What we've got here is a failure to communicate

Max loves to sing and play the piano. He can read pretty well, too.

But Max isn't a talker. It's not that he can't talk at all, he just doesn't do it much. It doesn't come easily to him, and he has to be pretty motivated to do it. I swear, over 90% of  his speech has to do with eating.

For the most part I think we manage in our own way, but last week I was really feeling the limits of our communication. Max was not having a good time at school. It started out okay, but as the week wore on he seemed less and less enthused. The daily schedule sent home started out with the usual smiley faces drawn in, but soon there were more of these :-I faces, especially toward the end of the day. The phrase, "Could do better." was used... more than once.

He even gave them trouble on the school bus, which he normally loves. It didn't occur to me that he might be sick. He was eating okay, and other than being a little extra snuggly, he seemed fine at home.

I tried to talk to him about it with no luck. I wasn't expecting an answer but I had to try.

Then on Friday evening he came down with a pretty nasty stomach bug. He seems much better today, but I'm still on the fence as to whether I will send him to school tomorrow or not.

So the question in my mind is, is his moodiness related to his stomach bug, is he just having the post-holidays blahs, or is it something else altogether?

I just wish I knew.