Taken for granted?

Wow, this week has absolutely flown by. To say it has been busy would be an understatement. Both personally and professionally, it has been full throttle. I tell you this to prepare you. Ever since we have been out of treatment, none of us have been accustomed to anything more than the occasional exciting bit of news. I mean, at best, a single newsworthy announcement comes out of my diary per week. Let's face it, we already had one piece of life altering news this week when we discovered that "Zachawy Wogers" was in Ainsley's class. Who would be expecting another earth shattering announcement out of my mouth this week?

I am quite sure that everyone was happy to be enjoying a break from my "announcements."

Well, I have buried this one long enough.

It concerns the Dudely, A.K.A Graham Watson "The Crusher" Dungan. Now, I should preface this with a review of Graham. Graham is sweet and honest. I have often described him as the gentlest soul I have ever met. Much to my chagrin he is also every teacher's wildest dream. He is polite and kind - clearly "almost" unfailingly. If you look up 'good boy' in the dictionary, it contains this reference - see Graham Dungan. I am not pulling shots. I am not misleading you. Anyone that knows Graham will attest to his incredible soul. It is who he is.

You see, "normal" kids get green stickers ( a sign of good behavior at SCS) in their notebooks everyday. On occasion they may get a blue or a yellow sticker but a calendar full of green stickers is the mark of a good kiddo. Sydney was this way. Her calendars were a sea of green with the occasional speckle of blue or yellow.

Graham, however, is on an entirely different level when it comes to this type of behavior. His standard of living exists in a sea of blue stickers. This is the kiddo that all of the other parents talk about. You know, the goody, goody. The one always helping others - always thinking of others before his or her self. We are talking a level of good-dom that is almost sickening.

That is my son, Graham.

Imagine my surprise on Tuesday when I opened his folder to find a yellow sticker and these words written in red ink:

hit friend

To say I was shocked would be yet another understatement. It did not get better from there. It turns out he hit the boy several times - once in the face. I was in shock. I discussed this with him at length. It turns out that Graham thought he was being funny. I know, likely excuse, but with Graham (being unfailingly honest) you have to consider these things at face value. Apparently this all started with some spanking. While I really don't want to discuss my son and the spanking of other boys it seems this was the case. They thought it was funny to be spanking each other. For some reason, Graham also thought it would be funny to punch this other boy in the nose.

It wasn't and he got two in return.

I think we have now established that hitting isn't funny - even in play.

When I went in the next morning to see if I could get the full story I found his teacher was as taken back as we were with the incident. No one really knew what to say. I can tell you that he spent an entire night in timeout. The good news? For whatever reason, he snapped right back to himself. He has followed this experience with two more days of perfect blue sticker behavior.

Is this what we have to expect from the Grahamster. Must he have an incident every year just to get it out of his system?

I suppose I should be happy that it is better than his little pantsing episode last year. Perhaps this is just Graham's way of saying, yep, I am good but don't get too complacent. Don't take me for granted.

It is always a good to remember not to take your purpii for granted.