Sunday, July 1, 2012

Mr. Personality

Kiddo has his problems but friendliness is not one of them. His nanny has been taking him to the pool practically every day, and since this is apparently where all the SAHMs are hanging out with their kids, he's met all the kids his age in the neighborhood. They've become buds. He even crashed a birthday party there last week. The mom said, "Oh, I should've invited him!" and offered him cake and ice cream.

I'm very glad for this, because at least some of those kids should be in kindergarten with him come September, and because repeated social interactions are part of what he needs to work on (he's roughhorsed a few times and gotten busted by the lifeguard), and because we're paying pool dues so someone ought to be taking advantage.

He's also in a group session now at OT, with a few other boys more or less his age, the idea being to get them all working on social interactions as well as the other tasks. I don't entirely know what they're doing in there, except I hear a lot of giggling and running and occasionally a thud into the waiting room door. His therapist says he's been showing good listening skills and has been pretty good about transitioning to different tasks. Of course, the session just gets him wound up, not tired out (he's the Energizer bunny in shorts and Lightning McQueen sneakers), so after the session yesterday, he and another boy from his group were still goofing around in the waiting room, and then kiddo pulled a classic wrestling move on him and knocked him over. Which didn't seem to bother the other boy in the slightest, but it bothered me a little. (Also: Where did he learn that? Seriously, he looked like The Rock for a second.) And then he ran out into the hallway while I was still talking to his therapist, which he does after every session, and then I have to give chase. So you could say the impulsivity is still there. Next time I'm just telling the therapist to text me and I'm hauling him out of there.

But no matter where we are, he thinks he's among friends. We get lunch together after the group sessions, because they end at lunchtime and the facility is a good 35-minute trip from home. He gets a grilled cheese sandwich; I get a salad. Yesterday we were sitting next to another family, a mom, two boys and (I assume) their grandma. And kiddo turned to them and just started talking. About why they'd been speaking Spanish (he seems to think it's just a fun language you hear on "Dora" and not one people actually speak). About his lunch. About my lunch. About his toy school bus. One of the other boys chimed in about his toys. Then they started trying to make each other laugh. They made funny faces at each other. Kiddo leaned back in his seat and bicycled his legs near his face. They made weird sounds at each other and laughed hysterically. The other mom and I kept looking at each other and grinning.

It did get to be a bit much when kiddo and the other boy started chasing each other around the chairs. But at least lunch was about over.

I'm beginning to worry that we have a Class Clown on our hands. But that's probably what happens when two smartasses marry. (Serves us right, in other words.)

The real issue is that he gets all worked up by the attention and takes whatever he's doing a half-step too far, and gets in trouble. But we'll see what happens in September, I guess.

1 comment:

  1. He can make farting armpit noises at my house any day. Peter is currently diving off EVERYTHING face first. Because he wants to kill me.

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