Oh My Goodness!

What a sweet face, such a handsome boy.

If only he would his powers for good, not evil. LOL!

I left off yesterday saying he was being super sweet and regulated. That lasted until bedtime when he did his best Exorcist impression, head spinning around and screaming ugliness. Only a slight exaggeration. He reverted to some language I have not heard in several years. The ugliest things he knows to say. I hate you, I hate everyone, I hate this family, I don't want to be here. Etc. Maybe I hit more of a nerve with yesterdays Mini-Mommy punishment than I thought. For his consequence to this behavior, he was rewarded with sitting next to me on the couch while I watched cooking shows. He had to sit up and stay still. He couldn't roll around, get down or talk. I wore headphones to listen to the shows so he didn't even get to 'enjoy' my shows and if he tried to talk to me I ignored him because I couldn't 'hear' him. (I heard him just fine, but answering him rewards him for talking and keeps the behavior going) Today I am just winging it. I have no plan. I cannot manage another day where he is all  up in my business every second.
  Here is another recent bizarre RAD response to a situation. One Saturday Levi had a friend over who was going to spend the night. That evening the friend lost a tooth, then Levi lost a tooth and then the friend lost another tooth. Triple Tooth Fairy night! The two toothless wonders got some attention and that didn't sit well with RADlet who will do ANYTHING to be the center of everyone's attention.
  The next morning I was getting kids dressed for church when I noticed something bright red in his ear. I took a look, could tell it was not a body part and went to get the ear scope. I looked in and his entire ear canal was jammed with something shiny and red. It looked to be shoved in all the way to the ear drum and wedged in very tightly. I tried flushing his ear with warm water and a syringe. Nothing. I tried to wiggle his ear around hoping to dislodge it. Nope. We asked him many times what was in his ear but he went into liar mode and stuck to the story that he didn't know and he didn't do it.
  We went ahead and went to church and then afterwards I took him to our doctors which has Sunday hours. Several people took turns taking a look and the final consensus was that it was too dangerous to attempt to remove it in the office. It was so jammed against the eardrum that the risk of rupturing it during removal was very high. Lovely. At this point I briefly considered leaving it in there until it festered and the pus pushed it out…….but I am either a better person than that or I didn't want to wait that long. Not sure which.
  So we loaded him up and went to the local stand-alone ER. They were not sure they could get it out, but they decided they would give it one try and then he would have to go an ENT the next day and possibly have it extracted under anesthesia. They got him prepped, at which point I finally got him to admit what was in his ear. Crayon! Well that changed everything, because now there was no way to grab it with tweezers since it was wax and a little soft from being in his ear. Again, lovely. (Not what I actually thought but I can't print that here)
  The doctor thought for a while and came up with a plan. Her idea was to use a needle-like instrument, try and spear the crayon on the end and pull it out. The problem was that he had to be absolutely completely still or the danger of piercing his eardrum was too high. As it was, she had no idea how deep the crayon piece was and how close to the eardrum she would get. One attempt. That is all she was willing to give. I can't blame her, I was shaking with fear and trying to look super calm for my boy.
  Luckily, he held really still for the most part. It hurt a bit, but what wouldn't if it had been shoved that far in and had been in there 16+ hours. When she first entered his ear, she managed to spin the wax around and that left a small space on one side between it and the canal. She then very carefully worked the needle into the opening and flicked the edge towards her. She was then able to spear the edge and drag the piece out. There were some remnants left behind so they flushed it with sterile saline and told me to keep an eye on it. It was irritated and red, a little raw and open to infection. We rinsed with dilute hydrogen peroxide for a few days and all was well.
  His little escapade cost me $250 and 4 hours in doctors offices on a Sunday. Him? He was all grins. He got a ton of attention, cookies and juice provided by the ER, people kept telling him how great he was doing, and it was all about him. Me? I decided that the next time he pulls that particular stunt, I am going to pound his head on the ground until the object pops out. Much cheaper and more rewarding for me. (Just kidding……mostly)