It is all about the color...

Brodie and the other k-5 kids are on a color system for behavior. Green means that you had a good day, yellow means that you did some things that were not very nice, and red means that you were a total terror. In Brodie's folder is a calendar and every day has a dot. That dot is filled in by his teacher every afternoon with one of these three colors. Lorrie and I find ourselves anticipating opening that folder every day to see what color he got for the day. When his dot is green, he runs out to our car in the carpool line and just goes crazy showing us his good behavior. He is so proud of himself for that. However, when the color is yellow he slowly walks up with a look of disgust on his face. We are two days in a row now with yellow dots. In the past two weeks he has hit, kicked, spit, pinched and bit another child in class. The bright side for us is that he seemingly has run the list and we cannot imagine what else he can do. We figure tomorrow he will push someone or pull their hair. Yesterday, he got in trouble for singing in the hallway. However, he was singing Jesus Loves Me. That made us feel a little better. He has lost privileges and has had to sit out of play time. It is so frustrating because he knows better. He understands what he has done and that it is not good. Yet, he chooses to keep making bad decisions. Lorrie and I are at our wits end. Tonight at church, he scratched another kid. Our son may be a bully, we don't know. One thing is for sure, he will learn right from wrong if we have to do this for an entire year, he will learn. He continues to do well with his language. He is actually reading several words now. He is struggling with his colors and his shapes. We are also finding that having a 7th grader is not easy. As I write, it is 10:11PM and Maggie is still doing homework. It has been a tough week around here!! Good news with our new room addition. Some wonderful guys have been helping us build a new room and we start sheetrocking on Saturday. It is framed, insulated, and ready for rock on the walls.
Lorrie and I are finding less time to do the things we want these days. Our days are totally filled with church, schoolwork, household chores, children's activities, and working on the new room. It seems like we are constantly cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and homework. So it really is about the color these days for us. What will Brodie bring home tomorrow. Who will his latest victim be and what will be the weapon of choice. It is like a game of clue.

Life is Wonderful...and weary

It has been a while since we have posted. Our brand new camera is broken and we can't post any pictures right now. Add that to my list of things to do this week. Brodie is up to a little over 100 English words now. Tonight, he actually read in English. It was only five words, but it is a start. He has successfully overcome his first bout with strep throat last week. He starts school and that afternoon we are at the doctor getting a big ole' shot in the leg. That didn't go well as you can imagine. He began his second week of K5 at McAdory today. Overall, things are going well. He has his moments, but that is to be expected. Lorrie is taking him to school and staying with him for a while in the morning. She started by taking him to school for two hours. He is now staying all day and Lorrie left him today for 3 hours without a call from the teacher. We think he is getting the hang of it. Language is obviously still a huge obstacle to him being totally comfortable at school. He really hasn't made any friends in his class, because the kids don't know how to communicate with him. I know that school is a lonely place for him. He is surrounded by hundreds of kids, but he lives in the shell of being incapable to generate friendships due to a lack of communication. We feel sorry for him, but in due time he will make friends. Today, we got a note home from his teacher. She said that he would not sit still during story time and he kept putting his feet on the other kids in front of him. He is still having major problems distinguishing his colors. He just can't seem to remember his blues from his reds and greens. He loves to jump on the trampoline. Today we jumped together and sang, "Jesus loves Me." We substitute his name in the chorus and we sing, "Yes, Jesus loves Brodie, Yes, Jesus loves Brodie, Yes, Jesus loves Brodie, for the Bible tells me so." He loves that song, I pray that one day he will understand the astounding meaning of those lyrics. Lorrie starts back to work next week and we are so bummed out about that. It has been so nice having her at home. Tonight, we are simply exhausted. Maggie and Andie have cheer leading from 4:00-5:00. Averie has gymnastics from 5:30-7:00 and we still had to get home, get everyone baths, cook supper and homework for four. By the time we get pajamas on, teeth brushed and everybody ready for bed, it is getting late. Lorrie and I just collapse on the couch when our last child goes upstairs for bed. Four children is pretty difficult because each child has so many needs and those needs and so dramatically complex. Brodie has picked up the habit of sticking his tongue out at us when things don't go his way. He went to bed crying tonight because he got in trouble for that. We are finding life to be exciting, amusing, exhausting and challenging all at the same time.