Conversations with Brice

Lately, Brice has seemed to just get louder and louder. As usual, he doesn't mean any harm. He is eager to please and he wants to make people happy. He is just naturally loud, energetic and never gets tired. He always has something to say, or more accurately, something to shout. He is always ready to go, go, go and do, do, do. He usually needs or wants something or has something to show me. Except instead of showing me something like a normal person would do, he tends to shove whatever it is directly in my face and shout "Hey! Look mom!."

We did take Brice to see our pediatrician for an ADHD evaluation. We talked to his teacher who, surprisingly, is more concerned with the inattentive property of ADHD than his hyperactivity. She says that Brice behaves for her quite well. Is she sure we're talking about the same Brice? I almost felt the compulsive need to quickly check the other desks for another name tag labeled "Brice" during our conference.
The pediatrician, the teacher and Albert and I decided to try to leave Brice unmedicated through the remainder of the year since he makes pretty good grades and Ms. Evans says he is not hyperactive in class. We discussed the fact that we have his evaluation on file, so if next year, things change and his grades do not stay up or he does have trouble settling down in class, we can start medicine at that time. Until then, Brice is just very, very spirited.

So this brings me to a conversation that occurred the other day. Brice was being excessively loud and I was at the end of my rope.
"Brice!" I asked him, exasperated. " Why are you so loud? How do you make it through the school day like this?"
He looked at me very seriously and didn't crack a smile. "I be quiet in class, Mommy." He told me.
"Then Brice...why, oh why, can't you please be quiet here?" I responded.
Brice tilted his head to the side and looked at me like I was failing to understand something very simple.
"Because THIS, is not my quiet time." he responded, gesturing at the open living room space around him.

So that's it? Brice's teacher has successfully taught him to be quiet in class by explaining that the classroom is quiet time? Quickly, I tried to proclaim our living room as a quiet place as well. So far, Brice isn't taking the bait. Not even a little. Oh, how i wish I had the powers of Mrs. Evans....