The past 2 weeks plus have been SO HARD!! I'm talking explosive, angry, defiant moments from both kids. Yelling, slamming doors, "fine then," "I don't have to," "You can't make me!" type of stuff. All! Day! Long! Preston usually does well in his BB sessions, but he often acts shy or digs his heels in right before he goes back. The past couple times, I've had to literally pick him up and drag him into the room to get him to start on time. He's usually fine a minute or two later. Kind of like leaving a toddler with separation anxiety with the babysitter. They scream for a minute and then they're fine. I've been doing my best to figure out what more we can let go of to make brain balance our number one priority. Preston's schedule is taxing for him. We tested him last spring to get a new IEP in place so he currently goes to tutoring for reading 4 mornings a week. And it is A LOT on top of home exercises three times a day, sessions at Brain Balance, core school subjects at home, etc. We may try to alter the schedule and see if tutoring can be put on hold until after he finishes Brain Balance. I've been close to a breakdown a couple of times the last two weeks. Literally. Learned through my own momentary health crisis that I can't just put myself completely on hold while I try to get through this process.
The behavior has been so bad that I decided to keep the kids home from the first hour of church last week, knowing the chances of a meltdown from someone was very high. That is not something I EVER do!
Home exercises were getting to be excruciatingly painful to get through. Preston would drag his feet (a common occurrence for that one), Dylan would get mad because they are doing exercises together and he did not want to be slowed down, a fight would ensue, I would spend most of the time trying to pull things back together. Meanwhile, the baby/toddler around these parts would be walking/falling/climbing on children who are supposed to be doing exercises. And the poor neglected 4 year old would start whining knowing she wouldn't get attention from me any other way. Yep! A mom could lose her mind! To cut down on the insanity, we are attempting to do exercises when both my husband and I are around (whenever possible) or when the baby is napping so we don't have to contend with the little man. Also, I finally decided it was worth it to let Dylan proceed at a normal pace and work with Preston more slowly. I have even found that doing exercises separately is worthwhile. Although it does take more time overall, it makes for moments of peace in our home. I really hope in time we can get back to exercises together, but for now, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Dylan's behavior has been somewhat better the past couple of days, but Preston is still struggling. We'll see if this means Dylan has made it over a developmental hill of some sort or if is more of a temporary break.
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