Summertime Blues

Ahh…my summer is slipping, slipping, slipping away.

The stores are full of back to school supplies.  I’m planning back to school meetings.  I’m working on back to school things and trying to fit some summer things into my rapidly shrinking vacation.

Last weekend, Ismael’s mother paid for us to travel to Washington, DC.  In three days’ time we spent 24 hours in the rental car which was approximately the size of a sardine can.  Adam kicked me almost all the way there, but thankfully slept a lot on the way home.  He refused most food while we were there, existing on red Gatorade and crackers.  I nearly jumped for joy when he ate a banana.  He fought with his cousins, disobeyed every rule I set, was pulled from the stairs no less than 25 times, and became even more obstinate about taking his medicine completely missing one dose.

Yesterday, after he spent the morning beating my niece here at home….

I know you had this chair first...but I sit with you....

Because if I sit here, I can push you out of the chair...

...and play the bongos on your head...

... and put you in an attempted headlock.

… having three time outs, two placements in bed, and finally one very early banishment to nap (for serious hitting, not like the pics above), I lowered his medication dose last night by 50 mg from 200 mg to 150 mg twice a day.  I double checked the side effects, and even though they are low probabilities, he has been experiencing cough (which disturbs his sleep and keeps him up for hours at night), anorexia (in a toddler?), and aggression (in some as the neurologist put it).

Today, after the first full night’s sleep in weeks, a three hour nap, and a full lunch and breakfast…

...aww c'mon... please show me your belly again so we can do another belly-bump-high-five.

What an enormous difference a day makes, eh?

I have really struggled these past few weeks knowing on one hand that almost two year olds can act like perfect little jerks and can be picky about foods and on the other that this child is simply not the child I’ve been watching grow.

When we sat down to dinner and he didn’t throw food, didn’t purse his lips shut tight, ate extremely well, and even happily tried strawberries for the first time, I allowed myself to have a glimmer of hope that tomorrow will not be as frustrating as the past few weeks.