Transitions

For today, I'm hitting the Pause button on the adventure blog. I'm hitting the Play button on the Mommy blog. So if you're here for the adventure, you might want to come back tomorrow. :)

Connor has a problem with transitions. When he was very little, he had issues with all transitions, small and large. Meaning, if we changed his routine or did something out of the ordinary, his behavior would suffer. Our happy go lucky little man would get overly confused and his behavior would go south very quickly and very dynamically.

As time went on, he developed the skills to handle these short and medium transitions (small changes to routine, changing a teacher at school, new visitors or new experiences). These are now taken in stride or will small explainations before and during the event happening. His behavior might be what would be considered "Squirelly" at most, but we always come through with no residual issues and a better adjusted boy.

Large transitions, i.e. moving, where everything in his world changes, are bad. The first two or three weeks are fine, but then his brain realizes we're not returning to the routine and familiar and the behavior goes south. Very south. The past few nights have found him realizing that we're not returning to the familiar and that this new adventure is his new reality. All the fear that he's hidden over the past few weeks comes bubbling like hot lava to the surface to burn us all. The days have been fine and normal its just night time that all this comes to the surface.

We've spent the past two nights dealing with a boy that is neck deep with this transition. This is one of the most significant transitions of his life. People around him look different, sound different and act different. He is in a new apartment, he does not have his house and the majority of his things are in storage.

Today, I'm going to keep his world very small. We're going to watch a movie, go shopping for an alarm clock (we all overslept this morning), and have some school time this afternoon. Tonight I'm going to try to have something familiar for dinner and then keep his routine very basic until bed time. I'm hoping this helps his transition to this strange and foreign land.