Our Sensational Future

despite everything

"i cant brush my hair!" she screams and throws her hair brush on the floor. "pick it up." i say. "no!" she screams. "i understand your frustrated and angry but it's not ok to throw things." i say and she picks up the brush and hands it to me. "thank you." i say and start brushing her hair for her.

i just leave it down because we're in a rush. we go downstairs and i grab my purse and keys. we finally leave and i get her in the car. once i get in the car i text lea.

on text

v: hey is uncle kevin or fangs able to pick you up?
l: yea. did you guys just leave?
v: yea we're in the car right now.
l: is it ok if i go out the back door?
v: that's fine. can you be home by lunch though?
l: ugh i guess so
v: thanks. love you
l: love you too

off text

it only took us 10 minutes to get to the doctors office and we arrived just on time. "come on let's go." i say and open her car door. "no. i don't like it here." she says. "we're going to be late if we don't leave right now." i say and unbuckle her seat belt for her. "i'm not going." she says.

"yes you are." i say and lift her up out of the car and onto my hip. it might've been the only solution to getting her inside. i was surprised when she didn't even squirm or try to get out of my arms. she just stayed pretty content.

"hi i have an appointment for 10:30." i say to the lady at the front desk. "name please." she says. "vivian andrews." i say. "ok. you can have a seat for now. the doctor will be with you shortly." she says kindly and i sit down with viv on my lap.

"do you want to color mija?" i ask and point to the coloring books that were on the little table in the corner of the waiting room. "ok!" she says and runs over to the table. i just go on my phone and scroll through instagram while we wait.

20 minutes later

"vivian andrews." the doctor calls us into his room. we walk into his office and sit down in the chairs opposite his desk. this isn't so much a doctors office as it is a therapy office.

"hi vivi." he says and smiles. "hi." she says and smiles back at him. "so your here for a follow up visit correct?" he asks. "yes." i answer. "how are things going?" he asks. "there going ok." i say truthfully.

"since you last visited has there been any major anger meltdowns that have happened." he asks. "um nothing too serious. it's just the screaming and the occasionally hitting." i say. "ok well i'm glad to hear nothing to crazy happened." he says and laughs a little bit.

viv is not really paying attention at all. she's just looking around the room probably not caring at all what we're talking about.

"how has today been?" the doctor asks me. "honestly not the best. this morning she got upset because she didn't want to eat her breakfast so she threw it on the floor and then she got into a fight with my other daughter whose 13." i say.

"what did you do?" he asks. "i told her that she wasn't allowed to throw things on the floor." i say. "ok that's good. i have a few suggestions on how to handle some situations better." he says. "ok i would love to hear them." i say.

"so for number one i know this can be hard but you can't ignore the the tantrums. anger overload is different then just a child acting up and it shouldn't just be ignored. if you do ignore it it shows vivi that there is no one there to help her if that makes sense." he says. "ok got it. my husband tries to ignore it sometimes so i'll let him know not to do that." i say.

"ok great. next is to recognize when she is going to start her anger." he says. "i have kind of figured that out already. it's hard sometimes but i think i have it down." i say. "that's very good. if your able to catch it on time then it makes it much easier for vivian to achieve that self-control." he says and i nod.