Boxes holding boxes
I ordered a bunch of packing stuff from U-Haul and it arrived today. Now I have boxes holding boxes in my living room to add to the already established mayhem of laundry baskets and general disarray. I’ve packed four small but heavy boxes full of books and random items and I’m going to put them in the POD later. Of course Iz can not help messing with everything. Grrrr. I’m sure Iain will be delighted that boxes have arrived but also greatly annoyed by me because I either won’t have time or be in the mood at the very moment he decides he wants to pack up everything he owns. Grace will ask for a snack and insist she’s dying of hunger and thirst and Iz will join in shortly thereafter. Whee.
I’ve done nothing at my mom’s this week since spraying the bleach on Sunday. I wonder how the mold has fared from being blasted by a fairly high concentration of bleach mixed with water. I’m hoping the bleach won and we can move on now. I suspect I’ll have to scrub the walls either way but as long as the black stuff and the white fuzzy stuff is gone it’ll be fine. Doesn’t that sound delicious? Yeah, not to me either. And speaking of the basement, the waterproofer guy hasn’t called me yet so I’m guessing they weren’t able to move us up before the 8th like he thought they might. Oh well. We’re scheduled for the 8th and I’m hoping the weather will be cooperative so they can do the work well and thoroughly.
Iain’s last soccer game of the season was last night and I don’t think he cared much. He almost decided to stay home to watch a TiVo’d episode of Mega Movers instead (train depot move — shocking, I know). He may as well have since he spent almost the entire game standing there looking around with his fingers classically shoved into his mouth. He decided he was done and was in the car waiting for us before the game was officially over. I took that as our cue to get home and get them into bed. I think it was a good decision since rather than being up at 6am, the girls were totally out until I woke them up.
While his lack of interest in soccer isn’t here nor there (honestly, it’s more for him to run around and me to socialize with Kelly and Mike rather than any concerted effort to make him the new, white, special-needs Pele), his attitude at school is beginning to be in need of adjustment. Yesterday he was hurt that Gracie wasn’t interested in playing with him at lunch time (first and second graders eat and have recess at the same time) and it bothered him so much that it seemed to ruin his afternoon more and more as it wore on. His aide mentioned it and he knew his behavior was inappropriate but it’s hard for him to contain his feelings as well as a typical child might. His fists were clenched and he started the growl stuff with tears welling up in his eyes when his aide tried to keep him on track with his school work. We’re seeing this more and more and while it can be frustrating for me, I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be for him. I’m sure he wants to control his feelings and his reaction to them but can’t and that has to make it all worse for him. I wish I could help him with that but all I can really do is try to talk to him and teach him ways to cope.
It makes me sad to think that he’s not really playing with anyone but his sister at lunch. At least that’s the best I can figure out. It’s hard getting information out of him and Gracie wasn’t much help either. I know he likes to play with her which is understandable but she also has her own friends that she wants to socialize with and that’s understandable too. I mean, she plays with him the entire time they are home so I think she wants to hang with her friends when she can. There’s a little boy who Iain is friends with and got to know in kindergarten who also doesn’t really play with anyone at lunch. They are in separate classes but I told Iain to hook up with him at recess and he always says he will but I guess he forgets or gets distracted. At least that’s what I think happens knowing what I know about Iain. He says that he does play with this or that person from time to time but I hate to think that anyone is pushing him away. I keep asking if everyone is nice to him and ask if anyone has been mean and according to him everything is okay. He’s not one to lie about that but, like I said before, it’s hard to get stuff like that out of him sometimes. I wish he’d hook up with the other little boy especially considering that Iain told him the other day that they’d be friends forever. :*)
I’m excited because I finalized my lens rental for the next couple of weeks. I’m going with LensProToGo.com (I read about him on Hey Girl, Nice Shot I think) and the owner, Paul, seems like a good egg. I had to try a couple times by phone to finalize the billing info but he was on a shoot and we got everything worked out without much fuss. I do have one complaint, though, but I chalk it up to unusual circumstances and a growing business. I was annoyed a bit because despite my reservation, one of the lenses I wanted to rent was still out because the renter decided they needed it longer. Well, that’s great for her but when you reserve and then are left high and dry it’s pretty annoying. Now, at this time Paul doesn’t take money for reservations but I suspect as his business grows he’ll have to modify his policy regarding returning lenses because otherwise unfulfilled reservations can come back and bite him in the ass in customer satisfaction. On the other end of things I’m sure the renter appreciates him working with her and she’s happy about that but it also affects other customers. Thankfully it’s a non-essential lens and the one I really needed is no problem. Had it been the other I would have been pretty hot. I don’t want to be that kind of customer and I understand a small business’s growing pains. However, I just want to know that when I reserve something it’s going to be there. If this were for a job it would be a bad, bad thing. Hell, even the library won’t let me check a book out for a second term if someone is on the waiting list for it.
When it literally takes all day to compose a post you naturally have built-in updates.
First, Iain did not bug me at all about packing his stuff. Instead he insisted on watching Mega Movers after he “helped” me load those ball-breaking boxes into the POD. By help I mean sometimes he held the back door for me and then would sidle up next to me in the POD so I could not only stress about carrying the load but also about tripping over him and breaking both our necks. I feel bad for getting irritated with him because he only wanted to help and feel like he was doing something.
When I was picking the kids up from school a couple of kids said hello to Iain and that made me feel so good. If other kids are making the initiative to connect with him, that’s a good thing. I’ve also seen him say hi to people so I’m trying to be the rational mom. After reminding him to ask his friend to play outside, he and his friend reported that they were on the same team playing basketball at recess. I thought that was pretty cool.
It’s more than just Iain playing mostly with Gracie that has been making me think about his social life. Yesterday he told me that one of the kids was throwing rocks at him. When I heard about it I worried that between that and his clinging to Gracie, things were starting to go sour socially at school. I reminded myself that almost everyone has something like that happen to them and I have to not take it as a personal thing against him and his quirks unless I specifically hear otherwise. Plus, the kid who threw the rocks has both parents in jail and grandma doesn’t seem to be the most reliable. He has a twin sister who is in Iain’s grade (the boy was held back in kinder) who is a very, very angry young lady and I hope someone can connect with her soon because otherwise she doesn’t seem like she stands a chance. I heard her tell Iain to shove something up his butt last year and that’s when I found out about what a troubled life they lead.
Like any mom I was less than happy hearing someone tell my child to stick something up his butt (I was in the classroom and they were in the hallway — he said hello to her and something about the community project they were building in the hallway) but after hearing about what she’s going through it made me more sad for her than anything. Iain just sort of took it in stride but he also gets to come home to a mom and dad and a relatively sane home life. The twins’ older sister started out bright and on track and is now in special education because she’s fallen so far behind. It’s not a cognitive but an emotional issue that has caused this delay and that’s really sad because it was preventable. I don’t know if she has behavioral problems but if her younger sister isn’t able to keep up either (and I can tell she’s a bright girl too) they are going to have a very angry, frustrated and delayed child on their hands. The “other people have it worse than you” line usually rings hollow with me but in this case I do feel that way — at least in the case of those children. Iain may have challenges he’ll have to face for the rest of his life but he still has us on his best and his worst days.
Gracie didn’t ask for a snack until close to bed time since we had an early dinner. Iz, as expected, joined in and they enjoyed some wheat crackers while Iain read his reading homework to me. He’s impressing me with his reading. No, he isn’t reading three grades ahead but he’s also not reading three grades behind, either. He seems to be still with his peers as far as his work is concerned (of course some things are considered adjusted simply because he has an aide at his disposal) so that’s promising. I keep waiting for that day when the coursework starts to become too challenging and thankfully so far that hasn’t happened. I’m enjoying it while it lasts and am very proud of him for all the hard work he’s done. Sure, he has great people working with him but he’s the one who has to do the work and even though he doesn’t always feel like it, he’s getting there.
I think Gracie and I need a mom/daughter date soon. I spend lots of time with Iz since she’s with me so much and Iain gets time with me because of his homework and the extra attention he needs sometimes so I need to devote some time to her. That poor girl. It can’t be easy being the middle child and a sensitive middle child to boot. Yes she’s a smart cookie but she’s also very, very sensitive and I don’t want her to feel like she’s being forgotten.
Off to bed.
