Forcing #2

5:45a - Ronin wakes up and starts calling for me. I scramble over there before he totally wakes up Audrey. I lay at the edge of his bed hoping he'll go back to sleep but that doesn't happen. Audrey stirs soon and we have to head into the living room. Nikko wakes up at 6:30. We hit the kitchen at 7a. Man, what an early morning!! Audrey tuckered out on the living room floor next to me while watching Sesame Street at 10a, and later in the afternoon she conks out on the couch at 3:30p. Nikko kept trying to come up to her and put his face right on hers, or his face on her hand, and I heard her stir a few times so I had to sit and guard the sleeping beauty. Meanwhile, Nikko goes and comes home from school. I warned his teachers that he was constipated in case it affected his performance. Since he didn't pass anything, I decided before putting Ronin down for a nap that I'd have to help Nikko out. It took all of five minutes, no gory details here, but I had to hold Nikko in my lap facing me, to help him push, and he struggled fiercely. At bathtime I noticed his shoulders were a little bruised and had some broken capillaries, probably from the force I had to use to hold him down. It made me sad. But it had to be done, and I didn't drag everyone to Costco in the event that he'd have another movement, which didn't happen. After Audrey woke up and I snacked the kids (Nikko ate almost a whole can of mandarin oranges. He loved them!), we all went down to the basement. I broke out a Christmas toy: a multi-piece Black & Decker tool set. This amused everyone for half an hour as I tried to show them the different uses of the tools, tried the toolbelt and hard hat on everyone, and then cleaned it all up in a bag so it wasn't scattered. Ronin wanted to run around with the screwdriver but I could see a big accident happening on the trampoline so I nixed that idea. I was watching Nikko to see if he'd get tired, but he managed to stay awake. We came up to have dinner and then chilled out before bath time. Being awake for 14+ hours makes him super tired and sleepy by the end of the night so I didn't have to give him any melatonin. He's been taking Ronin's toys away from him and I've had to step in to intervene. I'm wondering if I'm going to have to start putting Nikko in time out for dragging Ronin around. I try to distract Nikko when there's a toy squabble, but I haven't put Nikko in a time out yet. It will probably take quite a few times before he gets time out.

I didn't have an entry on the 10th, so I wanted to reiterate the progress report from speech: He was singing scales today! Worked on naming objects, giving objects, family and 1-step - - getting "close the door!"

I forgot to mention that Maria emailed me a social story for Nikko regarding the hitting issue. Regarding Nikko hitting us, she told me she'd confer with Linda so that we're all on the same page, and: He will need an immediate consequence for him to understand. He may not understand what a "time out" is, but when a consequence immediately follows the negative behavior in a consistent way, he will understand. I would continue with telling him "no hitting" and putting his hands down. It may also help to turn away from him for a few moments and give him no attention. We do not want to reinforce the behavior. That sounds right about what I'm doing with Nikko right now, telling him "no hitting" and grabbing his hand. The social story she emailed me is titled "Keeping Hand and Feet To Myself" and that's exactly what the story is about. It is peppered with pictures of concrete things like hands, feet, an angry face, circle time at school, on the school bus, playground, and family faces for home. I'm supposed to read it to Nikko every day, probably so that he soaks up some of it.