What a day with Christopher yesterday. On a short trip to the store to grab some ingredients for a cod dinner (caught fresh off the coast of Sitka by Greg just the day before) Christopher decided he wanted to bring in his money so that he could buy something. Greg said no, and Christopher got more and more defiant, ending up with an episode of getting so mad that he broke his glasses on purpose.

What to do with this boy? The good thing was that when we sent him downstairs so that mom and dad could discuss his punishment, he came back upstairs truly remorseful. He was physically choked up -- his throat hurt so much he was afraid he couldn't breathe. I've never seen a person so visibly and physically "choked up." I would have been much more troubled if he had not been so completely understanding of what he did wrong.

Tomorrow we get to try to fix the glasses -- my guess is we'll be buying new frames. I think he still has an insurance benefit for new frames. He just will be using them on regular glasses rather than the cool sport glasses he was hoping to get for soccer and recess and other physical activity times. He has also lost TV privileges for a week and will have to pay towards new glasses if the insurance benefit has already been used.

It was so good to have Greg home to help mete out the punishment. Christopher listened to Dad in a way that he probably wouldn't have listened to me. It was very effective. Mom has to punish him all the time, but it isn't nearly as often that dad gets pulled in -- just having somebody different is helpful. I was grateful Greg was home to help out.

Christopher's passions are both his Achilles heel as well as one of the things that makes him so special. It's the same passion and feeling that gives him a heart for the homeless and a desire to help people he sees in need. The opposite end of the emotionalism can be brutal at times, though.