The Return of The Wii

Luke did an excellent job of behaving this past week. He got green stars for behavior every day, and the director of his after school care even commented to us how helpful he has been and the marked increase in "yes ma'am" and "thank you." (She did say that he has always said those things much more than the other kids, but he was using them practically *all* the time last week, which is unusual even for him.) We thought he was all set to start getting things back on Saturday.

Well, yeah, not so much. It is a well established "Law of Luke" that several days of remarkably good behavior *must* be followed by a meltdown. It's like he bottles up all of his "badness" until the bottle bursts. The more days we go without incident, the worse it will be when it happens. (Almost makes you wonder if small meltdowns daily would be better than really bad ones every few days.) Anyway, we knew it was coming, but it was worse than even we expected. The deal was that if he could behave all morning, we would go out to eat at his choice of restaurant, then he could have the Wii back after rest time. Within an hour of waking up and getting some toys back, they were taken away again. He did get them back again after morning snack, but he had a bad hour or so which nixed both lunch out and Wii for Saturday. He even had to take a nap Saturday afternoon, after which he seemed much better. I've suspected that tiredness is a contributing factor to his recent issues, but other than putting him to bed at 6PM (which doesn't leave time for both homework and dinner), I don't really know what else to do.

Today has been much better. He seemed rested when he woke up, and while not perfect (we're not asking for perfect; we are asking for "better"), he has done an excellent job, so much so that he did get to play on the Wii this afternoon. That alone has helped his mood tremendously. If he can keep up this kind of behavior next week, I see the return of more toys in his future. I sure hope it lasts for a while.

Currently feeling: hopeful the worst is over for now