Oh, Mace. What ever are we going to do with you?

So today when I picked up the boys from school, I got Tristen, then went to Mace's class. (I do it in this order in case Mace's teacher needs to talk to me - yes, it happens often.) While waiting for Mace to come out, Tristen tells me about how he saw Mace at lunch, "and Mrs. O was holding him real tight, and he was waving and screaming!!" Crap. Then one of Mace's classmates pipes up, "yeah, he was real bad today." Double crap. So when it's my turn, I ask Mrs. O how it went today. Turns out, he's been having "a rough week". According to the other teachers (PE, music, library, etc.) it's been ever since the baby came, but to his wonderful teachers (Mrs. O & Ms. D) who love him and know him best, they say it's only been this week.

Sample Behaviors:

Running up and down the lunch table benches
Repeatedly smacking a classmate with his lunch bag (Quote Mrs. O: Good thing you didn't have one of those ice packs in there!)
Making fart noises with his mouth incessantly (got him kicked out of PE on Tuesday!)

So the teacher asks if anything has changed in the past week or so (sleeping, eating, anything?), and I really can't think of anything. I know he has a hard time in PE because, a) the teacher is young and doesn't have an appreciation for Mace, b) Dude, there are 22 5-6 year olds running around in this giant open space, c) it's a giant open space - really, d) it gets noisy - and when it's noisy, Mace simply can't control himself and just spazzes out.

So we thought maybe something to make it less loud? Earmuffs are out of season, kids' lawnmowing earcovers don't exist, and his giant headphones won't do anything without accompanying music. So I thought, earplugs? We'll see how that works.

PTA meeting was later this evening and we talked some more, and simply can't think what might be going on right now to explain this behavior. What it really boils down to is Mace not taking responsibility for what he does. He knows right from wrong, appropriate behavior from inappropriate, but he just doesn't care to do the right thing. He is willing to take the punishment as it comes to have the fun of doing what he wants. Oh, and because "it's funny!" If he thinks something is funny (fart noises!), you simply cannot get him to stop short of removing him from the room.

When we ask him why he does this, here are his kind of answers:

"Something else was controlling my body!"
"I just have the Sillies."
"It's fun!"

How do you get a super smart 6-year-old to do what he's supposed to? One who doesn't care about the punishment? Who just wants to have fun every waking minute?

We've joked that he'll do fine as long as Mrs. O follows him throughout his elementary years at Campbell. But really, if he doesn't start getting it together, he's just going to be perpetually in trouble at school. I wrack my brain, but simply can't figure out what to do with him.