Little Rays of Hope

I'm not being dramatic when I say 'little' but sometimes a little hope is good enough.

The psychiatrist, after having seen D's teacher evaluation, is perplexed and doesn't quite know what to do with him. She seemed certain until she saw how his teacher's eval and ours were very similar. She has a bit of a plan though to try to work through it. We are going to try to nix the impulsivity and see if we can figure out what is causing the rest (most of which seems premeditated). S is going to stick it out on a slightly higher yet steady does of her meds.

The therapist was great and let me dump my load on her. You can tell she's a pro and not a friend because she is really great at listening. I couldn't be a therapist. How in the heck do you do that without interjecting? I even told her that I swear I used to be a good mom. I was raising pretty well behaved, kind, and unselfish kids. And now I swear. What in the heck has happened to me? She told me to stick S in every activity imaginable as I most likely will like being a taxi driver over having to constantly watch her at home. She said she was going to be a leader one way or the other with her personality. So now it's up to us to get her leading in something acceptable to us. She also told us she is super brilliant and that she probably thinks she has no use for adults. (I wonder about our usefulness as well.) She gave me a couple of good ideas for D. The mystery chart was the best one. She said we could make a calendar and at the bottom write down the things he has had taken away that he wants back. Then, using invisible ink (magic decoder pen type of thing) we write those items in the boxes. He has to have certain behaviors each day to get whatever is in the box. The nice thing is that he won't have any idea which thing it is and so the motivation will stay high. Then, if he decides he doesn't give a darn one day and then realizes it was something he really wanted, it won't be our fault. Well, and we won't have to deal with him asking over and over because it's not an option to change the calendar. I really think this could work for D. Heck, I am thinking I should have DH make me up a calendar with dollar amounts. Every day I stay on this dang diet and don't cheat I can use my secret decoder and see how much money I get for my clothes fund. He's probably be sneaky and put 25 cents on all the days but one.

I left encouraged. That's worth something. I was grateful as well because D later lost it and started his screaming at me thing. I was able to stay so calm. It only took him about 30 minutes of screaming before he calmed down a bit. I think if I hadn't gone today I would have just been frazzled and fed the behavior.

What else?

T received his new violin. He's really excited to take it and play it in music class tomorrow.
C made it all day in underwear. She woke up went on the potty this morning and came out in them. "Kids that go on the potty wear underwear." Sure kiddo. She did have an accident of the yucky kind tonight though. EWWW.
M is trying for a solo in her violin concert. I love to see her have such confidence.
D ate his dinner without whining.
S recovered from breaking the post on her bed.