Sometimes it feels like a science experiment, this summer with Truman thing.
I'm not just hanging out with him anymore, or trying to keep him occupied during this downtime or helping him to figure himself during summer. I've become an observer of Truman at the level of Jane Goodall and her chimps.
I am beginning to see that there are patterns in the behaviors, that I've never seen before. We have always called him Princess and the Pea, because he is so dang sensitive. He's highly sensitive to sensations. He's always the guy who gets sick first and he's sick way more than the rest of us. In fact, we can usually tell at least a day or two before he gets sick because his behavior goes completely off kilter. He's emotional and anxious and easily scared. Schedule changes and transitions are hell.
But I have noticed this: Once we settled in for the first week of summer and got into a groove, he did wonderfully. Once we did Encore Camp, while he had fun, it completely threw him for a behavioral loop. Suddenly nights were hard and mornings were harder, just like school, and there were meltdowns in the day, which I'm not seeing at all in normal summer days. This weekend post-camp was a little hard, but now that we're back on summer schedule, he's really come back to a good place. Even today - heat, water, wasp sting and all - was no problem, and he hung with the whole day, having fun just like the rest of the kids, until the sting took him down.
I mean, I know he's sensitive, but he could be just really more sensitive than I thought to changes in routine and respond not-so-well behaviorally to things that make him at least slightly anxious. Could it be that it causes behavioral disturbances that I've either not seen or ignored up to now? It makes me wonder much more about diet and other environmental factors or unknown sensitivities and allergies that we either haven't looked into or wanted to wholeheartedly change because it seems such an enormous pain in the ass. I'm thinking now it all might be worth a look.
He continues to charm and amuse in the moments when I don't want to scream and run from the house in frustration.
I find this to be so true of my child! To be completely honest, I had some of those sensitivities as a child, and drove my parents nuts. Why was the sun always on my side in the car, when I couldn't take the hot summer sun? Everyone knew about it, that's for sure. I couldn't take textures of many foods, or smells of them either. I gradually outgrew it. I still think it and feel it, but I know I can do it. That's where the growth comes in.
ReplyDeleteMy son is sooo sensitive to the routine. I dare not upset him before a school day, even if it is perfectly valid. It'll throw off the whole day. He's at Vandy camp this week. He really likes it, well ok he tolerates it. :) He said on the first day he only wanted to punch one person. (At my prompting he declared he did actually like three people.) One the 2nd day, he wanted to punch 3 or 4 people. That number was back down to one today when he discovered that two of those people actually turned out to be nice. The one kid he wants to punch is really loud and disruptive when they are supposed to be working. Luckily, he's allowed to wear earphones and listen to music. Otherwise he would not be able to tune that boy out, and there may be a problem.