Yesterday was quite the storm but today was all rainbow. Praise the Lord for Rainbows!

   After yesterday, I am amazed Olivia's school didn't lock and bar the doors when we pulled up today.  When I dropped off Olivia at school this morning, it appeared that Olivia was going to do a repeat performance of yesterday (refer to the previous blog).  She crossed her arms, sidestepped her aid and started to make a break for it.  I yelled out the car window (probably a little louder than necessary) "THERE WILL BE NO IPAD TODAY!!!" Amazingly, Olivia's hand shot out and grabbed her aid's hand and walked like a little princess into the school. The aid was so shocked she just looked over her shoulder at me with eyes the size of softballs.  I drove away as fast at as an elementary parking lot would permit just in case she reverted to Rabid Olivia.  If that happened, I didn't want to know.

Several hours later, I was sitting at my desk shuffling through endless paper when my phone rang.  There it was; the school's phone number.  I actually hollered "Come on! Not again!". I didn't answer and let it go to voice mail. 

DON'T JUDGE ME!  

Yesterday was rough and, YES, I am that parent!  Anyway, I listened to the message and it was her Sped teacher calling just to let me know that Olivia was doing awesome!   I guess the combo of taking away the iPad, making her do LOTS of manual labor, and reminding her 3,819 times that what happened yesterday would never, ever be tolerated again worked!!  At the end of the day when Dan picked she and Eli up, the Sped teacher said that today was her best day yet.  She read a book (something she hates), she did math, and... AND...she had a good attitude.  And if that wasn't awesome enough, it got better!

We got home and she did her chores without complaining, then she and Eli took turns reading pages of a book...TOGETHER!  She sat at the table and ate dinner without choking, spitting or crying then followed that by clearing the table and helping to clean the kitchen.  And THEN, she cuddle with me on the couch while we used her autism language app on her iPad in a way that it was not intended, resulting in a lot of giggling.  And the cherry on top?  She went to bed with out crying or bargaining and went right to sleep. 

Yesterday was quite the storm but today was all rainbow.  I love rainbows!

The school called three times!!!

Olivia, my very unpredictable daughter!

Today was not Olivia's finest day.  It started with me dropping her off at a side door where an adult staff member is to meet her and walk her to class.  So far, she has not cooperated with this process even once during summer school.  She has run across the school lawn, fallen to the ground yelling "I'm too shy", and attached herself to a tree requiring her adult aid to pry her off. So today I gave her yet another threatening speech, making it clear that I expected her to walk in like a sane child and behave.  She agreed and smiled and looked so cute as she unbuckled her seat belt.  

Then she ran.  Again. 

 I watched as the aid chased her down and dragged her inside.  I drove away with this lovely visual in my rear view mirror.  

I started planning my discipline for when she got home (no iPad, no computer, no anything!) and plotting my next speech on expectations (I would remove the curse words before actually giving the speech, of course) when my phone rang.  I wasn't even at work yet!!!  The special ed teacher was calling because Olivia was hunkered down in a bean bag clutching her breakfast and refusing to move.  The overwrought teacher explained that they had tried to "motivate" Olivia to go to her desk to eat but she refused and would scream bloody murder if anyone came near her.  The teacher wanted to know if I had any suggestions on how they should proceed.  Well, of course I had suggestions but it turns out that "Snatch that child up and drop her in her desk and threaten to make her life miserable if she doesn't listen" was not an appropriate plan of action.  As I tried to come up with a less "direct" way of motivating her, the teacher informed me that Olivia had realized I was on the phone and was now sitting at her desk, having breakfast, and all was well.  We said a tense goodbye and I tried to lower my blood pressure with deep breathing as I went into the office. 

An hour later, my cell phone rang again.  Olivia did not want to do as she was told and was running from all adults.  OK, what am I supposed to do?  I offered to leave my office, drive half an hour to her school, and "deal" with her but the teacher felt they could handle it and just wanted to keep me informed.  Great.  Now I was informed and my blood pressure was sky high again. 

Three hours later my phone rang again.  When I saw the schools number, I was tempted to launch the phone across the office but decided to just answer instead.  It was the principle.  She gently informed me that Olivia had kicked her teacher in the shin and attacked her aid, scratching her arms.  She followed this up with "Don't worry, though.  The scratches are really red and raised but not too serious."  (How are red and raised scratches not serious?!)  She asked in a sweet yet very tense voice if, by some chance, my husband could pick up Olivia a little early.  The principle asked what time Dan got done at the high school so I told her and she asked if he could, perhaps, come straight to get Olivia.  I told the principle that I would contact Dan and let him know that he was needed and offered again to come immediately. She declined, swearing they could handle another hour with my dear little daughter.  "After all," she said "This is the first time she's ever done this."  First time and last time, if I have anything to say about it!

By the time I left the office, Dan had picked up the kids and had Olivia doing manual labor at home.  I took a moment to talk to Olivia about her day, which always makes for an interesting conversation.  Her version of the story went like this.  "I didn't want to do what they told me to do so I ran away.  When they caught me I became a kitten and attacked."  Awesome.  Who knew I would have to make a rule about not becoming a rabid kitten at school?   We covered all of the rules she broke and she had to finish all of the chores Daddy gave her and then write an apology letter to her aid.  By the time this was all done, I was exhausted.  

While this was not a normal day, the unpredictability was very normal.  We never know which Olivia we will wake up to in the morning.  Today, apparently it was Insane Kitten Olivia.  I'm praying that tomorrow we wake to Super Awesome Olivia or even Not-Kicking-Or-Scratching Olivia would be nice.