I'm a Slacker

I have not been able to bring myself to post in a while. Being the Suzy Sunshine that I am, I don't like to post when I have nothing but complaints.

My life seems to have been nothing but traveling for work and trying to figure out Sam's behavior lately. While Sam has always been intense, which comes with occasional bouts of poor behavior, he's been completely out of whack lately. His teacher, patient as she is, even seems to be getting frazzled.

Sam is now one of the kids in the class who has to have his behavior tracked in two hour increments in hopes of keeping him under control. I don't know what the underlying issue is, but he's been in trouble for hitting, punching, kicking, pulling hair, throwing sand... You name it, he's tried it.

Now, I'm not the type of parent to try to find excuses as to why something might be wrong. HOWEVER, I am somewhat gratified to know that his teacher seems to think Sam is "following the leader." Meaning he's not the instigator when problems arise, but he sure as heck tags along for the mischievous ride.

Considering his change in demeanor seems to have come of fairly suddenly, we're taking it pretty seriously. Not only do we not want him hurting other children (obviously) we're nervous that there's some other reason for what's going on. He has grown out of everything he owns in a short amount of time, so the most innocuous answer is that he's having a major growth spurt that has him off kilter. Being an adoptive mom, there's a very small part of me that wonders if RAD is rearing it's ugly head. I sure hope not, seeing as we've seen no other evidence of it up until now.

We need to take Sam to the pediatrician anyway, so we're going to ask (our adoptive dad doc) if he thinks there's something else we need to be doing. In the meantime, I'm poring over a book called "Raising Your Spirited Child" and hoping that I find some sort of wisdom to make life a bit easier at our house!

Heaven help me when I have two kids to worry about!

I600-A

This is probably meaningless news to anyone but us and those who have adopted, but our I600-A is out of our hands. One more baby step to a real live baby. Sam is still pledging to be a good big brother (which means letting another child touch his monster trucks without knocking him or her to the ground, I think.) It's interesting to hear him discuss the prospect of a sibling because I'm quite sure he doesn't know what it means. There are days when I think he'll rejoice at having someone to play with at any time. There are also days when I seriously fear what having two children will mean. Sam is in a total whirlwind phase. Multiplied by two?! Lord, help me.

The best news I've had in a while is that Sam got a full day's worth of stickers at school yesterday. Anyone who has spoken to either Rob or I lately know that our little angel has been more than a bit mischievous lately. I'm putting on my best Freud hat and trying to figure out *why* he keeps getting in trouble. My best guess at this point - based on the fact that he's outgrown everything he owns in the space of 10 days -- is that he's going through a growth spurt and is just not himself. I really hope that's it, since I could believe that it will be temporary.

Speaking of growth spurts, the kid who has been clinging to the bottom of the growth charts for weight has packed on almost two pounds in a very short amount of time. That's almost unheard of progress for us. He's up to a whopping 31.4 pounds now! AND, his size 3T pants don't fall down with every step he takes. It doesn't take much to make me happy... I seriously LOVE the few weeks a year when he's in a size that actually fits him. It makes getting dressed a bit less of a challenge. I'm all for anything that makes dressing a child who acts like he's covered in grease every time you try to catch him to put clothes on him less of an ordeal.

I don't want to forget to capture a funny moment from last night that nearly caused injury from the fits of laughter it caused. So... I am working on a couple of things for Relay that will require more than an academic understanding of Facebook, so I finally joined and started playing around yesterday. I asked Rob last night if he was on Facebook (I know I could search for him, but there are a LOT of Robert Beckers on this Earth.) He replied that he'd only joined so that he could see a "Robert Becker Tribute Page" that had been posted by some of his students who apparently REALLY like their history teacher or have way too much time on their hands.

The "Becker moments" posted there are incredibly amusing, but it was when I stumbled upon the pictures these young people have uploaded that I nearly lost it. The first that made me laugh was a picture of Rob in Barnes and Noble last summer. Not immediately funny until you realize that it was taken through the outside window, as if by paparazzi desperate for any photo of the everyday life of a celebrity.

The second was what did me in. There's a photo posted that's ostensibly of Rob, me and Sam at a Relay For Life event a couple of years ago. The caption says that the picture is of "Becker, his lady, Sam, and a child thief." When you stare at the picture, you immediately realize that the alleged "child thief" is actually our dear friend Kim who'd driven quite a distance with her family to join us at Relay. The child she is supposedly trying to steal (which I guess is the interpretation because he's trying to climb out of his stroller towards me and Rob) is actually NOT Sam, but her own son, our little buddy Ethan!

I had to call Kim last night to show her. I knew she'd be amused to be labeled a child thief, particularly since the implication was that she was stealing her own kid. In the students' defense, Sam was not at Relay at the time the photo was taken, so I am guessing they assumed the Korean kid with us was Sam. Most had never met him before.

Here's hoping I can focus on work for the rest of the day. I have CNN on in the background awaiting any nugget of information about the Ohio and Texas primaries. My dear friend Annie is surely doing her part to take some of the red out of Texas by voting in Houston today, no doubt wearing her "Obama is my homeboy" shirt.