Starting this week Middle Boy gets to have one four hour outing per week.

It has to be four consecutive hours and the entire time has to be spent with me.  There are a number of restrictions to where we can go and what we can do.  We have to provide receipts for everything we do.

I am going to set up the first one for this Friday.  Middle Boy is going to get his driver's license, a haircut, and we are going to go to lunch.

I'm looking forward to it.

Max is finally starting to "get it".

We are really working on training him right now.  He is getting so big and unruly so we have to do something.

He can get his paws on the counter now....he is that big!!

We played a few games of Clue this afternoon.

What we learned is this...

1. It is tough when you start with three cards and others start with four.
2. Grandpa is a sneaky player.
3. Grandma and Grandpa might cheat...not officially verified, but suspected.
4. Younger Boy ALWAYS believes Grandpa.  (See #2)
5. Grandpa and I use similar strategies.
6. Middle Boy somehow counts cards.
7. If you don't watch Grandma she will skip you.

It was a fun afternoon.  We laughed quite a bit.

Grandma helped the boys with family recipes today.

She and Middle Boy made potato salad and deviled eggs.  He paid pretty close attention and then wrote everything down in his recipe notebook.

Grandma and Younger Boy made popcorn balls...really sticky popcorn balls.  Younger Boy did pretty well except he kept getting distracted by the dogs and having to wash his hands.  It seemed like it was ten times or more.

The boys really enjoyed cooking with Grandma.

Thanks Mom for spending the time with them and helping them learn kitchen skills.

It is a baseball morning.

I HATE baseball mornings.

This morning I woke up Younger Boy for his game.  There was what I thought was "plenty of time" to get ready.

I told Younger Boy to get up and put his uniform on.  He went upstairs.

About fifteen minutes later I went up to check on him and he was sleeping at the top of the stairs.

Why?

Why does this happen everytime he has to get ready for something?

This makes me crazy.

He did finally get ready for his game.  Actually a little bit faster than usual.

Grandma, Grandpa, and C went to his game.  He did really well and was excited to have them all there watching.

Grandma and Grandpa are here spending the weekend.

It is nice to see them.  It's been a while.

They brought a game with them.  It is called "Nowhere To Go".  It is an interesting strategy game. 

Younger Boy is quite good at it.  I'm not sure anyone actually beat him.

We were going to play the game "Name Five", but just read through some of the cards.  Name five fruits without seeds inside.  Name five famous people with the last name Washington.  Name five foods on a stick.  There were some which amongst all of us we couldn't come up with five.  We laughed a lot though.

It was a good evening.

Praises for extended family coming to visit and hanging out with us.

It wasn't meant to be.

We had gone into the adjudication hearing hoping Middle Boy would get off of house arrest, but it just wasn't meant to be.

The truancy charges were dropped.  (They were ridiculous, but that is another post.)

Our next hearing is on September 16.  It is possible he could get off of house arrest after 90 days on the program which would be in the first week of August.

I am FAR MORE disappointed than Middle Boy.  He EXPECTS the worst and I am far more hopeful.  While I am sure it bothered him he didn't say much about it.  I, on the other hand, was disappointed and SAD.  Surprisingly sad.

So...there is a reason we need to continue to stay home together.  I hope we are doing the right things.

Today is Middle Boy's court hearing.  It is the adjudication on his offense against me and because we live in a state which goes overboard on truancy his "pre-trial" for truancy.

I am anticipating him getting off of house arrest, but the truancy thing is a wild card.

Here is the deal.  He NEVER skipped school.  I called every time he was absent.  He was ill a few times, in court a few times, and had therapy a few times all together adding up to make him truant.

We'll see what happens today.

I have to be honest.  I HATE house arrest.  It has been awful.  Not because it is a consequence for him, but it has really restricted what we were able to do this summer. 

I am selfishly praying for probation with no tracker.  There shouldn't be a need for a tracker, because the crime was against me...not the general public. 

Probation would allow us to have somewhat of a normal remainder of the summer.  Something we have yet to have in our family.

I dislike the 4th of July...a lot.

Not the independence it represents nor the service and sacrifice people made for our country.  I am ALL for that.

The fireworks.  Hate them.  Think they are a colossal waste of money and do not want them anywhere near my home.

I like to watch a large organized show.  That's fine.

My boys, on the other hand, live at the other end of the spectrum.  They would blow things up all day if someone would fund it.

This year I made them pay for the fireworks with their own money.  That hurt a little bit more.  They didn't want to spend nearly as much, but they did find it convenient to complain about how little I spent.

At one point I offered to spend $10 for fireworks for them.  That was it.  Take it or leave it.  They decided it wasn't worth it.  So...no more fireworks last night.

Today I asked the therapists what they thought was going on with Younger Boy when he goes to see his mentor.

They told me about an interesting study that was done on attachment.  It had to do with toddlers and crawlers.  They research had the kiddos in a room with their primary caregiver.  The caregiver left the room and a stranger came in.  The stranger then left the room.  Then the primary caregiver returned.

Kids who have a healthy attachment run to their caregiver upon return.

There is another form of attachment where the child is ambivalent to the caregiver returning.  Doesn't even really acknowledge them at all.

A third form has them running to the caregiver, but in an aggressive manner often times hitting and biting the caregiver.

The last way (Disorganized Attachment) is quite interesting.  Those kiddos do kooky things when the caregiver returns.  Some of the infants crawled backward to the caregiver.  Some kids spun in circles.  Some kids lay on the floor.  Just all sorts of crazy things.

Therapist D and C wonder if this is maybe the kind of attachment Younger Boy has with me.  Disorganized attachment.  Doing crazy things.

Either that or in the words of Therapist C "he is just a stinker".