A sticky situation

It's amazing to me the way my mind works (or doesn't). Sometimes I can see all of the elements of a situation and still manage NOT to be able to put them all together. Yesterday evening was a perfect example of what I'm talking about.

After dinner, Isaac asked me if he could cut papers. Okay. So he got a big stack of construction paper and a pair of scissors. Soon, Meagan and Sebastian joined in. Sebastian went to the basement and grabbed a drawer full of markers, a few more pairs of scissors, and a glue stick. They all gathered in the living room floor and started cutting and making all sorts of randomness. Isaac especially was working very diligently on his projects. As he would get done with one, he would stick it up on the front door and move on to another project. I sat on the couch, talking on the phone with a friend whose daughter is in Sebastian's class, and I watched them as they cut and created. As Isaac got up and stuck his fourth or fifth project to the front door, something dawned on me. He didn't have any magnets. Or tape for that matter. And the papers were still sticking to the door. Hmmm...? He did, however, have a glue stick. I wonder... No, no way.... But if not, then how?

"Isaac, how are you hanging your papers on the door?"

"I'm just using my Diego glue."

Huh. Apparently so.

Unfortunately, as I tried to explain to him that we really shouldn't GLUE things to the door, that maybe we should find some tape or a few magnets, his ears turned off somewhere way at the beginning. All he heard before entering absolute melt-down was that he shouldn't hang his projects on the door. He lost it. He busted into HIGH DRAMA, crying HUGE tears, and sobbing, "I was just (sob, sob) trying (sob, sob) to make (sob sob) Halloween (sob) decorations for (sob) yooooou." So he grabbed them all off the door (thankfully, the glue stick is pretty old, and so not very potent, and it was still wet, so the papers came off rather easily), crumpled them all up and threw them in the garbage. Then he went upstairs and laid on his bed for at least 15 minutes, crying the whole time.

I gave him a few minutes to settle down, and then went up to spend some time with him and talk to him. At first he hid under his blanket and wouldn't talk to me, but he ended up smiling, then laughing, then finally rejoining us for a little more project time before bed. Poor guy. Sometimes his emotions just simply take over, and he has to really work to bring them back in line. He is definitely one emotionally-charged little guy. I was glad to see him rejoin us and make another project before bath time. He made a purple jack-o-lantern and hung it on the front door...with a Transformer magnet. Perfect.