Up On The Soap Box

Well, I'm gonna climb up on my little soap box for a moment, so this might be the time for ya to just click right on off here if you don't want to hear me! Jacob informed me this afternoon that he flipped a card today at school. For those of you unaware of the card-flipping disciplinary procedure, here's you a little explanation...a kid gets in trouble, they flip a card. First card is a warning, and no action taken. Kid gets in trouble again, flips a second card, lands themselves a strike one and usually has to sit in part of recess. Let's just say, get to a strike three and you're outta there. (No, not really!) Okie-dokie...Jacob knows if he flips a card at school, he's in trouble with me and his daddy when he gets home...punishment will be determined upon hearing about the situation. Now, for confidentiality reasons, please note that this does NOT concern his classroom teacher in the least...it did not even happen in the classroom...see the thing about the card flipping; all the staff in the building knows the little ritual, and any of the lot of them can be the flipping decider. (Golly, I've even had to do it once or twice while subbing...didn't like it a bit, but it was pretty extreme for easy going me to have to give the flip order!) So, Jacob gets in trouble (for whispering to a friend and it was apparently a no-talking time.) I don't have a problem with him having to flip a card, since he was not following the rules. Okay, point taken. However, Jacob knows when he flips a card, he's gonna be in trouble with me...that's the first thing. Secondly, you might not believe it, but he has kind of a nervous personality and doesn't want to get in trouble. SO, he has to flip a card, and starts to cry. This is what I have the problem with...the grown-up tells him that if he doesn't quit crying, he'll be flipping two cards! No that ticked me off a bit! My point is, you have a kid whose parent is adamant about good behavior while their child is at school and the kid knows this and takes it to heart. Would the adult rather the kid not be bothered by having to flip a card in the first place??? If the kid isn't going to be in trouble at home, then why would it matter to the kid if they flipped the card?? I don't know, but that just got me a little riled up! I know my kid is going to make mistakes and get in trouble...that's just part of being a kid. But at least, I feel, he's had enough raising to know that he did a big no-no and momma's gonna be upset with him! Perhaps I should just tell him not to worry about flipping cards and that he won't be in trouble so he doesn't cry next time!! (No, I won't do that....but, it's sure tempting where this person is involved!) ARG! :/

Okay, enough about that! Let me re-cap the last few days with my little brood :) After my busy day on Friday, I had zero motivation to get anything accomplished on Saturday! Sunday, the four of us went to Midway's homecoming. My family all belong to Midway and my cousin was preaching, so we decided to skip Sunday School (which is rare) and do a little visiting. The service was wonderful and I'm glad we decided to go. Of course we all enjoyed dinner afterward...especially Matthew and Jacob...they both ate bunches! :) We enjoyed the afternoon at a birthday party with some of our friends, and Jacob had a blast playing in the rain!

Yesterday was back to the grind after a three-day weekend, but we managed fairly well. Jason and Matthew enjoyed the night together, even though Matthew went to sleep at five o'clock and didn't wake up till three this morning, while Jacob and I went to Kyrock's Pizza, Pages and PTO. They had their Fall Into Reading program in conjunction with the PTO meeting and the kids got to make a craft and hear a story, while their parents attended the PTO portion of the night. We also visited the Book Fair, and Jacob left with five or six books :) They were having a grandparent's shopping day at the Book Fair yesterday, but Jacob's grannies both gave him money to spend last night...I came out pretty cheap!!

Matthew went back to WKU today. He did pretty good in speech and they said he had a really good day at KAP. They were talking about grains and picked out some pictures from the Kroger ad that were of grains to glue on a paper plate. He LOVES to look at grocery ads and had found pictures of mac and cheese and crackers! He liked showing me his work! The gal that brought him to me said all they have to say is, "Matthew, your mom's here" and he lights up and starts smiling :) :) :) He came "running" down the hallway to me again today!! I have met a girl through a mutual friend on facebook, who is going to get me some info together on music therapy. I've heard of this before, but I don't know how it works, so I've asked her for some websites to look on. Very coincidental, she comes to WKU to do clinical observation hours once a week! Such a small world!

Lastly, I finally got ahold of the neurologist's office today after several days of playing phone tag! There doesn't appear to be any other medications we can try with Matthew, namely because most do not come in liquid form. They also mentioned that he might recommend Matthew see yet another type of specialist. He goes back to the neurologist next week, so I think we'll just wait until then to make any changes to the medication dosages, and see what he thinks. The hardest thing is this...give Matthew the full medication dosage and he is so lethargic he can't walk or hardly stand or hold his head up, BUT he is not hitting himself hardly ANY and his aggression to others is much less. Back him off of the dosage to keep him from being so lethargic and he begins to hit himself much more and harder, and he becomes more aggressive towards others as well. The worst part is, when he's not on as much medicine, he's closer to being the happy little boy he's always been with laughs and smiles and giggles. On the full dosage, he doesn't hardly smile at all! The choice comes down to: have him smiling, laughing and controlling his gross motor skills more while risking the self-injurious behaviors, OR, keep the threat of self-injury at bay while having a lethargic, non-smiling son, who is likely to hurt himself because he appears to have such low muscle strength...It's so hard to know what to do for him, but most of all, I have to keep him safe! I will probably keep him on a higher dosage at night and a tiny or no dose at all in the morning.

I think I've spilled about enough for one night! I hope everyone has a happy Wednesday! :)