Epic Monday Meltdown

It was a wonderful long Thanksgiving weekend. . . of course the kids had an entire week off, which meant that this morning's "Oh No it's Monday" meltdown was the most epic of all time. Ox, ever the emotional 7 year old, stormed around for a good 45 minutes, posting No School signs around the house before he grumpily grabbed a stack of paper, crayons and began writing away. I assumed he was drafting his tirade against the world so when I glanced over and saw something very different, I couldn't help but smile.

By the time we had to leave for school he was calm and cool and excited not only about his book but about the school day. I'm looking forward to how this book of his turns out, too, and I just might need to find a guinea pig Christmas tree ornament to match his imagined one.

Now, this might not all seem blogworthy to you, but it is a big deal. Ox has always been erm, "emotionally gifted" which is a nice way of saying he is extremely sensitive, to the point that he just feels things more intensely than the average 7 year old. Now this is all good and sweet when it comes to buying Charlie Brown Christmas Trees or befriending the new kid in class, but it also leads to an unhealthy dose of drama. Lately we have been working on "pretending to be happy" even when we don't feel like it. So on mornings like this I can say to him, "sweetie, it's time to try to pretend you're happy". . . to which he replied "Mama I tried but I just can't do it today" but 5 minutes later he had deescalated and was happily making his book. Pretending to be happy is a difficult concept for anybody, but especially when you're 7. I'm so glad he's starting to get it before the pressures of tweenager-hood, although I know this emotional journey is far, far from over.