You know you work too much...

when you bring it home into 'conversations' with you dog.

A while ago, Peanut was barking and whimpering to let me know she wanted out. I told her in my teacher voice, "Use your words, Peanut'. Then I looked around to make sure no one else saw/heard me and promptly got up to let her out. Sheesh.

Anyhow, we have had our new student for 2 weeks now. I was absent the past 2 days for training, so I can't say how they went, but my feeling is that he is doing better every day and we will make this placement work! The first couple of days, I felt like I'd been hit by a freight train at 3:30 when the kids get on the bus. It just takes so much more energy to work with this child! By the end of the first week, I felt better (it may have helped that I got permission to wear jeans/tennis shoes daily--the shoes especially are needed. They are much better for running down the hall in). The 3 days I saw him this week, I felt were a little better. That's not to say there haven't been difficult times, but the overall picture was much better. I have also realized that in spite of the exhaustion, the getting slapped hard enough to leave a mark, the physical struggle to get his pull-up changed--3x/day at least, getting who knows what on me (I always go home feeling germy), the sudden sprints when he beats us to the door, and so on--that this is the type of student I WANT to work with. I want to reach him, to help him understand the world around him better, to show and teach him productive ways of letting us know he wants something different or is frustrated (rather than hitting), to introduce different foods to him (he currently eats baby food), to help make his home life a little better for his family. That's not to say it's bad--he has a wonderful family but if I can do anything to make their routine better, easier, that's what I want to do.