Heart Break

About a week ago, my heart broke. Teddy is our little bright light. He is energetic and outgoing and has the most adorable brown eyes that people have been falling for since he was a tiny baby. He has had a girlfriend since birth and women of all ages who just are totally enamored with him. He runs and plays and jumps on the trampoline and rides his bike and bangs things together... he is all boy. He has always been quick to pick things up and loves to figure out how to take things apart and figure out what makes them work. He builds with legos and blocks and train tracks and rocks and sticks... what ever he can find.

A couple weeks ago, he came home and told me I was going to be mad at him. I smiled and said, what did you do? He told me that when I went to parent teacher conferences his teacher was going to show me a paper he had done that he had gotten a "D" on. I asked him what happened for him to get a "D". He told me something about a classmate who had been making noise and that he hadn't heard it explained to him what he was supposed to do and so he did really bad. My heart broke. Up until this year, he has gotten checks on his grade card because he was making the progress expected for him or a plus if he was doing better than he needed to be. This year is the first year he is receiving grades and my little baby got a "D". He didn't want a "D". He wanted to keep getting good grades because he is trying his hardest. He wants to continue to feel like he is smart because he is; but he got a "D". I smiled and assured my little boy that just because he got a "D" on a paper, his mommy still knows he is smart and, as long as he tries, she will not be mad at him.

Teddy is 8 and has APD. He struggles to hear when there is back ground noise present. Teddy yells most of the time, I don't think he knows what it means to use an inside voice. He is not quite as unorganized as his big brother Ben, but close. You always know the last place he was because he just drops things where they leave his hand. Teddy is prosodic, but it shows differently than it does with Seth. He just dissolves when someone yells at him, he can't take it. The harsh tones are like physical blows to him. He also is the little guy who stands up for the kids in class who get picked on, loves frogs to death and wants to take care of every stray he finds.