We're on a roll this week...
Wednesday
London has his first swim lesson of the season today. He is excited and ready to go. Nevertheless, the morning is a whine-and-fight-fest with London wanting to play alone and Bodhi wanting to play with London. Trying to respect London's introvert needs, while attending to Bodhi's needs as an extrovert, all while trying to get us ready to go and breaking up fights in the meantime, was all pretty exhausting. Eventually, we made it to swim lessons. London starts strong and enthusiastic, but five minutes in, his teacher asks him to Super Man out to her. I could see that he looked scared and uncomfortable. Suddenly, a little baby getting lessons on the other side of the pool simultaneously starts crying. That set him off into the red zone. London starts yelling "MAMAMA!!!" while sobbing hysterically and refusing to do anything else despite both my and his teacher's efforts for the next 20-25 minutes. When the lesson had one minute left, he had finally calmed down and agreed to do some kicks in the pool. I was embarrassed and frustrated. It's now 11 am.
Thursday
Both boys woke up by 5:30am, but played peacefully and quietly until showtime at 6 am. After shows and breakfast, they resumed their playing, but by 7:30, London was chucking wooden puzzles at Bodhi and me, because...I think Bodhi tried to play too?
Later, I'm trying to get us ready to go for a walk, and keep getting interrupted by the boys whining, fighting, and London pretending to be a baby and insisting I treat him as such. It's frustrating, but I soldier on.
Shortly before our walk, we sit down together to arrange his schedule for the day (London has a paper schedule that we arrange every morning so he knows what to expect.) We sit down to put it together and London, without warning, starts smacking the papers everywhere and destroying the schedule. I calmly explain that that behavior is disrespectful and unacceptable. This sets him off in a rage, because apparently he was just 'pretending that he is a baby that doesn't understand and destroys things', so why should he be in trouble?! He picks up a heavy metal toy train, and cocks it back ready to throw. I sternly explain that if he throws that at me, he will not get to go to his uncle's house and will lose showtime. Inside, I am terrified, knowing if he throws it at me, from where he is standing 2 feet away, it will do some serious damage to my face. Angrily, he pretends to throw it at me, but keeps the toy in his hand. After several times of this torture, I decide to turn my attention elsewhere in the hopes he moves on to something else. Instead, he just picks up a different hard toy and chucks that, thankfully, away from my direction. Into the pack-in-play he goes. I shut the door and Bodhi wants to nurse. The entire time I nurse Bodhi, London screams and cries and won't let up expressing his anger. Afterwards, we have a calm, loving conversation while I hold him, but even still, I am drained. It's 9 am.
Friday
This morning both boys were up by five. Bodhi wakes up happy, punching me excitedly and yelling "MOOOM!" London opens the curtains and yells "IT'S MORNING!" Followed by: "Is it 6-0-0?" When I tell him its only 5, he proceeds to whine in protest. (They aren't allowed to watch a show until 6:00am.) "It's not my fault you guys woke up too early. You know the rules." I explain.
It's a whine-fest until 6:00am while I try to make a suitable breakfast. The smoothie makes his mouth too cold. The oatmeal doesn't look right. And of course we don't have enough bacon left to satisfy him. Now he wants nachos. For breakfast.
It's finally 6-0-0. I set his timer for 20 minutes, and he turns on Little Einsteins. The timer goes off too soon...for both of us. I had just finished making his nachos. "I wanted to eat my nachos WHILE I'm watching a show!" London yells. He's pretty upset and runs to his room to get a toy to throw at me. First, he just teases-pretending to throw the toy without actually letting go. Then he chucks a plastic baseball bat at me. I pick him up, set him in the pack-n-play (that he still can't climb out of), and shut the door.
He screams and yells and cries and doesn't let up. Meanwhile I google how to respond to aggression with kids with sensory processing issues. After a few minutes, I hear him yell "MOM I need to go Pee-Pee!" I rush him to the bathroom. He goes and is finally calm. We talk about why he was in timeout. We talk about throwing toys. Again. This time he says, "The pee-pee was making me throw things mom." Seems silly, but I believe him because his sensory issues cause an aversion to using the toilet, which causes lots of fight or flight behaviors. It's now 7 am.
