My poor little guy. I don’t know what’s happening to him. I know that the immune system undergoes a major change/milestone at age 7 and he turned 7 in January. I can only think that this is part of it. Since he and Daddy got home from their 8 day trip to Italy, he has needed a nap daily. The days he doesn’t have a nap, he really has a hard time at the end of the day.
The inattention has been through the roof.
I actually called a dear, homeschooling friend 3 weeks ago in tears that I felt like I had no options but to put him in school. She quietly and gently gave me some guidance, and a HUGE relief with her experiences and what worked for her and her children.
Giggle is currently not quite interested in doing sit-down work. We are going more Charlotte Mason but trying to immediately focus on the requirements of his coop classes (which include some reading).
His behavior has really been off the wall. We’ve pretty definitively linked tomatoes to the poopy accidents (and to mommy’s previous profoundly excessive urination). We need to test out other salicylate-containing foods that have been out of our diet for a while to see if they ALL have such a profound effect. Feingold was wonderful for fixing the excretory problems in the house, but notsomuch the attention problems. Regardless, the difference is significant enough to stay on Feingold. Bummer to not be able to eat some of the great, fresh foods that we love (peaches are killing me!) but way less of a bummer than dealing with mommy peeing every 15 minutes (literally–and sometimes, 5 minute intervals) and Giggle having poopy accidents that he doesn’t even feel. :(
We’re doing a lot of “quiet time” in the afternoon. When I put Shuggie down for her nap, I often go in and lay Giggle down. Lately, he doesn’t sleep, or sleeps for 30 minutes; but I figure he needs it.
Today we went to Adler Planetarium. I’m so proud (and shocked) at how helpful Gig was this morning. Daddy went into the office–a rare thing that requires him to leave usually before we’re all awake. So we were going it alone, and mommy relies pretty heavily on daddy in the morning. But Gig jumped in and man, what a help! He even went downstairs without me to help start breakfast! AND he put on and tied his sister’s shoes!?!? WHO IS THIS HELPFUL KID???? It gave me such hope! Of course, he knew we had to be out of the house by 9:30am or we weren’t going. That was what happened on Monday when we were supposed to go to Shedd Aquarium. :/ But even with the level of fallout that ordeal received, it doesn’t generally make any impact on him. So this was serious progress. And it gives me hope about getting out more often.
Shug looks semi-interested in the piano. Hmmmm… But really the biggest post-worthy thing regarding Shuggie is that (very long explanation/story short) we believe her eating, sleeping and “I refuse to be potty re-trained” (thanks, KinderCare for blowing a completely trained kid) are control issues. I also realized that Shug has moved 5 times in 18 months and is not yet 3yo. Life has never been stable for her–in any way. Between the moves, Gig’s behavior reactions and our marital strife–it’s probably felt like the world could be ripped out from under her at any time. She’s VERY oversensitive, too. So I’m glad she’s home and I’m making a much stronger effort to be there for her when SHE wants me. I love her so much. I love them both so much. I ache at night when we’ve had a bad day… and we have them as we all try to find “normal” again.
Again? Eh… go with it.
Gig is playing the piano and actually practicing. He blew through the first two “Life of Fred” books and I’m not pushing him to pick up the third again because they haven’t yet published the gap between the fourth elementary book and “Fractions” (I think there are 6+ more coming).
Mommy & daddy have stopped arguing almost completely thanks to mommy reading a new, life-changing book in mid-August (specifically about anger–which is so not what I thought it was). So that’s good. But we still have a hard time. For our anniversary, I gave him a “date-a-month” for a year and we went on our first one this past weekend. It was a few hours on a sailboat on Lake Michigan. I cannot thank the family that babysat for us enough. There was zero privacy, but there was snuggling in the cold air and no kids stressing us out. We really needed that. We need more of it. But things are improving.
