Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Hills and other obstacles

So I had a meeting with the school last week to further brainstorm ways to help our not-quite-behaving kiddo in the classroom -- they've already modified how they use his behavior chart, and I suggested a clock-style chart on his desk to keep him on task during the day, as well as a few other things. I also alerted them that we'd taken kiddo off the medication, because, turns out, it was making him fall asleep on the bus every day, and not otherwise doing much good for him. (On to Plan C.) They were understanding, and said they would keep an eye out for aberrant unmedicated behavior.

Though honestly I was kind of curious: What's he like unmedicated? Turns out the answer is, "More hyperactive than you remember." Also randomly defiant and near-constantly goofing around. It hasn't been a bad week ... just an interesting week. I haven't gotten many reports from his teacher, though, so I don't know the full story yet.

One thing about kiddo, though: He's quite charming. The school officials told me, with some amusement, how kiddo has been handling his "heavy work" assignment of carrying a load of books down the hall for his teacher. (The idea being, it's a sneaky way to build extra physical activity into his day.) He was walking out into the hallway and telling the first teacher he saw, "My teacher wants me to carry all these books!" And then the teacher would say, "Oh, let me get those for you!" And then he is heavy work-less.

The school officials noted that he is so cute, after all, that people would do such things for him, and he's pretty smart, and I said I hoped he never enters politics. Although if anyone needs a fence whitewashed, they should probably give him a call.

In the meantime, at least it's sort of warm enough to do actual exercise outside. Kiddo and I went for a bike ride over the weekend. I was relieved to find that my bike, which I got at a garage sale last year, had tuned up and then left in the garage for months because of my back issues (and also winter), rides pretty nicely. I made one other wonderful discovery:

On bike, I am faster than kiddo.

"Come back here, you little Mommy!" he kept yelling.

"You have to pedal faster to get up the hill!" I called back.

Maybe I should've gone slower. But the thing is, I've been chasing after this kid since he could walk. Through parks. Across parking lots. Down hallways and around the mall. Run run run. You know what? You chase me for once, sweetie.

Oh, am I going to enjoy this. Every single weekend, whenever we're free. "Hey kiddo, want to ride bikes? Catch me if you can!"

Mwa ha ha ha ha.

Kiddo has also started T-ball practices, and I'm pretty sure he's actually hit the ball at least twice. I'm going to take that as a plus.

Another plus: He turned 7 on Sunday (yeesh, he's 7? I have a 7-year-old?) and had a most fabulous time at his party, and even more or less patiently waited until well after the party had ended before opening his gifts. Patiently waiting for anything is a bit of a struggle for him, so I'm glad he was able to see it through.

So, lots of pluses, even among the troubles and the roadblocks. Who's up for a bike ride?

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