Rafael and Sophia stories

The whole window/wind/tree/wind chime issue with Mateo is getting slightly better. Today we were able to have the shades about half-way up, which was a huge improvement over two days ago. In the morning he did a great job being in the house for awhile and in the afternoon he wanted to spend a lot of time in his room, playing, but he did spend some time in the family room and in the play room.

One thing we have been trying have been a technique called "Annie stories." These have been modified into "Rafael and Sophia" stories. They are stories to help kids get over their fears. Basically, the story is modified to deal with whatever worry that the child is having.

Today's story was about listening to the wind chime and going out the front door - two things that currently cause fits. The story goes something like this:

Rafael is a boy who lives in a yellow house. He has a little sister named Sophia. In Rafael's house there is a bathroom, a playroom, a kitchen. He lives with his Mommy and his Mama. . . so you get the idea. Basically I describe our own family.

Rafael was going to go to the farmers market, and so he went to the front room to get on his shoes. He started to feel his heart beating and he started shaking. (Two symptoms he has been having.) So, he took some magical breaths. Rafael breathed in really slowly and breathed out really slowly. Can you show Rafael how to take magical breaths? Rafael was still feeling anxious, and so he asked for some cuddles from his Mommy or Mama. Then, he put on his shoes and walked out of the front door.

When he stood on the porch (another difficult area for Mateo), he looked at the tree and started to get scared. Then, he took another magical breath and looked at the strawberry plants. He wondered if there were any ripe strawberries to eat and looked at all of the plants and found a red, ripe strawberry.

He then walked all the way down the stairs by himself and was so proud of himself. He had been scared, but he walked down the stairs all by himself and he was ok.

Anyway, this is the general format for the stories, only they change for whatever seems to be the biggest issues of the moment. The first few times, the stories were so scary for Mateo that he would try to climb back into his crib when I told them, but now he asks for Rafael stories, and will even listen to them in the play room. He has also been taking Rafael's magical breaths!

We are noticing gradual improvement every day, but this has really been a tough thing for our little guy. I guess we're all learning something - Mateo's learning about being brave after a storm and we're learning a lot about having patience.