The Big Board

Back to using the token board. We got sloppy with it. I've decided that the best part of having a behavioral person come to the house is that she gets behavioral with me, i.e., I feel guilty not following up b/c I know she's going to show up Wednesday and raise her eyebrows at me when I tell her all the dumbshit lack-of-consistency candyass parenting mistakes I've made this week. A rough day or two with Prima, whether b/c we were back on board being behavioral or from sun spots or Van Allen belts or whatever.

I pointed out the consultant that she (Prima) is pretty cute (Prima had just flounced upstairs and into her room with a loud and adorable "Hmph!" I'm sorry, the kid's just Got It). Consultant smiled and said, "Yes, that's how she gets you." She may not have theory of mind, but my kiddo is a brilliant manipulator.

New thing I've learned to say when Prima's tone is less than satisfactory: "Try again." Oddly, the second version is invariably less bratty than the first, just in case I think she can't tell the difference.

Because we had Establishing Operation for today (some kind of Winks comic book, blech), we were able to get in two pages of math, twenty minutes of piano practice, and the remains of a Beverly Cleary book. Then we played an excellent game, Scattergories (helps her learn how to stay on topic, works on word retrieval, too). The only thing I can brood over before bedtime is my forever unfinished dissertation.

And so to bed.