Naps were a miss for both boys today, so amidst the shouting hysterical shrieking, a bullet point list is the most coherent thing I can eek out:
- I missed a call from Corb’s preschool today. Apparently during nap time he had a total melt down and wailed uncontrollably for almost an hour. His teacher tried to call me because she couldn’t talk him down, but I accidentally left my phone in the car (and on silent) when I went in to pick Bennett up at my mom’s house.
- Oops.
- I used to say I was glad I had boys because I didn’t think I could handle all that girl drama…
- Hah! You ain’t seen drama until you’ve seen a Corbin meltdown. He stops just short of actually rending his garments, and his blubbering covers everything from friends who hurt his feelings to squirrels who don’t have a place to store their nuts.
- If you’re the kind of person who does not respond well to needy (which I am), its really pretty taxing.
- I’ve discovered one sure fire way to redirect his energy in the midst of an emotional eruption. I start telling him a silly story and leave blanks for him to fill in. By the second or third blank his creative juices are flowing and he has completely forgotten what he was upset about.
- For example, last night when Corbin was melting down in the car I told him about a dream I had in which I was a giant blue pickle. Of course this was totally made up because, ya know, I don’t do shrooms – but he’s really into dreams lately so I knew it would get his attention right away. Sure enough he dove right into filling in the blanks for what my ears and feet were made of (smaller pickles and cotton candy naturally) and suddenly the fit was diffused.
- Of course I can’t expect his teacher to stop everything she’s doing in order to make up a silly story for one disruptive kid, so I think we might need to come up with some new coping mechanisms.
- I have a feeling that once he learns to write Corbin’s world is going to become much easier to bear.
- I of all people know that its hard to be a walking ball of constant and conflicting emotion and thought, desperate for an outlet for all of your internal angst…but truthfully I was hoping that I wouldn’t pass on that particular psychosis personality trait.
- Bennett, who had all but given up his pacifiers over Christmas, has suddenly done an about face and become fiercely devoted to a particular paci that is two sizes too small. Its blue with a white handle and if you try to give him any other paci he spits it out and says yuck!
- He is also showing some major interest in potty-training these days.
- I was hoping to ween him off of the pacifier sooner than this, and not even think about potty training for another six months or so. But few things in motherhood go according to my plan, so I’m just going to try to roll with it.
- ALL of it.