I cracked the shell finally. He's trying to deal with the harshness of boys and the playground, compounded by school frustrations. Mostly just mean comments at this point but at 9 it's just getting started. Thank you for your insights because I was able to ask more questions and that got him to open up. Hopefully we can get him to a place where his stuffed animal goes back to his bed and the stomach aches stop.
Lori- I'm sorry for your little one. He's fortunate to have such an intuned mother. I've slowly had to work with DH to change his perspective on who his son is. He's coming around though-
