Complex Ben...

Of my three children, you would think the two-year-old would be the difficult/challenging one. And yes, he does give me a run for my money. But these days? He's not the one who is making me the craziest... it's Ben!

First off, the negativity. OMG, the negativity. I swear the kid is never happy about anything. And can even find something negative to say about a 70-degree, no humidity Saturday.

His negativity about school drives me insane and I try as I might, I can't seem to make anything better or get to the bottom of it. By all logic, he should enjoy school. He's GOOD at school. Yes, he struggles to bring home what he needs, but despite constantly forgetting things and his teachers' struggles to keep him on task, the kid is getting excellent grades right now, so clearly something is going right for him.  His teachers tell me his classmates tell him he's smart and he wows them with some of the things he can do in math.

He should LOVE school.

But he hates it. And he tells me this constantly.

I feel like the only time I see him smile lately is when he's playing basketball or a video game.

Now, honestly? I'm not incredibly worried about his mental well-being because really? This is who he has always been. He was not a smiley baby. He was not a smiley toddler... he has always been super serious and super intense and, frankly, pretty negative. I think it's just how he is wired and I've been working to try to teach him to be more positive.

But lately, I've been worried he just isn't happy.

It doesn't help that he gets picked on at school. Not a ton... but enough to bother him. There's one kid in particular this year who keeps taking things out of his desk and breaking them on purpose. He also calls him names. This is a kid who, for the first three months of school, Ben came home and talked about as his "best friend". NOT the first time this has happened either, which leaves me to wonder about my son's taste in these "friends".

Just at a loss with him lately... he seems unmotivated and has no passion for anything other than video games. This week will be an interesting experiment though because, for the second time, we caught him up playing his DS after we told him it was NOT electronics night (every other night they can play their DSs for an hour before bed). So the DS, the Wii and the laptop are gone indefinitely.

(sigh)

I'm working on organizing playdates with kids I KNOW he's compatible with rather than the ones he is choosing as friends... wondering if maybe he is just lonely and needs someone who understands him.

He had a really great time yesterday with a little boy from his old school who is very VERY similar to him and I hope to foster this and maybe he'll end up with a best friend, which I think he really REALLY needs.

He's so complicated... I shudder to think what the teen years will bring when he goes into total shutdown mode...