...who still need lap time.

Little dude was an absolute, unmitigated disaster yesterday.  He went out to play after school when a buddy came over, and everything was fine for a couple of hours.  Then he went upstairs to change out of his wet clothes while his buddy waited out front (nice day, house was a disaster - please don't judge).  Every few minutes there'd be a knock on the door, checking to see if he was ready.  I'd yell up the stairs at him to hustle up, he'd say okay, and the cycle would repeat.  Half an hour of this (I was really not paying attention) and I finally told him that if he wasn't downstairs by a count of five he was done for the afternoon.  Not surprisingly (if you're looking at his whole history, but a BIG surprise if you look at his behavior lately), a FIT ensued when I got to three.  I went out and apologized to the buddy, and sent him home.

Girl came down a few minutes later, dangling Pete The Cat (a most favorite toy right now) from pinched fingers.  She'd found him in the garbage can.  We called Boy downstairs.  He'd only ever gotten his underpants on in all that time upstairs, btw.  PtC was something he hated now, and didn't want him anymore. Oh really?  Matt and I swapped off on discussing things with him, like leaving a friend twisting in the wind waiting for him, NOT throwing things out, etc.  Does your head hurt?  No.

Fit after fit, the whole evening.  It was one of those nights when it's a complete relief to yell bedtime!  He came over to say goodnight to me, kissed me and just laid himself over me, snuggled into my neck, relaxed completely and stayed there for several minutes.  And there it was, my first grader was back, his preschooler Mr. Hyde alter-ego gone.  We talked about his vitamins and Allegra.  Turns out he'd taken the last of them several days earlier and hadn't let me know he was out.  We've had the house open, which has made everyone worse, but the house really needed it.  So we made him take Benadryl for bedtime, and I refilled his weekly dispenser.  He wasn't visibly showing signs of allergies, but apparently it was taking its toll on him.  He also may still be recovering from vacation last week, since that type of thing almost always leaves a mark afterward.

That lap time though - oh boy does he still need that to ground himself and be stable.  I wonder when that will stop?  Not that I'm eager for it to, I'm just curious...  :)