Proud of Myself

Jimmy has been a real beast to be around lately, to the point where I actually cried two mornings in a row because I was so frustrated by his behavior. It's the incessant whining, the not listening, the hyperactivity, but mostly the whining.

So I decided to problem solve. Lately I've been thinking about how I can't wait until he's in school, because he really "needs" it. By that I mean, he thrives on routine and interaction and structure. I have finally realized that he is just not at all like Barbara in being able to be self-directed and play on his own and keep busy. I just thought he was, because when Barbara is around, he follows her lead and gleans off her direction. I also thought about how, although he used to never want to go at first, now that he is into the routine of it, he LOVES the "preschool" coop we do and wants to go every day, even though we only do it two mornings a week. I also thought about my first year teaching, how things really turned around once I made a schedule, with photos I took of each activity of the day, and had it posted in the classroom. The kids behavior got so much better once they knew what to expect.

So when we got home from taking Barbara to school, I let Jimmy watch one show while I quick cleaned up and gathered my thoughts. I jotted down a schedule of fun activities that would mimic school. When I explained what we were going to do to Jimmy, he was beaming, and he pretty much didn't stop beaming or giggling all morning. QUITE a change from his most recent behavior.

We did Calendar time together, traced his name and some shapes, had playtime with his truck, played the game "Memory", had Recess outside, potty and washed hands, we had snack time which was a yummy strawberry banana chocolate protein smoothie, Painted, had Music and Movement time, read Stories, then had playtime again while I made lunch. Then he got to watch one more show, before turning it off for nap time.

He was so happy and enthusiastic the entire time, and when we came in from "recess" I heard him talking to himself in the other room as he hung his coat up on the hook, saying, "Mommy likes to play a lot of fun things with me! I like Mommy." When Daddy called he was relieved to hear that neither of us had killed the other, and Jimmy rattled off all the fun things he had done in the morning.

I feel much better about myself and my job performance, and much better about Jimmy. I had been starting to dread spending entire days with him without Barbara (he is SO happy whenever she is around), and I was looking at my time teaching coming up in February as a vacation from him! He'd been up (in our room) since before 5 this AM so now he is snoozing away and I can have some time to myself and start working on one of the paintings that I'm doing for the friends who lost their wife/mother.

In short, I learned a lot today.