Sigh

This week my hound dog realized that if he gets loose that if he runs circles around cars they will stop and can't move.  Now one has been daring enough to call his bluff and he can run at like 30mph so even if you get moving there aren't many roads nearby that you can out run him.  This morning the kids let him out of my office and then out the door on the way to the bus.  Apparently he "got" the bus a ways down the road and held them up for close to 20minutes... and everyone behind the bus.  So for now on I'll tie him up outside before the kids head out.

Hard to see the mark.  It's mostly in the shiny spot on his forehead with a bump in the hairline in the "shade".   Happens to be right about the small scabs from the incident earlier this week.

The books say that kids will often revert to much younger childhood behavior after they are adopted.  Let's just say that D hit the terrible 2s this week.  He really did it on the natural consequences this morning.  He know he wasn't allowed to bring his flashlight to school but apparently snuck it into a pocket.  At the bus stop he says "flashlight school" a few times with a smile on his face... ugh, obviously he wanted to get caught... so I find it and put it in my pocket.  He then starts running off towards the house, makes it about 10ft, and then face plants on the asphalt.  It's a good one this time... nice bump on his forehead and road rash to accompany.  When the bus came he didn't want to get one which was ok... between the bump and being mad I figured that would be the case.

I swear the school is going to call CPS or something... second time this week he's come in with road rash on his forehead.  Last time was when he fell refusing help getting out of the van at school.  And he's been late to school 3 times this week.

This is our timeout bench.  Spent a lot of time there today.  He doesn't like people to see his face when he is mad.  I tried to be a little silly about it to try to get him out of the bad mood.  Of course I'm looking at this and wondering when he put on socks that didn't remotely match.

Getting home wasn't any better.  He's lost his DSi, glasses, and flashlight now due to bad behavior/attitudes.  When he didn't get those back he was besides himself... we actually had a little "battle" going on for about 4hrs.  Started with him kicking my office doors repeatedly and refusing to stop.  Oh well... he refused to eat dinner but seems better now.  He prayed with us, gave hugs, and told everyone -- even me -- he loved them.

His behavior should lose him bike privileges and calling Snezhana tomorrow though Melissa and I need to talk about that since Sunday he won't have the opp so it'll wait until next week... of course if he's been in a bad mood recently I wonder how he'll answer the repeated "Do you like it there?  Do they upset you? Do they hurt you? Do they beat you?" questions from S... so maybe a delay is ok.

So if the books are right and this regression to earlier life can take a couple of months... we should be into it 2wks so maybe we only have 6-8wks left :)  And 2-4yrs old is the worst.  We are hoping we can get someone who speaks Russian to tell him that we love him even when he's misbehaving.  That running off or throwing tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants is not ok.  That he has to obey with a good attitude to keep his privileges... and he has to earn back what he loses by obeying and keeping a good attitude.  I'm pretty sure he gets it but just want to reinforce it to make it crystal clear.