A Week of Firsts

This has been a week of firsts for some of us in our family. Trevor has begun sounding out words and recognizing numbers. He has really made a connection between letters and words. He is asking us to tell him what things in the environment say, like "STOP", "Yield", "Joe's Barber Shop", etc. The development of little minds is too cool!

Ella had a first this week, too. She had her first stomach virus! She has never vomited and boy was that an experience for her. Tom and I were up all night grabbing the bucket in anticipation of her illness. She was a good sport, but did get somewhat frustrated with her parents throwing her face in to a bucket every few minutes for fear of what was to come up ( and trying to protect our sheets as she was in our bed!). Needless to say, she only got sick the one time, and the rest of the time was spent tossing and turning either because her tummy hurt, or she did not want be bother by us.

Finally, Aliza has had a week of firsts. She has had absolutely terrible behavior at school and at home. She is refusing to get dressed (not that usual), taking things from others, not listening to her teachers and refusing to follow school rules. For the first time, (another first for our family), I was called by the disciplinarian at school. I was told that Aliza had been to the Disciplinarian two times in one day. The first was because she was rolling around on the floor and would not get up and do her work like the rest of the class. She went to the Disciplinarian, then went back to her class and behaved well. She had lunch with her class and went outside for recess. All was uneventful, until her class got back inside the building to the classroom and Aliza was not with them. She remained on the playground while the rest of the students and staff lined up and went inside. She has gotten reprimanded for this in the past, however they have always been able to get her to line up, eventually. But on this day, no one realized that she was not with the line and she was left outside of the school building. Once she realized that the class had gone inside, she decided it was her time to go inside. The principal saw Aliza walking inside by herself and sent her to the disciplinarian. Who knows how long she had been outside by herself, and there is not a fence or barrier to the playground. She could have easily left the school grounds and gone into the residential neighborhood behind the school, or worse.

Tom and I have never had a problem with our children being "behavior problems". Aliza's behavior is beginning to impact her ability to participate in class. I hope that we are able to nip this in the bud and can come back from Christmas break with a new attitude and better behavior. Aliza is going to start a medication after the holidays, at the advise of her Cardiologist, to allow her heart to pump more efficiently. She is often very tired and her behavior is always worse when she is tired. We hope that we will see some changes in her endurance and ability to handle a full day without getting tired. If it does not work, then it is not a big deal, but at least we will have ruled out a medical reason for her frustrating behavior.

As far as the recess incident goes, we need to work with the school more closely to make sure that this does not happen again. I have a hard time believing my child is solely responsible for her behavior when there are at least 3 other adults on the playground during recess and they are aware that she has had trouble in the past with lining up with the other students.