My life feels like a series of whiplashes and rollercoaster ups and downs.  For every one thing I post about my kids that’s positive, they do something equally boneheaded and unbelievable.   Kids are like that – but like everything else gifted, we deal with “more.”  More extreme, more frustrating, more annoying …. all of that.

And sometimes, more amazing.  It happens.  Just not as much as annoying or frustrating.  Today was a combination of both amazing and frustrating.

It’s mentally draining to follow the ups and downs.  To encourage and praise the good stuff while simultaneously dealing with the bad stuff.  It’s like walking a tight rope: but doing it while clutching a kite determined to pull you off your feet.

 

Ups and downs

Today, I came downstairs to see this: a huge paper “painting” that the Engineer crafted and hung on the wall.  With tape.  (ignore the butterfly photographs, those are mine.)  He told me he was trying to make a painting like Mondrian, an artist he likes.

Then I found out he had rifled through my curriculum proofs to find the reference sheet he needed and left a mess on my desk.  But he remembered the artist’s name!  And he created this all on his own!

 

Today went like this:

Today, he was the kid who knew the answer to every question I asked in art class about Leonardo da Vinci.  And he was the kid who was sent our of the room during the lesson because he was being disruptive and needed a chance to calm down.

 

Today, he was so frustrated with his reading assignment that he scribbled all over the page he was supposed to do.  And he was also the kid who begged to read more of the Zoey & Sassafras book, and learned a new math concept in minutes.

 

Yesterday he was the kid who sat fairly calmly during science co-op and listened.  And afterwards, he was the kid I had to restrain after he lost it and tried to run/hit/kick because I told him to stop messing with the trash can.

 

Today, he was the kid who gleefully shattered the extra pieces of my example (after I demonstrated) just to see what would happen.  He was also the kid who helped clean up his brother’s toy mess.

 

It’s a wild ride.  

You might think I’m posting this because I want to brag about my kid.  Yup, sometimes I’m proud of him, and I want to share.  That’s not why I’m posting – I wanted to share that hey!  this gifted thing isn’t all fun and rainbows.  It’s loaded with challenges.  For every one thing they do that I love, there are at least 10 things they do that make me want to scream.

I know a lot of this isn’t the gifted part of his brain, but rather the exceptional, weirdly wired part.  Sometimes it’s hard to separate which is which, and I give up.  My contradictory, smart, infuriating, frustrating, lovable kid is who he is, and I accept that and work with it.

 

Still, don’t mess with my proofs, boyo, or mom will go nuts!