Who has abducted the boy I know and love.

I had the oddest of mornings with my little man. I know I have complained here about our music class. I HATE going. Sam is always out of control. He melts down about 80 times a class. We often have to leave and stand in the hall and ALL the other kids always seemed so well behaved. It’s exhausting. It’s embarrassing and it’s somewhat worrisome. He just doesn’t seem normal when we’re at that class. I think he IS normal, just spirited, but it’s hard to believe after that class. This morning I was particularly dreading going.

Let me drift back in time a little. Yesterday, Kamryn had a play date with Jordan, her best buddy. We dropped her off at 10 am and Daniel, Sam and I went to the mall to just hang out and be out of the house. At around 11 we stopped for coffee. Sam sipped some milk and munched on one breadstick. We left to pick Kamryn up for 1 pm. Sam crashed in the car – not having had any lunch. I figured either he would wake up when we got home and I would feed him then or he would sleep through until around 2 ish and then wake starving. He was soundly asleep when we got home so I put him down. He didn’t wake up until after 4! (we had been out extra late with him the night before so he was tired) I figured he had to be hungry so I immediately served him his dinner (don’t normally eat until around 6). I cut up some roast chicken for him and offered nothing else since I anticipated a battle. I wasn’t wrong. He wanted nothing to do with the roast chicken and asked to be let down. So I did. He didn’t ask for anything else. At 6 when I was serving everyone else I again offered the roast chicken along with some broccoli because that is what everyone else was having (we had hot chicken sandwiches). Had he eaten one piece of chicken (just one!) I would have given him a slice of bread as well. Never got that far. He ate the broccoli and then told me he was done. He refused to touch the chicken (it wasn’t breaded and fried so likely poisonous in his estimation I’m sure) and again did not ask for ANYTHING else. Put him down.

He went to bed on time and, unusual for him when he hasn’t eaten dinner, didn’t ask for milk. This morning I figured he would be ravenous. Made him his cereal and apple sauce for breakfast (staple breakie) and left Daniel to feed him while I went to get dressed. We were all really late. Daniel calls up to me after a bit – I have good news and bad news he says. Okay, what’s the good news. The good news is Sam ate all his cereal. The bad news… he then proceeded to throw it all up. Ugh! Bring him upstairs, take his temperature – normal. The whole time he is asking to eat. Now Sam is a gagger. He does it on purpose when he doesn’t like something OR wants something else. It’s annoying. However, there was no reason for him to have done it this morning. Daniel speculated that maybe he fed him too fast (we were late as I mentioned). He wasn’t acting sick and he didn’t have a temperature so we continued on with our plans for today (i.e. music class). We didn’t put anything else into his tummy because we wanted to be certain he wasn’t actually ill. I did pack some snacks and milk with me as I left the house though. Nevertheless, a hungry Sam is normally an IMPOSSIBLE Sam thus my reluctance to go to class. I was prepared for him to be horrid.

We got to the class and one of the mothers had brought her 4-year old along. They were hanging up their coats as we got there and Sam who is going through a stranger anxiety phase was stopped in his tracks. He wouldn’t even come into the class and just hung on my leg. Very odd. I picked him up and we went and sat down. He sat in my lap, quietly. That NEVER happens normally I spend half the class holding him down. He normally runs in mad “please chase me circles” around the class whenever I let him up. He got up once or twice but never went far and always came right back to me. He sat in the “story circle” on his own and calmly listened to the story. He passed instruments, when that was what we supposed to be doing, calmly. He didn’t melt down even once. All these things seem pretty typical but NEVER have they EVER happened. It’s with good reason I hate this class. Sam is normally the topic of discussion at the end of class. I always get “I don’t know how you do it;” “doesn’t he tire you out;” “I bet he will nap well.” Today everyone including me was stunned by his behavior. He asked me for milk once only and I told him he could have some after class and he was fine with that.

After class, I gave him his milk and he drank all of it, and then was content. He has been pretty calm since then with only one minor meltdown (after sitting for 15 minutes strapped in his car seat waiting for Kamryn to get out of preschool, so pretty good reason). So I’m stunned. I don’t think in the 9, 10 months we have had him home he has EVER been so calm and … “normal.” I was thinking this morning as I took him to sit on my lap at the computer because I WANTED to cuddle with him rather than I needed to contain him (normal reason) that this is how it’s supposed to be. I also find myself wondering if there is something in his diet that is affecting his behavior. If anything, he is one purged boy this morning. I don’t think he is sick (okay I wrote this several hours ago; I know he isn’t sick). Perhaps it was hunger – although for someone who had eaten NOTHING, he wasn’t acting particularly hungry.

So now I’m puzzled. The two of us went to war over lunch. I wanted him to eat roast chicken. He wanted to scream. Eventually we both bent a little – he ate the roast chicken and I gave him a bite of bread for every bite of chicken. Boy is he stubborn! In the end he was eating the chicken on his own without even being prompted (evidence I’m guessing that there wasn’t anything wrong with the chicken in the first place; he just HATES to lose.) He is calmly and happily watching Finding Nemo right now. I’m still not sure where the Sam we are all so accustomed to is.