Day one

The week didn't start off too well. Marcus had his "skill-builder" appointment in the morning but he was brought home early. A good friend gave Marcus a $50 gift card to buy "gifts". She stated so specifically. As you might have guessed, Marcus wanted to go to an all-you-can-eat buffet and eat himself silly. I told him no. After a hundred turns where he tried to get me to change my mind that ended with a loudly stated "because I said so", he left. It went downhill from there. He called and texted me obsessively with increasingly outrageous ideas of things to buy and a pronounced attitude. When the skill builder, Justin, told him to stop, he started banging on the car window as they drove. Then he repeatedly reached for the radio via the gear shift. I think he scared Justin. Having been driving while Marcus was in a major tantrum before, I don't blame him. Safety gets precarious to say the least. Anyway, they came home early and Marcus stomped around calling Justin all kinds of names. He picked up a table knife. I took the knife and sent him upstairs and politely asked Justin to leave after hearing his version of the story. Needless to say, he won't be back this week. So much for the building of skills.

Holiday Arc over

We made it through another holiday arc. That's what I call the time between Marcus's birthday in September and Christmas. He goes up and up until Christmas then evens back out. I won't say he goes back down because there is no down:). Eric came again for dinner Christmas eve and for presents on Christmas day. Even he couldn't believe what it's like to be around Marcus. I'm so used to it (sort of) that I no longer see how intense he is. What Eric doesn't see is that he's intense too and that he also never stops talking. Between the two of them it's amazing I can think at all.

Dinner went well and everyone loved their gifts. I gave Marcus a lego Hogwarts, much to my husband's dismay. In the past, Legos end up everywhere. But Marcus had said he would put it together if there was a pattern and darned if he didn't put up the whole thing in one day. It's actually pretty cool.

I am now facing a week of just Marcus and me until Morris gets home. Pray for me.

Mooning

Marcus mooned a bank of windows into another high school classroom last week. While you might laugh, schools take this sort of thing really seriously. It moves quickly from funny to sexualized behavior, quicker than you might think. This is especially true for Marcus given his reputation now as a dangerous kid. Luckily, all that happened was I got calls from the teacher and the principal. Well, not all that happened. I did a fair amount of yelling and he was teased pretty hard the next day. Not sure whether he connected the two things - mooning and teasing - but he didn't get violent in response. He managed to handle a couple of things without getting violent in response. All good things for sure.

I hate to say it, but Marcus is dangerous; it's not that the school has just labeled him that way. I do think that they jumped to conclusions and he will be labeled the bad kid for the rest of his time there, but they didn't do so without reason. He has done over $2000 in property damage and he did hurt people that first week. I think his unpredictability and uncontrollability drive them crazy. Schools like it when their behavior plans work and those plans just don't work for Marcus. They never have. They (schools not the people at Halpern) don't seem to have much to draw on besides behavior plans.

Cool news

I'm scared to say it's a trend, but Marcus has had a string of amazing days. He had a really bad day last week when he broke a $1000 window at school and got put on a restitution plan. Not only does he have to give over his Christmas money, he has to work off the debt. All totaled, he has done over $2000 in property damage since the beginning of school. But this wasn't the point of today's post...

Since our school meeting and a very stern (maybe angry) talking to by both my husband and I, Marcus has done a few amazing things. First day afterwards, he cleaned up the kitchen without being asked! He even took the trash out. He had several good days at school in a row, even one where the one-to-one aide used the word amazing. He's been polite and respectful. He's still relentless, but it feels more like a typical 14 year old kind of thing. He's even been working on math at home in a curriculum book he asked for. Can I get an amen!

Exhaling cautiously.