I learn a lesson, too

It was definitely my turn to learn a lesson. Keep two or three steps ahead of Puppy, if possible. He’s a clever one. As you are probably waiting to read, did he or didn’t he pull one over on me? Yes, he did. 

I picked him up from after school care. He had his list of items he still wanted to buy with his now $11.18 since last count. I needed to stop to buy some dog food, so I made a deal with him. No wallets! No tape! And he was in agreement, so I drove us to the dollar store on our way home.

I went towards the dog food and he went to search for whatever. I went to the front of the store with my 14 lb. bag and he met me there with his Ziploc bag filled with loose change in one hand, and a watch in the other hand. Remember, it’s the dollar store, so a watch was only $8.00 plus tax. It seemed like a good deal…he gets a watch, he uses $8.66 of his money which brings the total down considerably, so it was a done deal!

I had also picked up Domino’s Pizza on our way, so we were set for the evening. I asked him to set the watch aside until after supper and then we’d open the ridiculously awful plastic packaging it came in. He knew that if he listened, he’d have the watch shortly and so he complied quite nicely. 

He gobbled down his pizza slices and soda. Then with a quick rinse of the hands he was heading upstairs to tear the plastic wrap. But we were able to stop him from doing it alone and possibly getting all cut up in the process. Ms. H helped him get the watch out and he was excited. He didn’t notice that I was just as excited to not have him talking about his wallet for a few minutes. It’s a short distraction but a safe one as long as he doesn’t start asking for more and more watches.

So on this day, I was the only one learning a lesson.

Another lesson learned

You know how sometimes words don’t come across like they should; and you need to teach a lesson another way?  Well I did just that on Monday. And it seems to have worked.

Puppy was in his usual frame of mind when I picked him up from after school care.  He was asking for this or that, but mostly he was asking to buy some tape at the store so that he could make and tape his paper sleeves to the wallet for his credit cards. His wallet only has one surviving sleeve that managed to survive the scissors, and a flip-it from another wallet that holds cards on both sides of it, and is held onto the wallet with a glued piece of paper at both ends. (I really need to work on learning to add pictures.)

However, as it turns out, he has been going around the house for about four days searching for loose change and not to mention he basically stole my counting jar of change to successfully collect a total of $9.92 to use. To my son, that is a whole lot of money. But to me it’s a pain in the butt, because he's letting his imagination run wild. He wants to buy a wallet, a watch, a credit card holder, tape, glue, faded blue jeans from Academy, etc. This is a birthday wish list, not items you buy with $9.92.

Well like I was saying, I picked him up and he was asking to go to the store, but he forgot he left his money at home. So he quickly searched his truck door handle; that's where he puts change, and he came up with $1.27. He asked if I would take him to buy a tape and didn’t care that he didn’t have enough money. But we parked at the store and I talked to him. If he finds tape, goes to the register and has enough money, then it’s his. If not, I’m sorry. He probably didn’t even hear a word I said and was just itching to jump out of the truck. I could see him through the windows walk over and smile as he found the tape. He waited for two customers ahead in line. Then I saw him put the tape back in its place and walk out of the store. But he wasn’t too sad and his head didn’t hang low. He got in the truck and said, “Mom, you were right, it cost too much.” And even, “My wallet is fine just the way it is, I don’t need tape.” This of course brought a big smile to my face with a saddened heart. I could have given him the money. But what lesson would I have taught him? 

This lesson might have worked this time. But as I’m typing my blog I am laughing out loud all by myself. I just remembered he may have tricked me this morning. As we were going over the places he could use his money at, like school book fair, or the candy store at school…he asked if he could put it all in a Ziploc bag to ask his teacher’s permission or suggestion for how to spend his money. Yep, it all seemed so innocent this morning. I will probably be writing a follow up to this story of how I stopped at the store on our way home, haha!

Doing pretty well

Puppy is doing much better since I started the changes in his medications last week. His teacher tells me he is a more pleasant person, talkative, responsive, and overall happy.  These words are music to my ears. He’s come such a long way from the deep darker side episodes of repeated tantrums and meltdowns. 

He has also become a persistent debater whenever it comes to him wanting or requesting a new wallet, or just wanting to modify his present wallet with tape to create new sleeves (which is everyday); or arguing that his dirty jeans with the rip on the back pocket that shows the wallet are not really that dirty and he HAS to wear them because they are his favorite pair. And now two pairs have rips, so he has two favorite jeans that he switches back and forth. Oh and did I mention the rips were made by scissors and not wear and tear? That’s just Puppy.

I am actually seeing progress in his weekly spelling words being put to use in his everyday conversations. I beam with pride whenever he is studying and he makes random sentences with the words; it reassures me he has understood the definition of the word. 

So I can say that as long as there are no more unannounced visits from the police, or torn jeans, we are doing pretty well.

That darn wallet

I started my routine for Friday morning as I usually do on any given weekday. Nothing special was going on. After breakfast and watching the news headlines; I went to wake up Puppy so that he could also begin moving. He starts his weekdays by calling my sister Margie. She gives him a pep talk to jump out of bed, listen to his mom and to have a good day at school. He hangs up and returns the cell phone to me before going to get himself dressed. 

I was actually surprised he did not hesitate in completing his regular daily tasks, but I found him rather quiet so I looked and found him in his bedroom. He was there sitting on the edge of the bed staring at his wallet in hand. He was spooked by me walking in at first, but then started to explain that he fixed it and it’s just the way he wanted it. I asked to look at his wallet. Puppy had taken some of those 3M wall hooks (around six of them). He applied the double-sided pieces to create tape needed to attach a pocket or sleeve for credit cards on a section of the wallet that had none. I took a long deep sigh. He started to say, “Its okay, I want it like this.” And as I opened it further, I saw he had cut the only two pockets the wallet had on the inside flap. He told me that was because he wanted the cards to slide in sideways and not upright. 

He looked at me and was searching for approval. The damage was done and there was no need to argue or give him a lecture, especially this early in the day. The wallet is his and that’s how he feels it needs to be, so I just asked him if that was how he liked it, and he agreed. I did tell him that next time he should ask me for help so I can make the cuts straight and maybe save the pockets instead of removing them. He apologized but said that he was happy anyway.

So this was just another episode from the adventures of “The Wallet.”

Another Doctor's Visit

Puppy and I made our scheduled quarterly doctor's visit on April 24, 150 miles away just so we can see a doctor who will take the time to listen and understands my son.  We had company on our trip this time; my older sister also had her doctor's appointment just down the street from ours so we carpooled.

After driving around the Medical Center district of San Antonio and grabbing lunch, then taking my sister to her appointment, waiting until she was done, then heading out to my niece's apartment for a brief rest and leaving my sister there; Puppy and I headed out again to make our 4:30 p.m. appointment.

The place was packed with limited sitting space. But there are several psychiatrists at this center and each one has their own patients waiting in the same lobby. So in various increments the place was packed and then it was emptied again, and repeated. We didn't get in until 5 p.m., but this was not the norm as we are usually in within 10 minutes after arrival. I didn't mind though because we were almost 30 minutes early to begin with. Besides, it's always a pleasant visit when the psychiatrist takes her time to start with reviewing Puppy's file and notes taken, begins asking questions and listens to both of us while showing interest. Puppy has allowed himself to interact with her more often and it makes me feel better. Even though he might not understand what the doctor or I are saying, we are talking about him; and he tries to explain why he did things or tells her that he's keeping his hands together and being really quiet. I suppose I don't remind myself often enough that he hears everything and is understanding that our talks are mostly about his behaviors.

Our conversation took us to discussions about some of the behaviors Puppy has been expressing. I was trying to describe anxiety and nervousness, but she in return gave me examples of the both behaviors and we agreed that what I thought was anxiety, wasn't. Afterwards, we decided to make a minor change in his medications and I will monitor him. 

I started him on the new dose yesterday. I sent a text to his teacher to inform her of the change and she told me he was in a very happy mood, talkative and complying with all his work requests. I sighed and crossed my heart that this continues and this change is all he needed.