Sleepy, Stimmy, or Grumpy?
Since AJ has been on the Risperdal life around our house, (actually, my parent’s house) has been rather harmonious. He has been very pleasant, agreeable, fun-loving, and extremely easy going.
However, he still has his moments. Even though he is getting, on average, 11 hours of sleep per night, he is still somewhat sleepy during the day. He is not tired because the medication is making him tired; he is tired because he is on the go all day now. He is playing outside, running hard, playing hard and constantly on the go.
In fact, on Saturday after camp he came home, ate lunch, read a book with Grandma and then walked to the guest bedroom and decided to take a nap. This morning, after visiting the construction site, he started crying and complaining he was tired. He went back to Grandma’s and slept for over an hour.
But, even despite the nap this afternoon he was grumpy…spewing “AJ expletives” at me when I asked him to help out or go do something I asked him to. And then he would do the task and return to his happy self in a flash, revealing that he is still struggling with his mood swings.
The stimmy side of AJ also came out today, just as it always does. He is absolutely obsessed with flying plastic bags or paper off of the deck. He watches them either fly into the wind or he rips them into tiny pieces and watches them float off into the sky. I am discouraged by this because I don’t know if I should stop this behavior or allow him to stim and calm himself.
Today, he used his battery operated hippo to blow bubbles from my parent’s deck and was gloriously happy.
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