OK, OK, it wasn't all THAT bad, but I thought we were headed that way for a little while. Sometimes the littlest things can frustrate a kid, and today that frustration came with playing dominoes. I'm not sure what he was trying to do - either build a tower or a wall - but whatever it was they kept falling over. He got very frustrated and started slamming them around. He did clean them up, but then he slammed the case into a box and started stomping around the living room announcing that he was "so angry." Normally, I would get after him about needing to calm down, "it's just dominoes, they are meant to fall over," etc., but today I decided to be very patient with him. I kept asking him to tell me why he was angry and what he could do to feel better. He didn't like any of my suggestions, like going to his room to listen to music or look at books, and he kept saying that he was going to be angry forever. After a little more stomping, Kellen came to me and said, "Mom, I wish I could just go outside and scream!" So I opened the front door and told him he could. He looked at me like I was crazy, but he marched right outside and gave a funny little yelp and then came right back in. He said it didn't help. It was all I could do to keep from laughing. I returned to what I was doing, assuming he would just head off to play and forget about being angry. A few minutes later I heard the front door open and close again and then another yell, this time like he meant it. Then I heard him come back in and head upstairs. About 15 minutes later Kellen came downstairs and handed me this drawing:
The person on the left is "sad Kellen" (note the tears), and the person on the right is "angry Kellen" (note the teeth). He said he felt much better and that he'd gotten all his feelings out. I told him I was very proud of the ways he figured out how to handle his feelings, and then we talked about him being a real artist, expressing what was inside him with paper and crayons. That reminded him that he wants me to DVR some episodes of Bob Ross' The Joy of Painting (big hair guy on PBS who paints trees and water) that he can watch whenever he wants to... Where did we get this guy? ;)
Yesterday, Kellen's preschool class put on a little Thanksgiving Program and parents were invited to come watch! Kellen had just come home from a long road trip to Pittsburgh on Sunday night, so he was a little grumpy on Monday morning. As the children were lining up in the back of the sanctuary, Geof and I could hear a child whining, "nooooo." Sounded like Kellen. As the little "Indians" came marching down the aisle wearing the vests, head dresses and beaded necklaces they had made, our little Indian marched down in the traditional native jeans and striped polo shirt. Apparently he was in no mood for dressing up! Oh well. I wasn't worried about it. At least he was willing to participate and sang the songs with his class. Had he worn his vest, the Indian name he chose for himself was "Prince Ocean Dolphin."
