spring blossoms; game night...
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| Wed, 04-25-2007 - 9:46am |
Hello, all,
I have been lurking every day or two, but I have not been able to post. I have really enjoyed the good news I am reading, while I am stretched sooooo thin.
I have to pop in from lurkdom to boast about my kindergartener. First he tolerated being repeatedly pushed by his nearly 3 year old brother as I was running to the scene, without pushing back or any other kind of violence. (He didn't think of walking/running away, either, but hey, its a step.) Then, about 15 minutes later, he was playing with an ant he found in the back yard, whom he deemed his friend named "Brownish-Blacky." His brother approached the ant and killed it with a quick, impulsive pincer grasp. My kindergartener ordinarily would have pummelled his brother, but instead, he ran to me, crying, "_____ killed my only friend. Now I have no one to play with." (Okay, I know that there are issues there, but it is still a huge improvement.)
In the meantime, his brother proceeded to refuse to stay in the back yard, which meant he got put into the house kicking and screaming and making very believable gestures of self-harm, so I could not act immediately on my kindergartener's intense need to have his "only friend" replaced. But my kindergartener tolerated the wait through the tantrum with no more than obsessive asking about how he is going to get a new ant. When his brother was calmer, I gave my kindergartener a cookie and told him to crumple it up near cracks in the driveway, and he did so independently while I continued to help his brother figure out that he could go outside if he would stay in the back yard. (Which means the 3 year old was getting oodles of attention after pushing his brother and grabbing/accidentally killing his friend.)
After the 3 year old was recovered and got into the trampoline, I was able to join my big guy, bury his freind in a scratch in the lawn, meet all of the new ants he had marching around with cookie crumbs, and praise him like crazy for waiting for Mommy so well.
That was a tough evening for me. But still, my kindergarteners improvements in behavior really kept it from being a "call in for reinforcements" evening. He did great!
Sidney


Sidney,
It seems Brownish-Blacky's time on this Earth was short, but he died for a good cause. Forever will we remember his kinship and his making the ultimate sacrifice
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
Poor Brownish-Blacky!