Emotions, Graham Crackers, Marshmallows, and Chocolate. In that order.

One of the things T's teacher suggested was an emotions board to help him identify through visual means what emotions he's feeling. I think the point behind this is to open a dialog to help him work through emotional situations verbally instead of him relying on physical ways (i.e. tantrums and massive meltdowns). During one of his speech therapy sessions, he and his therapist took the pictures. She sent us a black and white copy, and then followed them up with laminated colored copies.

T is such a ham. I could only get him to make silly faces, so it was great to see that he could project so many different feelings. And, as a bonus plan, S must walk up to the fridge and name the emotions (except for hurt, which she claims is tired) about 10 times a day. She's even started saying "frustrated" instead of angry or mad at times. Hilarious! Because the pictures are too awesome not to share, here you go:

And speaking of emotions...this morning T asked me if we could make s'mores again - only not melt the chocolate and marshmallow. Well, sure. But we didn't have chocolate or graham crackers, so I told him that S and I would go get some while he was in school and then we could make them this afternoon.

After school and after lunch we got the stuff out and I made T and S each a s'more. S picked hers apart, ate the chocolate, licked the marshmallow, nibbled one edge of the graham cracker and was done with it. T, on the other hand, went to smash it all together which made the graham cracker break, and he flipped out. He fell to the floor screaming and crying. I feared this was going to happen. I gently explained - or tried to - that the only way the s'more would smush together is if we melted the chocolate and marshmallow. Well! That was NOT going to work for T. I eventually got him to compromise to heat the chocolate just a bit, put the stuff on a smaller cracker, and I cut the marshmallow in half. It was passable until he bit into it, and then he flipped out again. At this point I'm not sure exactly what the problem was, other than the food wasn't doing what T thought it should. 10 minutes later I was no closer to figuring out why he was so upset or how to help. So, I just let him get it out of his system. S, meanwhile, was personally decorating the "How to Potty Train Your Child" book with an ink pen while peeing on the floor. Lovely. T takes a break from his fit and says, "S, you're supposed to do that in the potty. In the potttttttttttty." Sigh.