It's like summer again...

I decided to pull both boys out of school. I love the Younger's teachers but I honestly just didn't want him to go there. If anything were to happen to him or BY him, I am not confident that it would be handled properly. We save on the tuition and plus, we can go back to full-time cloth diapers!

Tuesday the WHOLE family went to Eric's evaluation. It took a lot longer than I anticipated but the outcome I believe is going to be very good. His next meeting is October 2 so we are back to our summer schedule for the next few weeks. The school in Karns is only half day and about a 30 minutes drive so I have decided to not find an alternative school for Ryan since it didn't make sense to drive back and forth (Eric would be 7:45 to 11:30 and Ryan would be 9-2. I'm getting dizzy thinking about the back and forth driving) and I decided that I should probably have some good quality one on one time with Ryan because I feel like I'm missing out on him. It always pangs to see them grow up so fast right in front of your eyes, I suppose.

Anyhoo, on Wednesday I had to think of something for them to do since there wasn't school anymore. I HAD to work because I had put off so much in the wake of the Friday Confrontation and I had hired a new lady who was coming in to sign her paperwork and orientation at noon and I hadn't even had her contract filled out yet! So Eric comes in the room, in a very good mood I might add, and I ask him,

"So what do you want to do today?"
"I d'know"
"Do you want to GO anywhere?"
"How 'bout...(index finger to mouth, eyes at the ceiling)...Chuck E. Cheese?"

Well, we hadn't been there since a birthday party last month and we fed them ahead of time because of the gluten in pizza. Terry took them to the party so I'm not sure how they handled not being able to have pizza, so I thought I'd get a feel of why he chose that place (like it isn't obvious!).

"So why do you want to go there?"
"First, you get a stamp on your arm, next, you pick food, next, you pick coins, then you PLAY! That's the rules!"

It was hilarious. He did just say food, not pizza, so I asked him if he wanted carrots and cheese (off the salad bar) or hot dogs (no bun)? He didn't answer but I know he heard me. I told Cris to pack some extra contraband in case the carrots and cheese weren't enough.

That evening, Terry came home and took the Younger to the grocery store and I took the Elder to church for Cherub Choir. When we pulled up to the church, Eric says, "I don't want to sing." Well that made my heart sink. I'm hoping it was because he discovered that when you tear up paper napkins in the sun it creates "fuzzies" and he was hyperfocused on that. The choir teacher needed another adult to volunteer for the class so I volunteered on a rotational basis and so I sat in the class with him. I meant to ask the teacher if his behavior was typical or if because I was in there. But it started off, I think, as little stressful for him.

First, when we walked in there were 5 adults in the room (including teacher) as opposed to just 1 in the previous sessions. I think that made him apprehensive and he didn't want to sit in the circle. I asked if he wanted me to sit with him and he slowly started creeping to the circle. I showed him a yellow dot that he could sit on and I tried to pick him up to put him on the dot and I think I overstepped a boundary and he squirmed out and ran to the back of the room. In the meantime, a little girl came in late and joined the circle - on the yellow dot. Eric's face immediately dropped and he looked at me and said,

"I fink there's no room for me in the circle." My heart is just breaking seeing him feel rejected. "Yes there is, here are 2 dots over here."
"But they are not yellow." I can't interrupt class because it is only a 30 minute class, but I look to the teacher and mouth, he wants a yellow dot. She very professionally says, I don't see any more, and continues singing. I mean what is she going to do? Jerk the dot out from underneath the little girl?

Well he went and got a chair and sat near the back of the room. Several of the songs require "requests" and each child may raise their hands and name a body part or and action or what not to sing the song about. Well Eric had his hand up but because he was leaning over, it was more like it was sticking behind him. I told him she couldn't see his hand. So he slowly inched his chair closer and closer and closer to the circle. He finally gave his hand a full raise (it was beautifully poised) and teacher didn't see it and turned around to start a new song. Again, droopy face and a heart-wrenching "aw" of disappointment came out of his mouth. With a little pout he looked at me and said,

"I fink I didn't raise my hand."
So I encouraged him to sit in the circle so she can see his hand. I showed him a red dot he could sit on and he put it under one of the chair legs! (Of course, not in the circle)

At the end we all did a nice "this little light of mine" walk around in a circle number. We got up to hold hands and I deliberately placed Eric between me an another adult. We are walking in the circle and I keep seeing the other mom getting jerked around because Eric HAS to push and pull. I think he was focusing on the dots on the floor and stepping on them as we walked by each. Her daughter has sensory processing disorder so she and I were on the same page. Afterward she is like "he is SO strong!" One last group circle number and more parents had arrived to pick up their so we just made a big production of it. The other mom got moved to the "inner circle" so Eric was holding on to me and a very small petite little girl who was holding her dad's hand. I got a little anxious thinking he just might pull her tiny little arm out of socket. But instead of asking the dad to exchange places (there was another little girl and her pregnant mom on the other side of me), I just whispered in Eric's ear, "Let's see how gentle you can be with her hand." He did GREAT!!!!!

I praised him like crazy and asked him if he wanted to help clean up the dots. He ran around the room and picked them all up (they are very hullabaloo-like), and I was going to ask him to give them to teacher, but he raced to the table and started unstacking them.

"What are you doing?"
"I gotta make a pattern.....there....ok, bye!"