Rainy wet weekend

As I was logging on here to update my blog, I received an instant message from Cuz, commenting that the novelty of daily blogging must have worn off since I haven't written anything for the last couple of days. That's not really the case - I just didn't really have much to report in the whole homework/school/kids aspect, and yesterday I was totally lazy and spent all but two hours in my jammies! (Had to get dressed to go for manicure and pedicure.)

Okay - let's get back up to speed on things. Picked S up on Thursday afternoon for his doctor's appointment. When we were leaving, his EA commented that S had a minor outburst following lunch recess, but she was able to get him redirected with relative ease. Apparently he became agitated because it was an indoor break, and he was annoyed that he didn't get a chance to have some fresh air. At that time, I looked at him, and said "S - these things happen, buddy. You can't be getting upset about things you can't control - like the weather."

We got to the appointment a bit late - road construction frustrates me - but once we arrived, we got right down to things. S hasn't been to see this doctor in quite a while, but I have been keeping him up to date via a paid email subscriber service. S conveyed to the doctor that all is going well, and actually appeared very happy and more open with the doctor than I have ever seen. He was sitting in the chair closest to the doctor, in a very comfortable position. (Normally he either sits in a chair in the far back corner of the room, or sits with his feet up on the chair so that he is balled up.)

Anyway, after a bit of conversation, we got down to talking about any problems that have occurred at the school. We talked about the whole "naming of the group" incident, and the doctor asked him a number of questions that I could see were making S think. I then brought up the topic of the event that had happened earlier that day. At this point, S got up from the chair he was in, and moved to one behind it. He raised his feet up on to the seat, and took on a balled position.

As the conversation progressed, it became very apparent that it wasn't really the lack of lunch recess that had upset him. He was upset about an incident that occurred during the morning recess, and it was simply the lack of lunch-time recess that brought out his negative thoughts and feelings. Turns out his 'tribe' was responsible for collecting the Breakfast for Learning bins from each of the classrooms, and he was on collection duty with two other students. (The bins are collected during morning recess, filled by another tribe at lunchtime, then delivered at afternoon recess by another tribe.) Anyway, he started collecting bins during the recess, and realized the other tribe members were not there helping, and he spent his entire recess inside completing this task, and therefore he didn't get any "fun time" during recess, and, understandably so, resented the other two tribe members that did go outside. I guess he figured he would get to blow off steam at lunchtime, and when that didn't go as planned - kaboom!

I think I have mentioned in past posts that talking with S, and actually figuring out what the true problem is, is like having to peel back layers to actually get to the root of the problem, and this is a perfect example. The doctor worked on explaining to S that rather than dwelling on the negative (didn't get to go outside) it would be more effective for S to focus on the positive (tribe gained a point because of S's diligence.) Yeah, he wasn't open to that right then. As we continued to discuss it, the doctor suddenly said it was very apparent S was 'stuck' and continuing the conversation was not going to help. He then turned to me to discuss how we should best approach this "stuck thought process." One suggestion he made was that he increase S's anxiety medication, but I quickly said that I didn't think that would be most effective in the long run - we needed to work on a more active cognitive-adjusting approach, and the doctor smiled. (I think he was testing me.)

He told me he would prefer to not increase medication as well, and offered to prepare a report for the school to explain the whole 'focus on positive' approach. I told him I would share that with the school once it was prepared. He suggested we see how that works, and if necessary, he will phone the school during an appointment to discuss this method of cognitive readjustment in further detail with the EA.

The appointment ended, as as we were leaving encountered a little girl that S goes to school with. S said "Hey, K. Why are you here?" I quickly told him to stop being nosey, get his shoes on and get outside. The drive home was a discussion about privacy and inappropriate questions.

Thursday evening was karate for S. The A-man had finished his homework during his learning strategies course, so he didn't have anything to complete at home. S had to put together a collage for his Abba project, and he put that together on the computer once he got home from karate.

Friday morning I put sent an email to the SERT sharing with her the details of the previous day, and the summary from the doctor. I called her later in the day to confirm she had received the information, she confirmed that she had printed it to share with the EA, the classroom teacher and the principal.

On the work front, I am still training my assistant. There are a few issues we are going to have to work through, and I told hubby yesterday that I think I am going to have to do this early this week, as the following week is my business trip to Mississippi, and I know there could be problems between Boss and her if I don't deal with it right now. She just doesn't seem to realize that when I ask her to approach a task in a certain manner, there is a reason for it. Well, Friday afternoon she realized it when something that should have been a very quick fix took much longer because she had approached it in her manner rather than the format I had explained. I feel like I am falling farther behind because of her, but I know this is just due to the training process. I may end up putting in a bit of O/T next week.

The A-man has a test tomorrow, but has informed hubby and I that having to study isn't really 'homework.' Yeah, right. I am going to tackle housework for the remainder of the day, I guess. I really do have to do this as I did have such a lazy day yesterday.