Nursery Flunkee

Well.......

At the end of church on Sunday, I picked up the kids from Primary, then we went and picked up Micah from Nursery. The nursery leader asked if she could speak to me for a moment.

Uh-oh.

She said, in the kindest way possible, that Micah is a bully. That he hits, pushes, and screams at kids, sometimes without provocation.

I nodded and told her that sounded like par for the course.

She asked me if I can come with Micah to nursery for the next few weeks. There are like 18 kids in there, so they ask the parents to take turns. I go in maybe once a month to help out. She said that Micah is so much better-behaved when I am in there with him, and that maybe he needs my presence to remember how to behave.

Ughhhhhhhhh. I really hate nursery. MY WHOLE LIFE IS A NURSERY RIGHT NOW!! I soooo need a break from Micah. But I also can't have him bullying the other kids.

Our pediatrician is having us keep Gage home from church from now until the end of March - RSV season. Just because Gage is underweight, a little fragile, and has weird white blood cell count issues. So Ben and I have, the past two weeks, taken turns. One of us stays home with the bubba while the other takes the three older kids to church. I'm so tempted to just keep Micah home from church altogether. I'd so rather do that than go to nursery every other week for two whole hours each time. Sighhhhh. But then he'll get used to not being in nursery, and in April, when we are all able to go to church together again, he'll probably throw a fit about going back into nursery. We've finally just gotten him to the point where he goes into nursery without crying hysterically. I don't want to undo months of work here. So I guess Ben and I will have to be unofficial Nursery Leaders for awhile. I'll get even LESS spirituality in my life than I already had.

In fact, because of this missing-every-other-week-of-church thing, Ben and I have decided that we're going to take turns going to the temple every Saturday. So, for instance, since it's my turn to miss church this Sunday, I would go to the temple this Saturday (but I'm actually going tomorrow, so I can go with my sistah while she's still here). Our bishop actually issued a challenge to me, when I went in to get my temple recommend renewed, to go ahead and go to the temple without Ben, if need be. Ben and I don't get to go very often, because we can't afford sitters, and I feel guilty asking my mom to baby-sit all the time. The bishop felt like it was more important to just go, spouse or not. So this is what we're going to do. And I'm really excited about it. I love the temple.

So anyways. It's embarrassing to be the mother of the Devil. People must think, "Oh, she must let him get away with murder at home..." Not so, friends. Not so. He's just... a tough kid. Really scrappy. I wonder if part of it is his inability to speak very well. I think part of his frustration in life is that he can't seem to say what he wants or needs. Or if, say, a kid is taking a toy away from him, since he's unable to quickly say, "Teacher, this kid stole the toy I was playing with," he hits. Or, since he can't quickly say, "Teacher, this kid is in my personal space," he pushes. This is what I see at home. Hitting or pushing is the quickest way to get his toy back, or to get his spot back, or to get a toy he wants, or to get someone out of his personal space.

We've had him tested for speech therapy, and he didn't qualify, so I don't know what more I can do with him. I see him making slow progress in his speech, but it's not to where I think it probably should be. He'll be tested again for speech when he turns three. If he qualifies then, he can then get speech therapy through the school district. Until then, I'll just have to do the best I can to help him on my own.