Hayden has been agitated & refusing to comply at school-- not every hour of every day, but enough that they're noting the difficulty. We are not seeing so much of this at home so obviously we need to get to the root of what is bothering him at school. (I mean yes there are times when his behavior at home is difficult, but it's not any more or less than before.)
The major change this year versus previous years is that he has a different Aide, but I'm hearing that Hayden is overall doing well with this person. So as usual it's quite challenging for me to chime in because I am not there with him during the day.
Progress meetings are a regular part of our school year (per my request), but tomorrow's meeting is going to involve a relatively difficult conversation. Hayden started a new behavior of mimicking shooting someone. He puts his hands together, isolates his pointer fingers to mimic the gun, & says some pretty awful phrases to go with (having to do with killing & dying).
I don't know where he got that from, but to be honest I'm not sure how much I care. What I do know, is that we need to focus on what is actually upsetting him. And we need a solution as to how we are going to correct it. Because he can not be doing that in front of, or worse, towards other children.
Some days he has a good morning & a tough afternoon, & some days he has a tough morning & a good afternoon. And apparently his disposition at home in the morning, for example, is not necessarily any reflection of his mood when he gets to school. Likewise, when he leaves school sometimes the note in the journal is completely backwards to his behavior in front of me.
We're supposed to look for patterns but sometimes there aren't any. Sometimes, it's just the fragile x.
Anyway, I did my weekly grocery shopping today & I also picked up some plain ready-to-bake sugar cookies for Hayden. When it comes to his sweet tooth there is not much variety to his preferences, but he has quite an appetite for whatever does make his list.
I ended up baking them this evening when I realized that I had nothing to bring to our meeting tomorrow, & of course it's against my personal rules to show up empty handed. We have had these cookies before & although they taste good, they are blah-looking. So for purposes of sharing with some of H's team tomorrow, I thought about how I could make them look better. I do have star-shaped sprinkles (not even sure why), so that was an idea but I didn't know if they'd stick. Then I remembered I had actually just bought a bag of mini minty nonpareils. Because they're minty they're pastel-colored, but I figured they would probably taste good with the sugar cookie dough.
I really don't know why my brain didn't register what was happening when I put the cookies in the oven, but I guess my mind caught up with me when I took them out. Because clearly I just made a batch of lovely, colorful spring-themed cookies which look perfectly appropriate for either a baby shower, or Easter. Just in time for Halloween.
Then he said something that I couldn't quite make out, but it sounded like, "Ah-werjick Dad." I didn't respond to him because I was trying to translate in my mind... I were jick Dad...? No. That didn't make sense. I was certain he was trying to say something to convince me that he needed to bring cookies to Dan, so he could get away with taking more of them. I thought for sure that's what he meant, but it was not at all what he said.
He repeated himself, sensing that I was confused, but this time he said-- again, very matter-of-fact-- "I ah-werjick you guys." And then I got it. He was saying he was allergic to us because he sneezed.
I had no idea that Hayden even understood the concept of allergies-- he doesn't have any, seasonal or otherwise-- let alone that he would know or think to say something like that in a very appropriate & funny context.
I thought that was absolutely hilarious & I started laughing, so then he started laughing, & that made me laugh more... & eventually one of us had to walk away from the other. Luckily Hayden went to the other room where Dan was, leaving me in the kitchen barely able to stand up straight. I used the counter top to support myself as I tried to catch my breath. I wiped under my eyes & as soon as I could focus enough I texted my parents & Jenna to tell them what he just said. Then I went to the other room where Dan & Hayden were so I could tell him what happened.
It's all I can think about now when I look at those ridiculous Easter cookies. I am most definitely bringing them to the meeting tomorrow. There is no way I am going to do a repeat performance of what happened at the Board of Ed meeting last month. No way. Tomorrow when I am speaking with H's team I am going to look at those very out-of-place, almost egg-shaped, pastel-buttoned sugar cookies & I am going to smile.
If the cookies start to make me laugh & then I bite my tongue & that causes my eyes to tear up, I'll just blame it on allergies.
And if all goes well, I'm making a mental note to bring pumpkin cookies for his IEP in the spring time...
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