It’s been a while since my last post, with Paul’s baseball season and my work I have been swamped.  Now that summer break is upon us Paul is at home with the daycare kids.   It is interesting to watch the way he interacts with them.  There is a 5 year old in care that has behavior similar to Paul’s.  I find it interesting because they annoy each other and fight constantly.  But they are both being annoyed by things that they do themselves.  Under normal circumstances I think that a fight between a 12 year old and a 5 year old would go much differently but they pout, give everyone the silent treatment and hide in corners.  Actually Paul hides in his room, but he is only in there when he is mad.  Most of the problems come because they are both still learning how to share attention and toys.  When someone else is not sharing they are quick to see it and comment on it.  This has been ongoing with Paul ever since he came to live with us.  The only real difference between them (besides the age) is that the 5 year old will outgrow this before Paul does.  That part of his brain is stuck at the age where they should be learning how to share and interact with others and he doesn’t seem to be able to retain that information day to day.  When we ask him how he thinks he should have acted after the fact he usually gives us the right answer.  He just can’t seem to apply it in the moment.  Just like the child much younger he knows the behavior is wrong, he just hasn’t grown the maturity to regulate himself.

~Living with Paul