Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors

A few weeks ago, my name was chosen in a raffle for this book. 

 Elijah saw it sitting on the shelf and got upset “That’s mean! That’s rude!” 

“Honey, what’s mean?”

“It’s about me! I’m the only one in the house with behaviors, and my behaviors are getting better”

Ohhh, honey, I won this book, and originally it was to help me with you, but I’m learning about the brain and ALL of you have behaviors, because behaviors literally means “doing something”. 

This kid carries so much guilt about his short life. 

Elijah and his music

 

All of my kids like music, but since Elijah was small, he has had a habit of choosing “unconventional” music at bedtime. As a 5 year old, his body would finally quiet while he drowned himself in the loud, rhythmic, drumming of Twisted Sister, We’re Not Gonna Take It and/or I Wanna Rock. 

Tonight's song choice by Elijah was Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler.

He hasn't asked for any songs for a couple months. As he was settling in, I heard him mumbling, from under his blanket "and I need you more than ever..."

Then…"Mom? Can you put a song on? It says I need you more than ever, it's on the Trolls movie..." I had NO IDEA what song I was looking for so I typed that line into Apple Music. It was the 2nd song option. He got so excited! "That's the one!" We have now explored multiple covers of this song, and he is peacefully sleeping. 

Some snack time ingenuity

    It's well known in our circle that Elizabeth has a difficult time with sleep- falling asleep, staying asleep, everything. 

    We finally discovered that a combination of supplements and a set schedule are key. Well, it's summer, the sun is up later, there was VBS to attend, so we've been off our schedule for about 3 weeks. Tonight is the first night working on going back to a routine that we know works. 

At 9:15 I sent this text:

Ellie is still going strong. She requested a snack (I was thinking if I feed her she might sleep). She got peanut butter crackers and toast. She proceeded to use the butter knife to harvest the peanut butter from the crackers to put into her toast, and then put the crackers onto her toast. 

She finally fell asleep at 9:50.

We found another "Elijah Fix"

Daryl was working in the garage and left to go to the gym. When he got home, he discovered a wire cutter in a new location. Upon further investigation he noticed we had a string of Christmas lights we had left out, which is now 4 strings, of non-working lights.

About 6 months ago we discovered that Elijah had "fixed" their little Power Wheels car in a similar manner. 

Choices

"Elijah, why did Mommy put you on time out?"

"Cuz I dumped water on the floor and I stole brother's lollipop."

"What kind of choices were those?" (Expecting "good" or "bad")

"MINE!"

And then I heard....

"Now you cut mine"

Missing tooth

The dentist has told us for a year that he'd lose a tooth "anytime now". 21 days before he turned 5, he lost his first one! And he is so sad about it!