, Mic's Mom, Weather, etc.

[Guest guest]

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Yaaaay! Great news! I am so happy to hear that Tim is having a good

school year. Hope you are able to relax a bit more and enjoy the fun at

home, not worry so much about being " on " as the therapy-mom. are you

still having him do that Greenspan-style play group? And is Jim Mac

coming around to see him?

Mic's Mom,: hurrah to you, too, for so industriously attacking so many of

Mic's issues until you found something helpful. It is amazing to me when I

think back to your first posts, and how desperate you were, and in such a

relatively short period of time you began seeing real improvements. Such a

wonderful story.

One of the hard things for me to remember is that once a smooth period is

underway, not to expect 100% change all the time, but to remember and not

be discouraged by setbacks. I would get into a new groove with Ben

and then find it so depressing when he started with some other new weird

behavior. Over time, I have learned not to get into an " all or nothing at

all " attitude, but remind myself that he has made changes in the past and

that will continue again. On the other hand, when we were going through

rather dramatic bursts of awful behavior, I learned to remember that this

often happens before the onset of new developmental skills. When I told

myself that this nasty spell meant that something good was going to happen

as a result, I could lessen my moods becoming so tied into his behaviors.

And usually there would be a new skill emerging- say, a new motor skill,

such as more refined use of utensils, or an increase in attention span, or

emerging play skills.

I had somone explain to me that the central nervous system gears up for

these developmental growth spurts by going through some higher extremes in

behaviors. When PB was younger I most noticed it by his having more

periods of interrupted sleep, something that was generally not a problem.

Maybe every few months, he'd have a week or two where he'd be waking up

about 4 am and want to play and just be UP, which meant he'd crash and burn

later in the day becuase he'd be so tired. Then things would smooth over

and he'd start doing something new.

I am always encouraged when I read of the efforts you all put into figuring

out what is REALLY going on with your kids, and then begin to try something

based on what you have learned by reading, questioning, listening and

sharing. The way the world looks at success, or celebrates growth, is

certainly not the way we live our lives. Which is why having a way to

share here is SO important.

By the way, weather related, the storms came by here on Sunday- very

heavy-duty. A few miles away from where I live (at 1:00 on the Columbus

outerbelt, which is smack dab in the middle of Ohio) there were golf-ball

sized hail stones that broke windows. The barometer had dropped, and I

felt very much on edge. We just got a lot of rain and some high winds, but

didn't even lose power. We didn't get any hail either.

Hey Montyman's mom Donna, where in LA do you live? I was just there a few

weeks ago to visit a friend in the Washington/Oppolousas area. They were

still cleaning up from the hurricane damage. I do love southern LA!

Later, All! I am behind, as usual, but still read every post.

Beth Mum to Ben age 12