5/26/09

A tag and a good stiff cry in the morning

Quirky Mom tagged me to name "Six Unimportant Things That Make Me Happy".

1) 2:00 pm
2) A kitchen counter and bar with no crumbs or sticky places on it. (Even though it never lasts)
3) A fresh, new paperback book
4) Seeing a new comment on my blog (Not to say that your comments aren't important - it's just that in the overall scheme of life, blog comments don't often change the world but they make me happy.)
5) Three freshly bathed little doggies
6) Getting the junk drawer organized

And now...
Another Orangeboy quirk.

I think I may have mentioned this before, but there are some issues that bug me and just won't go away - like what happened this morning. It is a school day after a long weekend and there are only four more days of school. I woke Orangeboy with difficulty this morning, but that is not unusual. It only three trips into his room to get him going. On the initial trip I opened the curtains, turned on a dim lamp and shook him gently. On the second trip I turned his keyboard on and pushed the demo button. It started up its repertoire of tunes and I shook Orangeboy gently again and told him to start moving. He was still curled up in a tight little ball.
On the third trip, he was still curled up in bed so I pulled him up into sitting position and made sure he was going to keep moving.

A few minutes later he finally came downstairs all dressed and looking pretty normal. I told him he needed to hurry up and eat breakfast because it was getting late. He stood there and started to bawl. And when I say bawl - I mean bawl with huge tears, vocalizations, and snot. He just stood there bawling his face off. Nothing had happened to him and I was pretty certain he wasn't sick. He hadn't even looked upset when he first came down. I didn't yell at him when I told him to hurry - I swear! He just started this hard crying for no reason.

He's done this before. That's why I was unable to be very sympathetic. He uses a big crying jag to wake himself up sometimes. He starts off having a little trouble getting going in the morning (like many of us) and then the next thing we know-he's bawling. He won't talk to us and he keeps slowly moving through his morning routine, but the sqalling noise and the fluids pouring down his face sort of get on our nerves a bit. After a few minutes (usually in the car partway to school) he stops. Just like that, he stops crying and he's totally fine. He can even stop bawling one second, take a breath, and start up a typical conversation in the next breath.

I think this jives with the whole ADHD thing more than with spectrum stuff or sensory stuff. For most people a good cry has a calming effect. It is cathartic and one feels relaxed and relieved afterward. I think a good cry actually re-focuses the brain and puts it back into a more rational, thinking state. (Just my opinion based on observation and a little experience.) This is what I think crying does for Orangeboy when he wakes up with brain chaos in the morning.

I just wish he would take up coffee or morning jumping jacks instead. Sending him to school with a puffy, snotty face reflects badly on me.

2 comments:

  1. I love reading your stories about Orangeboy. My second son is a quirky, funny, brilliant kid. I love him to distraction for his differences, but sometimes he drives me to the brink of insanity! There are times when I worry about how he'll do when he's a man and must hold down a job and maybe raise a family. Most of the time, I just have to trust that God has a plan for my quirky, brilliant son and leave it at that.

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  2. i get a little jolt out of a new reader, too.
    :)

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