THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 2, 1996 TAG: 9611020003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A13 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: Kerry Dougherty
LENGTH: 46 lines
It was one of those rare Hallmark moments.
I was dropping my two children off at pre-school when my son suddenly spun around, ran back to me and grinned.
``Mama, your face looks pretty,'' he said in his silly lisp before he turned around and swaggered to his class.
I was touched. I admit it.
This was the boy who has been a demon for almost four years. He's the one who threw tantrums in every conceivable public place, he's the one who would lie down on the sidewalk halfway through a walk and demand that I carry him home, he's the one who has big blanks on his records where the medical staff at the doctor's office could not subdue him enough to weigh or measure him for three consecutive years.
This is the same child who horrified an elderly childless relative this Christmas by screaming ``Keep your hands off me'' when she tried to help him put on his coat.
He's the one who once bit his sister so hard that he broke the skin and left a big purple welt on an unmentionable part of her body.
He's the same child who smacked his grandmother in the face when she got a little to close to him.
He was so incorrigible that he began to make his older sister look like a saint by comparison. Once, when he threw some food across the kitchen she looked at me, rolled her eyes and said somberly: ``I really hope he grows out of this soon.''
Oh there were a few nice moments with him. Very few.
But back in September, everything began to change. I attribute it to the calming influence of Montesorri teachers with patience the size of midwestern states.
It wasn't long before he began setting the table for dinner, helping me move clothes from washer to dryer and then helping with the folding. He began putting his clothes in the hamper and straightening his duvet in the morning.
I find myself looking at him distrustfully, I keep waiting for Skippy the Evil Twin to return.
I went for parent-teacher conferences a few weeks ago.
``He's such a happy little boy,'' one of the cheerful teachers exclaimed. MEMO: Ms. Dougherty is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot. by CNB