Today is Friday (Curse you, Rebecca Black!) and this is my day off. Well, almost. There are always necessary things to do. I haven't finished my other books from Book Arts- I'd really like to get those out of the way. My de Quervain's tenosynovitis is acting up again. That ding dong doctor told me to take the splint off two weeks ago. It was what I wanted to hear and it didn't hurt, so I went with it. Wednesday it started to hurt a lot and there were a couple twinges that changed my expression, to be sure. I already had an appointment with the OT lined up so today I'm dragging Chris along. I want the OT to show him exactly where the problem is and how it is not being improved. I may be in for a rough decision- to get a shot in my hand- and he is pretty objective in these circumstances. I also want him there in case this guy wants to roll his eyes at me. I'm doing what I was told; these two doctors need to get on the same page. I have already explained to Chris, though I'll say it again before we leave, that I want him there in a supportive role- and further specified that I mean supportive to me, not the doctor. You know how he behaves when we are trying to buy something large- it's him and the salesman against me.
Ant is in a bit of trouble. He had 3 book reports due this month and he hasn't turned in two so far. The first was due over two weeks ago, yet nobody told us. The school counselor called Chris on Wednesday after he didn't turn in the second one. Where's the teacher? "She's busy," says Ant. Um...
So Ant's got a lot of work to do. He picked a book for the first one that he got overwhelmed by and just stopped reading. When the first report was due he asked the teacher if he could read something else. She agreed, he started reading another book and still hadn't finished it by the time the second report was due. We are annoyed and learning that we both must take more time to work with him. Yesterday I came home to find that he had washed the kitchen floor with Endust. Now, this child has been mopping with me for the last four years and we have never used anything but Mr. Clean. Why the change? Well, you have to pour Mr. Clean in the sink with water. Endust sprays! What kills me is that he is not reading anything he looks at. He just guesses at what things say. My inner evil stepmother is urging me to make him read everything we pass that has words out loud. If he gets something in the mail from the family he will look at the letter, say, "Uh-huh!" and move on to whatever they sent him. I make him read it out loud. When I called him on not reading the Endust can he started whining. "I HATE reading!" Ahhhhahhhhhgggghhrrrrssssoob sob sob. We marched (Okay, I marched. He slunk.) into his room where I began yanking books off his shelf.
"You hate this?"
"No."
"You hate this?"
"No."
And so on. I asked him what he liked about each one. He said he liked a couple of them because they had large print, so I grabbed all of his Uncle John Bathroom Readers and everything like it. He loves anything with weird true facts. None of those books have large print. He is Mr. Excuse Man- every time we talked about a book his little puppy dog eyes would fill up with tears.
"Those [large print] are easier to read, but my teacher won't let me!" Make sure the pitch goes up as the sentence ends. This poor, poor child!
"I like Magic Pickle, but -sob- she says they're too easy for me!"
"I DO like those books (Roald Dahl) but -sob- I've already READ those ones!"
I should have brought some Kleenex to the pity party! I swatted down his excuses as patiently as I could and tried to be kind. We found several completely appropriate chapter books in his bookshelf. Three book reports to go, one book read... I told him that he had to read There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom. He pitched a FIT! Of course, he has no idea how funny and touching this book is and how much he's going to enjoy it. He just hates not being able to choose something himself. Tough, I told him. He picked out the first book and didn't read it, picked out its replacement, and will be able to pick out the last book. I even told him we could go to the bookstore and I'd buy him any book he wanted for that last choice.
We'll be going to meet with Ant's teacher. While we're there, I will check out the books she says are appropriate for his reading level. And he'll read in front of me. I'll read what he reads. When he finds something he likes he's all into it and trying to tell me the story. He had a really big book he loved that was sort of a loose continuation of The Wizard of Oz about a girl named Jenny. He thought that was funny and the book was crazy. He was really enjoying that book until his peers made fun of him. They also told him he was a skinhead because of his red shoelaces that he really liked. He was almost in tears yesterday when he asked us for replacement laces in another color. Arrrrgggh. It's hard to fit in. Chris took him out for new shoes altogether.
We're hosting Bubba this weekend and in return, Bubba's dad promised to take Ant for a weekend. Haaaay! Ant will surely be disappointed to learn that he'll be working on his book report this weekend, but two reports are overdue. I'm reminded of something Mom used to say all the time that made me insane: "You know, Jenny, choices..."
That's just what I'll say to Ant.
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