Allow me to introduce my oldest son....
This charming boy is my son William, affectionately known as Bubby. Or "2 of 4". Ha ha! William is now 5-1/2 years old and my husband and I realized early on that he will be 'our life's work', to borrow a phrase from my sister. Now, there is nothing wrong with William, he's just William. William lives in William's world, and does things in his own way, and in his own time. We try to work with him and help him navigate life to overcome the things that frustrate him, but he seems to just do the same things over and over and over again. Like build/make things on the floor out of lego/blocks/knex/whatever, and then wail and moan when Sarah or Jason knocks it over. Then he'll get mad and yell Bad Baby! (This is why Sarah yells Bad Mommy! when she doesn't get her own way....thanks Bubby...) We have told him repeatedly to move to another room or just deal with it, but it never seems to sink in.Last night William was in the shower, and I went in to hustle him along:
William - are you done yet? Not yet! What do you have left? I need to wash my body and my hair! Well, what have you done? I just washed my face!
Hmm, I wonder what you've been doing for the other 14 minutes and 30 seconds! Now, every night William gets out of the shower and huddles in a ball on the floor under his towel. Because he's cold. Because the last 50 times we've told him to dry off and get dressed and you won't be cold haven't sunk in yet. Granted, he's only 5-1/2 and there does need to be a certain amount of supervision going on here, but this boy managed to build the K'nex Octopus Whirl within 3 days of opening the gift pretty much by himself. This thing has 454 pieces and is for kids 7+ (it's really cool!) So, in my mind, drying off and getting dressed should be a task he can accomplish himself. And some days he does. It just seems that lately William is in the 'yang' phase to Evie's (#1) 'ying', and we continue in this cycle of one up/one down. I'm just glad that spring is only 3 short weeks away, and I will soon be able to shoo them outside to play! Joy!
It must be the "second born syndrome"--my number 2 is exactly the same--he can tell you any geographical fact about anywhere on the globe (as he studies it day and night and it's a talking globe so it provides him with all the answers) and yet he needs someone to tell him to soap and shampoo while in the shower. He too does that ball under the towel thing and can't seem to realize that drying and dressing ulitmately leads to warmth. Now all this still goes on at age 7--hang in there--it's going to be a long haul. (ps-we still can't get him to master the tying of his shoes--and he's manage to frustrate us both to tears at every attempt).
ReplyDeleteOh dear! I heard things got better at 7! William is desperately trying to tie his shoes, and anything else with 2 strings. He's trying so hard and just gets so frustrated that he's can't do it yet! Poor boy.
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