Peer Pressure

Jamie got into the biggest trouble he's ever been in this past weekend. I've been letting him go play with the kids up the street. They're all older than him, but one girl just turned 7 and he likes to play with her. He's not allowed to be in their house or back yard. I need to be able to look out and see him. We live on a dead end. The kids play in the road. They set up a basketball goal at the end of the street. I've known most of my neighbors my entire life. We watch out for each others kids. This family is new.

My husband goes outside Sunday to check on Jamie and sees him trying to place something under the tire of the neighbors truck as the neighbor is trying to back out. The neighbor sees him, thank God, and stops. He watches for Jamie to move out of the way and tries again and Jamie does the same thing again. This apparently happened a few times. My husband was screaming the whole time. I come running because I heard Matt yelling. All the kids from that household are standing there watching Jamie do this. Most of them are 10+. Some of them are teens. The neighbor is finally able to back up and I make Jamie come home, of course. The neighbor is furious. I'm sure he was frightened, too. He has a little girl in kindergarten, too. I demand to know what Jamie thought he was doing. He was trying to get Eeyore, which is his lovey, "smushed". I ask him why he would do that to Eeyore and he says, "Because my friend wanted me to." We have the "you don't do everything your friends want you to" discussion. I take Eeyore away so he can get a taste of what it would be like if Eeyore was gone. We discuss death and how getting hit by a truck or a car could make you die. I also told him that he couldn't go out without me again except in the back yard, which is fenced in and we lock. I am very concerned about this new family, but Jamie wants to play with them so badly. I left my car in Knoxville the weekend before last after a trip to the ER where they gave me morphine so I could not drive. I haven't had a car this week. I hear the keypad to my front door beeping and go up front to find the little girl trying to get into my house. Mind you, she is just barely seven. I just have a gut feeling that something is not right with the family.

Jamie had terrible night terrors Sunday night. I felt guilty about the death discussions and taking away Eeyore, but I really wanted to make sure the danger sunk in and for there to be a serious consequence to his actions that he would not forget. The little girl came up to see if Jamie could play and I asked her about what was going on up there. She said that she wanted to see what would happen if the truck ran over Jamie's Eeyore. She said that she and all those kids in the family had been running over his Eeyore with their bikes and had not been able to smush him. I told her that if she and Jamie could not play nice games together that I would not let them play together. I told her that he wouldn't be able to play without me there from now on and that he was grounded for three days. She still showed up three more times and then showed up after school yesterday, too.

Lately, Jamie has seemed really susceptible to peer pressure. He tries to give away the stuff he loves to make other people be his friends. He does whatever they tell him to do. He is immature for his age as it is and it's frightening to me to see him try to buy friendship in that way. I'm so worried about him.

Kindergarten Christmas Tree Project

Jamie had to make a Christmas tree for school. His teacher sent the paper already cut out and Jamie had to decorate it. He did this almost completely by himself. I had to draw a star for him to cut out and I had to show him how to tape the curling ribbon behind the tree, but that's all. I think it turned out quite cute.

Some Artwork and Writing

Jamie's First Kindergarten Project

Jamie doesn't get homework so I was surprised and delighted when he came home with a project for us to do together. He had to take a picture of a Turkey and glue it to orange construction paper and disguise it so that it would not be eatedn for Thanksgiving. I believe that nobody in their right minds would eat this monster turkey!

Sleep Study

Jamie had a sleep study done last night. For years he has been having these "tantrums" during the night. I couldn't tell if he was awake or not. He can be so out of control during these episodes and I have become increasingly concerned about them. On top of that he sleeps with his eyes partially open, he talks in his sleep and often yells out in his sleep. He also seems so restless during the night.

The sleep schedule happened so fast. We ended up having about four hours notice. I think that's fabulous, though. I'm so glad we got in so quickly.

I'm very happy that everything that I'm concerned about happened during our visit. I guess we'll get some answers soon. During Jamie's night tantrum the nurse came in and told me that he was indeed asleep. She also came back and told me when he was awake so I could comfort him and try to settle him back down to get some rest.

He had a Pumpkin Party in class at school today. I volunteered to work in the classroom. We were both so exhausted that we went home and went to bed after the sleep study and then just went in time for the party. Though we were both very worn out, it really was a good day for this to happen on since he didn't have to concentrate on academics.

Open House

I went to Jamie's Open House at school last night. He was so excited to show me everything. I couldn't put up many pictures since I don't put pictures up of other kids without asking the parents. I didn't ask anyone.

Jamie's teacher said that Jamie is very careful with his work.

Jamie loved showing me everything in his classroom. We were the first to arrive at his classoom so he had free run at first. When the room started getting crowded he wanted out. I really wanted to stay and meet some of the other parents, but Jamie was dragging me out. I had a hard time keeping up with the little booger.

We went to the book fair and bought Jamie three books and one book for the classroom. Matt was able to make it for the last thirty minutes we were there, so he got to help pick out books. We also bought Jamie a school sweatshirt.

A Visit to the Pediatrician

Jamie's growing pains ended up not being growing pains at all. He has the flu. I happened to have my camera in my purse so I snapped a few shots of him at the doctor. He didn't appear all that sick at first, but as the time passed his fever went up and by the time the doctor came in he was feeling pretty horrible.

The real reason the appointment was originally scheduled had nothing to do with illness, though. If you've been reading about Jamie for a long time then you know that we've been trying to figure out for a long time if he has an Autism Spectrum Disorder or not. He's had a bit of trouble at school. I told his doctor about it when we were there getting his five year shots and he wanted to evaluate him again right away. This is the appointment we set for that. His pediatrician thinks it's clear that Jamie has Asperger's Syndrome. We are getting a referral to see a specialist.

First Few Weeks of School

These first few weeks of school have flown by rather quickly. Jamie really enjoys school and he likes his teacher. He still misses his preschool teacher some, though.

He hasn't brought home much work yet, but at the Open House his teacher said that she doesn't send much home in the beginning. She sent home a list of sight words and we're working on those. I put the words on cards and attached each group of words to key rings to help him learn.

Jamie is still resistant to using lower case letters. I'm not sure why, but his teacher is working with him on it and so am I.

His teacher has a red light, yellow light, green light system of rating behavior issues. So far he has not had any problems and has received a sticker every day.

First "Real" Day of Kindergarten

Today Jamie went to his first full day of Kindergarten in his permanent class. He had his hair cut yesterday and he was such a big boy. I'm still trying to get used to his new look.

I really like his teacher. She seems so nice. He didn't have any trouble parting with me. The only tears were my own. I didn't make it out of the class without a few tears this time. That was kind of embarrassing. He just looked so big.

Once again he needed to take Eeyore into the building but quickly relinquished him.