... and after a weekend of what felt like a constant battle with the Soulful one - one that included launched DVD cases and some well placed digs from him and a counter defence of removing everything - bed included - from his room for half of Saturday, I had some pretty dire visions for his first day back in school on Monday. But he surprised everyone and managed to keep mostly calm and compliant, both in his nurture group, the mainstream class AND at home. Aside from the state of his lips, which he'd managed to stop chewing over the Easter holidays and which had healed wonderfully and are now a raw, sore mess again, there was very little evidence of the stress he'd experienced. As a reward for him behaving so beautifully, I spoke to our local scout group and arranged to have him come in for a trial session with the Beavers - which happened to be that night!
I was a little wary of taking him somewhere completely new (not to mention noisy!) when he'd already had a taxing day, but he seemed well in himself and was excited to hear he was going out - not sure he understood exactly what it was we were going out to do, but made up none the less :) he was in high spirits walking down to the Ecumenical Centre with his little brother, though asked to put my ear defenders on before we entered - we could hear the chaos from outside! I'd have much preferred to have left the Feral One back at the house, but unfortunately the group's times clash with my partner's time with his boys, and so all three of us walked into the truly deafening hall; me prepared for the worst and having a mild anxiety attack, the Soulful one munching on his lip wearing adult sized ear defenders and the Feral One with his hands clamped over his ears literally bouncing into the place.
As usual the Soulful One stayed clamped to my side, holding my hand, while the Feral One threatened to detach himself completely and run head first into the circle of children in the middle of the room. We hovered near the table of adults and words were exchanged, though I could barely hear what they responded with, I gave his name and after a few minutes one of the leaders came around the table and lead SO (and by proxy, FO and myself) toward the circle of cubs and beavers (for some reason, that week they'd mixed the groups, though apparently the Beavers are usually in a quieter, smaller room upstairs) and stood him between the leaders and a boy of a similar age/height, as I extracted my hand and sat down on one of the chairs skirting the room - trying to wrangle the Feral One onto the one adjacent to mine, failing, running after him and then successfully sitting him on my knee/clamping him down in a bear hug.
The leaders opened with the sad news the father to two of their beavers had passed away, and lead a moment of prayer for them - though I'm not entirely sure SO understood as I didn't see him bow his head along with the rest of the troop; I know FO certainly didn't, he was far too busy trying to see how well the hall echoed. They moved on, raising the flag, saying their promise and then breaking up to set up a game. The Soulful One seemed to be completely dazed by everything - he wandered over to me and stood by watching everything, giving mindless, nonsensical answers to one of the leaders who came over to say hello - quite amusing to behold.
The next hour was a blur - mainly thanks to the Feral One, who kept me on my toes, and catching up with one of the leaders (who happens to be my old scout leader - apparently my son's his first second generation scout, which is pretty awesome). During this hour he managed to stand/sit with the other children, at one point he joined in the game they played and I noticed him chatting with the boy he was sat next to a few times - it was lovely to see. It was only during the last ten minutes that he shut down, and even then it only took ten minutes outside in the quiet to get him talking/responding again. He had a nice chat with my old leader about the things he'd be doing with them in the future if he decided to join them, even going through pictures of past events on his phone. We said our goodbyes and hurried home - it was almost bedtime by the time we got back, so no time for deep conversation or talk of buying uniforms.
The great attitude's continued through to today - aside from an anxiety attack this morning when he reached the playground slightly later than usual. Fingers crossed that wasn't a sign of what's to come, it's wonderful completing school pick up without being invited into the classroom to talk in private about whatever poor behaviour he's exhibited that day and I'd very much like it to continue. His initial CAMHS assessment was done yesterday, so things are looking up for him a little more this term I think :) I'm so very proud of the effort he's put in this week - if it continues, I believe a new DVD and an outing to the park is in order this Saturday! Beavers, as far as I can tell, got a big thumbs up and we'll hopefully be returning next week.
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