Home Again....Let the Decompression Begin

Mondays. I hate them. Especially Mondays that are the first day back after a break. The weekend break is bad enough, but add in returning from a week's vacation....yuck.

Yesterday was the worst Monday we've had in a very long time. The Adventurer was extremely not impressed to be back in a normal routine. Our week away, which was truly wonderful, really did something to his attitude. He gets very unsettled when we travel, and I suppose since it's been a long time since our last trip, it was worse this time. Either that or it's been long enough that I've forgotten; maybe it's always this bad.

He was quite out of sorts while on the trip, although only when I tried to inject structure into the non-structure environment of vacation. He was absolutely delightful in the down times, when nothing was expected of him but to have fun. And he was a delight this weekend, again, no expectations.

Then Monday morning came.

He is genetically predisposed to hate Mondays; you should see his father. Everyone at work knows, don't talk to The Chemist on a Monday before lunch. After lunch is probably okay, but not before.  So it really shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. Like I said, it's been a long time since we've had such a rough morning.

Ironically, once it was time to do school, he was fine. Thank goodness.  He started off cranky, though, and just got crankier.  Right up to lunch time.

Normally, a cranky Adventurer means one of two things: tired, or hungry/low blood sugar. Yesterday, though, it wasn't either. He'd gone to bed early the night before, woke up at his normal time, ate breakfast.....and was still a screaming, kicking, fighting mess of a cranky boy. Hooray for Mondays.

The art of distraction brought a lull, and when he started back up I just picked him up and carried him to the hammock for a reset swing. He fought me all the way, but once I got him into the hammock and started swinging, the fight just melted away. Slowly, but it melted. See, one thing I hadn't mentioned yet is that  he also has Sensory Processing Disorder.

In some ways he is a sensory avoider --- he detests loud noises, sticky, messy hands, and being touched on the head; in fact, fastest way to become his worst enemy? touch him on the head.

 In other ways, he is a sensory seeker --- he likes to swing fast and high, be swaddled in blankets, and the bigger, scarier the movement, the better. I've found that a nice swing in the hammock, starting low & slow and building to fast & high, is a near miraculous reset button for him when he's stuck in a tantrum. Yesterday was no different, and I only wish I'd remembered earlier in the day. Once he had his swing time, he was fine.

Meanwhile, The Writer jumped right back into school; I am so proud of this boy's work ethic. He knows what he has to do, and he does it. Period. No argument, no fussing, no complaints, just diligent work until it's done. He escaped to his room to read during the loudest parts of the shouting, but he kept working and got everything done that he needed to do.

The Artist took a bit of warming up. He is the cutest work-avoider ever, because he asks, smile on his face, if he can skip math. Or English. Or science. Or school all together. The giant grin shows that he knows the answer will be no, and that he's accepted that, but he can't help asking just in case. Who knows, maybe one day I'll say yes. I love that he gets right down to work as soon as I say he really does have to; he asks to be let off, but accepts the answer graciously. Like I said, cutest work-avoider ever.

Once The Adventurer was nicely reset and after he ate lunch, we did his school. I did give him a light day to ease him back into working (and because I was exhausted after the difficult morning); a Scribbles page, I read his history and Bible to him (comprehension today was only so-so), and then we did math. He is finally getting those teens and higher numbers, without forgetting or mixing any up. Yay!

He is still struggling with the wording of "less than" and remembering what that means (as in, what's one less than 27?). He can easily go forward and add; he has a bit of trouble going backwards/subtracting. We were told to keep an eye out for dyscalculia (aka, math dyslexia, basically.....); I imagine this is a part of that, but hopefully he'll overcome it easier than the reading.

So far this morning, everyone is in a better mood. Here's hoping we had only a one day decompression and the rest of the week will go smoothly.

How was your Monday??