From the mommy files

My little guy is such a sensitive little fellow. Good in many ways, it's a wonderful characteristic, I'm actually glad he feels so strongly and can empathize with other people but it has its definite downsides.

He really tends to get stressed and worry about everything. And when he worries, there is no talking him out of it. When he had pneumonia, he got the idea in his head that he was going to die because he couldn't breathe. He didn't tell his dad and I about it right away but we figured it out when I heard him crying late at night and went in to see what was going on. And ever since the pneumonia, his tic is back. Or rather, tics.

It was hardly noticeable at first but now he's got three or four different facial tics going on and when he's really worrying or really tired, his face is just one big motion after another. I caught him doing some repetitive body movements last week once too but I calmed him down and snuggled him tight and haven't noticed it since.

It's such a frustrating and painful thing for me to watch. (It doesn't bother him at all, he hardly notices he's doing it and he seems to like the release.) Why is he doing this? Why can't they give us answers? Is he really going to outgrow it? Why is it getting worse? Is it going to spread beyond his face? Will he get verbal tics? What can we do to help him?

I don't have the answers. Yesterday was a terrible day for him. He had a mix-up and forgot to ride the bus home and instead went down to the pick up area. He ran past the door monitor onto the playground to play with his best friend and nobody noticed him until 30 minutes later, until his friend's mother found him hiding behind a bush, crying because I wasn't there. Obviously, they took him right down to the principal's office to call me to come and get him. He cried for over an hour because he thought he'd never ever get sent to the principal's office. He wouldn't believe anyone that he wasn't in trouble. He holds so much stuff inside of him, he is so concerned with right and wrong and never getting in trouble - I'm so afraid he's in for a difficult time in the years ahead.