Soup!

Tuesday night I had the most delicious cup of soup. It was "Chicken Pot Pie" and had been in the refrigerator since Thursday night. What made it especially tasty was that Colin brought it home for me from his cross-country dinner that night. This act of kindness was truly appreciated and shows that the anger toward my husband and I continues to dissipate. Another bit of progress!

Fall Break 

 

Eldest came home Wednesday night for a 4-day weekend. It was nice to have him back. I think Colin missed his brother as well. Friday night we went out to dinner sans middle-son, who opted to nap through suppertime and declined our invite. Colin sat next to his big brother and asked about college life. I was happy to see them get along.

The evening went fairly well, other than Colin's constant sniffling. He has been battling a cold for the last week or two. Unfortunately, he ended up missing the last cross-country meet of the season on Saturday due to his illness and went to the doctor instead to make sure he did not have strep throat.

Good news is no strep, however he has a preauricular sinus or ear pit at the top of his ear that was filled with pus. If this continues to happen, he may need ear surgery. He's had this since birth but did not seem to be an issue until recently.

Taxi Driver

Lately I have become a chauffeur for Colin. More often than not, he has me drive him to school. His brother has to leave the house early to be able to drop Colin off at the high school on his way to morning classes at a nearby college.

I've been trying to wake Colin early. He seems to drag his feet and is not ready for his ride yet is ready and raring to go 15-20 minutes later. I'm not sure why. Does he really need those extra minutes?, is he afraid of his brother's driving? does he want to go with me because I usually take the dog in the car or does he want to be with me? Hubs has offered to help drop the dog on these mornings and now that I am getting busier at work, I am taking him up on it. We'll see if we take Sumter out of the equation if this changes things for Colin. It is a bit stressful to have to do drop off AND pick up in the afternoon as this shortens my workday.
Middle-son has play rehearsal after school and this would require Colin to hangout until 6:45 p.m. Thankfully, only a few more weeks left until the production!

I remind myself that we are so lucky that he is doing well in school and seems to be managing at home.
I try to be thankful for the chance to be with my son in a car!

*taking a deep breath and letting go.*

I do have a few concerns.

• Colin is on a crazy sleep schedule. Upon arriving home after school, there is usually a several-hours-long nap involved, followed by a late-night dinner. His middle-brother does the same thing.

• Many mornings, I find Colin wrapped in a blanket in his room, either on the floor or the sofa, with books open and lights on. I have no idea how late he is up nor if his homework is done.

• Lately we've noticed yelling and swearing coming up from Colin's basement room through the air duct. This is happening late at night. A few nights ago my husband noticed this at 1:00 a.m. He went down to check and Colin was up playing a video game. It's not the yelling and swearing that has me concerned as this seems to be part of getting involved in "battle", it's the fact he is up this late on a school night.

Although we are concerned with sleep patterns and gaming on a school night, we are taking a wait and see approach. Colin is maintaining Honor Roll status with a 4.0. He is taking difficult classes and seems to be keeping up. We will keep a watchful eye. At this point we don't want to take any action unless grades start slipping or we start seeing troubling behavior.

Until then.... We are a Work-In-Progress!