for a week now Miss has failed to earn a bath pass because she tantrums and has to start the earning all over.

Last week I received a note from teacher that Miss was "off task" several times which translates to acting up in class.  e.g. Can't keep our hands to our self, making noise outburst during class to receive attention, etc.  This week I received a note that Miss was kicking other students during recess.  She came home that evening and proceeded to tantrum about Mom checking her homework.  Let me clarify this because maybe your mind is saying that she did NOT want Mom to check the homework.  Quite the opposite with my attention seeker.  She knew it was ALL done wrong and so she would need to redo it and that would set her up to have a tantrum.  Mom didn't play along but instead took one look at the ALL wrong homework and said, "Since Mr. Behavior Guy is here tonight I think it would be awesome for you to go over this with him and if there are any changes he can help you make them."

That did not sit well with Miss.  She screamed, "NO!  YOU ARE GOING TO HELP ME!!!"  I tried not to feed attention into the tantrum.  A few minutes later I suggested that if she did not like how her homework looked she might want to take a minute and make some changes before she and Mr. Behavior Guy went over it together.  She screamed, "NO!  YOU ARE GOING TO HELP ME DO MY HOMEWORK RIGHT!!!" 

I explained that I needed to work on my laundry at the moment but that Mr. Behavior Guy was happy to help her.  That did not work out so well, at first.  She would not go for Mr. Behavior Guys attempts to move her away from the door to where I was doing laundry.  She was giving the door a beat down.  Interestingly the door was not locked, she could have come after me but she did not.  In the past she would have. 

He asked her to help him find the homework paper that he didn't see it etc.  She said, "OH GIVE ME A BREAK YOU KNOW WHERE IT IS!  I AM NOT COMING OVER THERE!"  Then she continued on with the door beat down.  He finally had to let her know that she needed to move to her room to calm down and that either she could go on her own or he would help her.  She would not go and so he proceeded to pick her up and take her to her room.  She would not let it go and proceeded to attack him.  He had to put her in a hold.  The Hubs was not at home and I can not handle her during a rage.

I think part of what is making Miss angry right now is that she was manipulating the teacher pretty well.  Miss had figured out that recess time on Thursday was walk and talk and that she would participate whether she did her homework or not on Wednesday night.  Every Wednesday night she would not bring some component of her homework home which meant that she could not complete her assignment.  I e-mailed the teacher that this was going on and it would seem that Mrs. Teacher got back to enforcing her own rules.  No homework, no recess time.  I am completely okay with this rule because Miss is a very active child and so she is getting all the physical activity that she needs.  On Thursdays she has cheer squad at school and then soccer practice in the evening.  Add to that non-stop motion and she is covered in the physical activity department.

Mr. is working on "Using Nice Words" to express his needs. 

Lil Bro is sick again and on antibiotics.  He has a sinus infection that has turned into a double ear infection.  It has not slowed him down in the least.  He has surgery scheduled for March 29th to have his tonsils and adenoids removed.  I am worried but know that it is necessary. 

Big Sis is holding steady as the "easy one".  Schooling at home is going well.  This week she was able to have an outing with some other friends who also school at home and they went to a veterinarian office for a tour.

I get to be the assistant soccer coach by default.  The other parents who said that they would do it puttered out.  Go me!  I have unofficially diagnosed one player as being on the autism spectrum and he and I do fine together.  And another player seems very ADHD to me.  He and I keep busy when he is on the bench by crowing like a rooster.  Whatever works!  Lil Bro is a great little player when he is paying attention, he is often distracted.  The little girl on the team is quiet and shy but she loves attention from the coach.  And then we have one natural little soccer player who had never seen a soccer ball before this season but he is doing awesome. 

I doubt that we will get suckered into coaching in the future but I must say it has all gone well thus far. 

4 comments:

GB's Mom said...

I love the new picture! Like Mr., GB has been working on using "nice" words. I am having some problems with Hope setting GB up for the sole purpose of getting GB in trouble. Have you ever had similar problems?

Tara - SanitySrchr said...

That's comical. I also find myself diagnosing...

deborah said...

I'm wondering if it's getting close to change the meds time for Miss, again? It seems like a possibility, from past blogs you've written. But, then, I'm thinking you'd know that, if it were the case. Just thinking with my fingers. Sorry. :I

Mom 4 Kids said...

We have an on going problem of Miss setting others up in an attempt to get them in trouble. At age 4 and 5 she was down right masterful at it. It wasn't until I started setting up the video camera that I realized how much I was missing that she was doing.

The med question is a good one. We see the psychiatrist next week so he may increase one of her meds. She is growing like a weed so that is not helpful in keeping the meds where the need to be in her system.

Thanks for the comments! Y'all rock!