The third day of school also went well. We hope Elisey calms down enough he doesn't need a staff member by his side full time.
As I've explained before, both boys have a lot of anger issues, as do many adopted children, especially older ones. A lot of Elisey's anger is directed towards himself, and we suspect he has a lot of negative thoughts about himself. This is evidenced by him frequently asking if he is a good boy, and he has on occasion lamented to Donna that Dimcho is a good boy but he isn't.
Yesterday, while rocking and moaning, something he does often, he began to hit himself. We hadn't seen this behavior much before. We redirected him by inflating the punching clown, though to get him to hit it, I had to pull out my camera for a photo shoot. There are odder therapy strategies out there, but redirecting anger through a photoshoot is pretty odd for us.
The boys were unhappy there is no school today, but they must have had weekends off in Bulgaria. Late this morning we took a short hike in Marion Bear park, and then had sack lunch. Part of this is getting them ready to take lunches to school; while they could buy lunch, it requires using a PIN number, and between that and having to make choices, we think packed lunches will be better. It will be some weeks, if not longer, before we have then stay through lunch and after.
