Goodbye 2015

2015 has had its ups and downs. I hope that 2016 has more ups.

Challenges

• Last school year we had a lot of homework battles. Often we were not finishing up homework until 9 or 10 o'clock at night. 
• I was sick off and on from April through August. My collapsed gallbladder was removed in August, I have felt much better. 
• I messed up a tendon in my foot earlier this month, so I have been in a walking boot for the last three weeks. I don't recommend stepping on a hickory nut husk.
• We live in the black hole of crappy internet service. We have the fastest service in our area, that is reminiscent of dial up speeds. Faster internet service is in our area, but unfortunately has not made it to our neighborhood. I might just have to start calling once a month to inquire if they have gotten around to our neighborhood yet. They are going to LOVE me.

Blessings

• Pumpkin is in 3rd grade and Princess is in 1st grade. Time sure does fly!
• Princess had a good report at the eye doctor last January. We only have to go once a year instead of every three to six months. Yay!
• Pumpkin has a wonderful teacher this school year. She has been able to cut down on the tattling in the classroom, which has resulted in better behavior on his part.
• The kids favorite movie this year is Minions. 
• Pumpkin finally passed his first spelling test of the year this month. The teacher has reassured us that he will not be held back next school year in regards to spelling.
• In the spring, I celebrated 15 years at my work place.  
• A local autism support group was started in our community. It is good to be able to talk with other parents and educators that understand.
• Princess also has a great teacher. I volunteered to help with gingerbread house decorating a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed myself, which is rare when volunteering at school. Most parents shun me when they figure out who my son is because they just don't understand and we don't advertise that he has ADHD, ASD, and SPD. They just figure that we are terrible parents that don't care because of the behaviors they see or hear about from their children.
• I cut back my hours at work to be able to pick the kids up from school. Homework battles have decreased and we are finishing our homework faster. Yay!!!!!!
• We were able to save some money back to purchase a new laptop. Our desktop that we still use is ten years old. Now more than one family member can use the computer at a time. Which is a good thing since we use SpellingCity, MobyMax, Multiplication.com and Quizlet to do homework and study.
• Pumpkin learned to ride a bike without training wheels!
• We survived the school Christmas concert without incident.
• Pumpkin was able to attend a specialized camp over the summer that focused on social skills and utilized ABA therapy. We have noticed a difference this school year. Two thumbs up!
• Princess enjoys helping great grandma make pancakes in the mornings before school.
• We went and saw our first ever Christmas Day movie. We saw the newest Star Wars movie as a family. It was good, but I am not giving anything away for those who have not seen it yet.

Hubby and the kids with cut-outs from the Star Wars movies.

What we are looking forward to

• Hubby and I are looking forward to the last season of Downton Abbey.
• I am hoping that the kids take on more chores and household responsibilities this coming year. Our biggest challenge is keeping our rooms clean.
• We are going to be an aunt and uncle again. So far we have eight nieces and nephews.
• I hope to conquer some of the clutter in the house. I may have to enlist some help.

Well, gotta go! We are having a Hobbit movie marathon this evening. Currently, we are in the midst of watching the second movie. The third movie may need to wait until tomorrow.

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe

Darn. . . the frustration over posting to this little old blog is not the ancient computer, but the internet connection. 

I broke into savings last month (three days before I found out that I would need to have an unexpected surgery- collapsed gallbladder) and got a laptop on sale. The purpose was to ensure that the kids could get their school assignments done and us parents could get our stuff done too. So we now have our 9 year old Windows XP desktop and a new Windows 10 laptop. Since Microsoft just debuted its newest operating system, I was able to upgrade the laptop from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 for free. This feat unfortunately was not possible at home, instead I had to go to my husband's workplace (with permission) to use their wifi connection. I still need to save up some money to buy a Windows Office license for the laptop. The desktop has Office 2007, but I don't think that I want to install it on the laptop. Oh . . . . the best part about our new technology, I password protected it. The kids cannot use it unless hubby or I log them on. Score!!!!!!

Back to our internet woes. I called the phone company and we have the fastest internet connection in our area, which is the lowest level of service that they offer. The router has been replaced, but yet service is still dicey and sometimes non-existent. I just replaced the office power strip/ surge protector. I thought that it might be possible that the old one which the phone line ran through may have gone bad. So far we have yet to lose service, but it is still running slower than dirt. Next options will be either to re-run a phone line to the outside phone box or have our phone company visit us. Re-running the line would probably be the cheapest option, but it is definitely a pain to do. If only our house had modern phone lines instead of twisted rusting pre-WWII phone cables which are over 1/4" in diameter. The current line to the outdoor box is about 9 years old. I may have to ask hubby to scale the yew bushes and rouge poison ivy to check the outside portion of the line. 

Hopefully we can figure it out soon, it is hard to explain to Pumpkin why the internet will not work. To him it is supposed to be like water from a faucet, it should always there when you need it. Sometimes it is hard to get a few steps ahead of his literal mind. On the bright side, not as many behavior notes are coming home this school year. And he has only been to the principal's office once to have a chat after an incident with another child. The school was fair and handled the situation efficiently. The other child had to apologize to Pumpkin and both boys have some new directions to follow.

Anyone else have an older house with similar internet issues? What have you done for internet service?

Run For It

I meet myself coming and going quite a bit. I get myself turned around. I find myself upside down. Quite often I am overwhelmed. Life will get easier, right?

My sister got the front door painted lightening bug yellow a few weeks ago. She gave me a new wreath for my birthday, too. Isn't the combination pretty?

The kids have been playing in the leaves this weekend. Princess even sorted the leaves by color.

Last weekend, I carved the family's pumpkin. Somehow a deer bone is now sticking out from its mouth.

I won a free book a few weeks ago. It arrived last weekend: The Stress Cure: Praying Your Way to Personal Peace by Linda Evans Shepherd. Thank you Baker Publishing and Proverbs31. The book is fascinating and a down-to-earth. It centers on managing stress through prayer and scripture. I have only made it through three chapters so far, but I do enjoy the fact that information is related in easy to understand examples. Chapter Two was about being overwhelmed. That me, OVERWHELMED!

I have been taking some nature photography.

 

I have wrangled with the health insurance company about Pumpkin's specialist. Turns out that I was right and she is in-network. So the insurance company has five visits over the last year to correct. A sixty dollar co-pay is a big difference when it is a two hundred dollar (3) or five hundred dollar (2) per visit bill.

I had the opportunity to attend an ADHD & Special Needs training last week. I have gleaned some information that I can use with Pumpkin. I need to find the time to really sit down and read over all of the handouts. The speaker was very nice, informative, and engaging.

A few weeks ago we took Princess to a neuro-opthomologist in a neighboring town. We were sent by our eye doctor for a second opinion. Good news! Her eyes are healthy and there are no underlying causes for her atypically vision problems. Her glasses are within the acceptable range for what she needs right now. We were referred back to our eye doctor for a 6-month January check-up.

Pumpkin went grocery shopping with me this afternoon. He decided to ride in the cart. Then he strategically stacked and built structures with the groceries as they went into the cart. Gotta love the quirks of autism at times.

I hope that everyone has a great weekend! Don't forget Spotlight Sunday is tomorrow!

Saturdays

I like Saturdays. Saturdays are laid back. Saturdays are typically the day of the week with the least amount of stress. A day to sleep-in, to relax a bit, and best of all NO homework.

Instead of sleeping in this morning, Pumpkin was up at the crack of dawn. He definitely did not have a volume control. I may need to take him to the doctor and make sure that his ear are okay. He has always been our stealth infection child in the past. Pumpkin kept himself busy exploring the kitchen cabinets and pulling out materials for some unknown creation. I found straws, duct tape, and a toilet paper tube abandoned on the great room floor.

I did not tackle any laundry today. Darn the luck! But Grandma, the kids, and I went to a few stores and grab some groceries. I cooked the kids macaroni and cheese for lunch by request. We used the last box of Phineas & Ferb macaroni and cheese, so we will have to use trial and error from this point on. Pumpkin can tell if it is not to his liking and will remember for the next time, shunning it forever. The joys of sensory processing disorder. I have learned the hard way when I attempt to switch the butter to another brand- his smell, taste, and sight are very fine tuned.

Princess decided to do my hair this afternoon. She placed twelve hair clips in my hair. Six in rainbow order on one side of my head and another six in rainbow order on the opposite side. Then she decorated her hair with nine hair clips. Little girls are quite interesting at this age.

I cooked a hot dinner for the first time since last weekend. It is hard to cook during the week with our homework hurtles. We either have leftovers, grab something out, or daddy makes cheese toasties. Pumpkin needs someone with him the entire time while working on homework. The homework table that I designated in the kitchen lasted for about a month. Right now his preferred place to do homework is in the sun room.  We need to figure out the key to unlocking the autism for dummies handbook soon before I lose my mind. Earlier this week Pumpkin flipped out when Uncle B, a close friend, dropped by to visit for a few minutes. Pumpkin jumped up and closed the curtains and was screaming that the Uncle B could not come into the house. So hubby and I chatted with Uncle B outside. When I asked Pumpkin about it later, he said that he did not want Uncle B seeing him doing his homework. Ack! It has to get better, right?

Anyway, this evening I baked a whole chicken in the guardian service seasoned with real butter and a fresh lemon. I also cooked frozen peas and made egg noddles with jarred alfredo sauce. We had sliced French bread, then I made grandma's sugar pies for dessert. 

It will be my turn for family dinner night this week. I am going to make cheese soup. It is always better the next day, so I will make a batch up tomorrow to cure in the refrigerator. I will figured out the rest of the meal later. Well better get moving on to the next thing on my to-do list.

101 Things

There is always 101 things that need to be done. It can be overwhelming at times. Sometimes I cannot tell the difference between up and down. 

Now that school has started, we have the homework battle with Pumpkin each night. We are trying to discover techniques that may help us proceed in a faster manner. I search the internet for ideas in the evenings. I dropped by the library and check out books for ideas. We did a change out with our kitchen table to help with our homework battle. Another post will be dedicated to that soon. Friday morning I am heading up north to a parent training session to see if I can glean ideas in general that will help us to help Pumpkin. We have met with his teacher and principal twice so far this school year and we are just starting the third week of school. We do have a great teacher this year and we are working with her on Pumpkin's social hurtles and quirks. Next week we go back to the childhood behavioral pediatrician to explore the possibly of medication to help manage the ADHD, so we can work on teaching the needed skills for the ASD. I am so glad for the weekends which give us a short break of the homework battle.

Housework has turned into a formidable mountain around here. Between being sick all summer, having an injured foot, and now homework it has been a challenge to get even the basics done. I have attempted to train the kids, but more often than not they are more of the problem than the solution. Laundry is getting washed, but unfortunately it has been hanging out unfolded in the laundry baskets until they are empty or reclaimed for another load of clean laundry. Surfaces are piled high with clutter, papers, STUFF. Dishes are hit and miss. I think that I need to have a cleaning party, one room at a time of course. Any friends up for the challenge?

We did have a friend come by this past weekend. He fixed the leak under our kitchen sink and removed our garbage disposal for us. I know, a lot of people love their garbage disposals. But, I did not have one until we moved into our current home.  I really am not fond of them. Why would someone would want to send stuff down their drains and into their pipes to risk having a blockage thereby having to call a plumber? We have an older model house and I know that we have some tile collapsing in the front yard, so why take the risk of causing more harm than good. I am happy though that I can now return all of the stuff that was under the sink, back underneath the sink. The under the sink supplies have been sitting in a tub in my kitchen for the past three months.

I am attempting to relearn how to type. Ugh! Apparently the rules for composing with a computer have changed. Instead of two spaces after a period (which is what I was taught by a teacher in high school that threated detentions for not following directions), the new rule is one space after a period. I guess this is because in this fast paced world, they want to save as much room and space as they can. Apparently the two space rule was created to help separate sentences when using a typewriter (which once again, I learned how to type on) and is not necessary with a computer since the spacing is more uniform. Up until last week at work, I had never heard of it before. I looked it up on the internet and quite a few well-known sites did talk about this change. So I am attempting with much error to reteach myself how to type. This is a quite a challenge, since it has been ingrained into my brain since my freshman year of high school. Try it for yourself to see how hard it is to conform.

Well, I guess that I should think about hitting the sack. Tomorrow will be another long day. I just have to remember: One day at a time. One breath at a time. This too shall pass. Before I know it life will get easier instead of more challenging. At least I hope (wink, wink).

A is for . . .

A is for Absorb.  Pumpkin absorbs information and uses it at the most interesting times.

A is for Actually.  Pumpkin loves to say "actually."

A is for ADHD.  Pumpkin has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder difference.

A is for Adventurous.  Pumpkin is adventurous and loves to climb trees.

A is for Allergy.  Pumpkin has an allergy to cats.

A is for Amazing.  Pumpkin is amazing at building and creating.

A is for Apples.  Pumpkin loves apples with peanut butter.

A is for Attention.  Pumpkin may not pay attention, but he is a very loving child.

A is for Atypical.  Pumpkin is atypical, he marches to the beat of his own drum.

A is for Autism Spectrum Disorder.  Pumpkin has autism spectrum disorder difference, the high functioning kind. 

Pumpkin is just Pumpkin.  He is our son.  He is a child just like every other child out there.  He is curious, full of love, and adventurous.  He just learns a little differently than the next.  I do not appreciate the audacity of those that think he does not fit into the ADHD or autism classifications because he does not fit into the neat little box of someone's ideals.  I do not appreciate being told that I am wasting my time and money trying to help my son.  Every child is different, no child fits within a particular mold whether they are a typical or a atypical child. Every child deserves the right to excel in all aspects of life.  It might be harder for some children than others, but every parent wants that for their child.  

Now that we have an official diagnosis, we will move forward.  We will learn ways to help Pumpkin excel.  We will learn ways to help us a family navigate through these new uncharted waters.  We will modify and adapt as we do with each twist and turn of life.

What I know as a mother about Pumpkin:

1) He takes things literally.  I once got flustered while overseeing homework and made the mistake of saying "I'm just going to jump off a bridge."  Pumpkin burst into tears and then I spent the next thirty minutes explaining that it was a saying and that I really would not jump off a bridge.  

2) He is impulsive and cannot always control what he does.  This is a hard one for us parents.  We go over the rules, we have him repeat the rules, we give consequences for breaking the rules and still he cannot conform.  He knows that he should not have done the action afterwards, but has not mastered the ability to control himself.  This is not due to a lack of discipline.  This is not due to the lack of parent attention.  Pumpkin learns different, thereby we must modify to teach him differently.  So if my son upsets a fellow child, I ask my son why he thinks the other child might be upset, then ask him how he might feel in that child's place.  It is not a lack of punishment, it is simply trying to teach my child empathy for his fellow peers.  He has to understand that his actions affect others to help him understand that the action was wrong.  He still gets in trouble and has a time out on my lap, but to change he has to understand and see why his actions were wrong. 

3) He does not fully understand social boundaries and etiquette.  He constantly gets in trouble at school and most are repetitive offenses.  He does not seem to grasp what is appropriate and it does not help that sometimes his peers egg him on.  Since he has trouble being the "perfect" child, occasionally his peers use him as the fall guy when mischief occurs.  I am sure that he does his fair share of the mischief, but there are times that I have chatted with him after school and the story he tells is quite different than the note that was sent home.  He has trouble keeping his hands to himself and he has trouble not saying "funny" inappropriate words (like bathroom words).  If a peer says "hi" or "bye", he is absolutely oblivious.  Instead of shaking hands at church, he likes to hide behind or under the church pew.  He prefers to avoid eye contact, especially with people that he does not know.

Parents of an atypical child see things a lot differently than others on the outside.  We do not try to make excuses for our children.  Every child in this world is unique and special.  Every child has a different way to learn and not every child is capable of conforming to a single style of learning.  Parents also do not want to overhear disheartening things about their child.   

A person would definitely need to walk a mile in our shoes to even begin to understand Pumpkin.  He looks like a normal child.  Sometimes he even acts like a normal child.  He has good days.  And he has bad days.  He is our Pumpkin and we love him. 

I Think We Can! I Think We Can!

We have been experimenting with Pumpkin and how to motivate him in regards to education. 

Poker Chip Incentive
The grounding concept of this idea came from our childhood development pediatrician.  She had used a similar idea on her ADHD son when he was in junior high and high school.  We modified it for our first grader. 

Idea:  Use poker chips as an incentive to award appropriate behavior. 

Our Goal: To teach Pumpkin to concentrate and focus while working on school work.  A subgoal is to teach Pumpkin the value of money.

What we did:  I got a bag of old poker chips from my grandma's house and gave them a bath in the sink.  I used a permanent marker and wrote "A" on 10 blue chips, "B" on 10 red chips, and "V" on 10 white chips and placed them into a baggie.  Then I made an awards chart listing how many chips are required to earn each incentive.  We told Pumpkin that every time he brings a paper home with the grade of A, B, or V (very good) he will earn a chip.  Once he earns enough chips he can trade the chips in (like money) to collect incentives.  We found a plastic jar with a lid to deposit his chips into like a bank.

Results:  He has brought home papers with higher grades.  He has finished more in-class assignments in whole instead of leaving blank answers when he forgot or got distracted.  The purpose of this is to not make him feel like he needs to get only A's or B's.  It is to make him realize that he knows the answers and can do well on his assignments if he takes the time to focus and concentrate at the task at hand.  It is perfectly fine with me if he brings a C home, I just do not want to see the D's or F's when I know that he has the answers floating around inside his head.  So far he earn his way to see the Lego Movie and trade 7 chips to earn dinner out at the restaurant that Auntie works.  I think that he wants to work on earning the Hot Wheel Mega Loop Mayhem Track next. 

Reading Rescue 1-2-3
Pumpkin continues to have issues with reading.  We have yet to fully recover from a non-family adult telling him that she would use reading as a punishment for inappropriate behavior this past summer.  I have consulted with our friendly children department librarians for help.  The head children's librarian suggested Reading Rescue 1-2-3 by Peggy Wilber.  I have found the book useful.  I have used the test to assess Pumpkin's reading level.  He is on level 1c according to their book.  The areas that we need to work on currently are reading short passages with accuracy and rhyming.  When testing him he would say an associated word instead of rhyming word.  For example when I say "bear", he would say "polar bear" instead of something like "hair". Or "red" would end up with a made up word such as "smed".  This book gives a lot of easy to use ideas and is not hard to understand for phonic challenged parents.  

The librarians also suggested that we read books to Pumpkin that he likes.  Since he likes listening to the Junie B. Jones series, they recommended the Roscoe Riley Rules series.  Pumpkin is really enjoying listening this particular series since it has a boy for the main character.  They also suggested non-fiction books about things that Pumpkin enjoys.  Today we checked out books about sharks, snakes, butterflies, and camouflage.

Educational Games

We have been trying a variety of games to help entice Pumpkin to practice and learn words.  

POP for Rhyming

 

Oh my!  Such an amazing and fun game, both Pumpkin and Princess enjoy playing this.  It has picture bubbles and a spinner.  You spin to see how many bubbles to pull out of the container.  For each bubble you say the name of the image then say a word that rhymes.  If you rhyme correctly you keep the bubble, if the word does not rhyme the bubble goes into a discard pile.  If you get a POP bubble all of your bubbles goes back into the container.  The player with 10 bubbles wins. 

POP for Sight Words

 

We also enjoy this game.  Pumpkin gets about 80% of the words correct.  This will be a great game to continue helping him to become more fluent with reading.  It is similar to the POP for Rhyming except the cards look like popcorn and you play until the container is empty.  Pumpkin was enjoying it so much that he had his Hot Wheels playing too, so he would say their cards for them.  I looked up the company's website and there is a POP for Sight Words 2.  I will have to look into purchasing that version in the future. 

Spelling Word Matching Game

Pumpkin's teacher suggested that we turn Pumpkin's spelling words into a matching game to make the learning process fun.  Every Sunday I make up a batch of matching cards for Pumpkin to practice at great grandma's house before and after school.  I make the cards out of index cards that have been cut in half.  Pumpkin plays traditional matching with them, but has came up with a new game on his own.  He has great grandma hide one set of the cards in a different room.  He takes his matching set and looks for the cards.  When he find a matching pair, he says the word and then spells the word.  Each evening at home we work on write each spelling word twice and our spelling sentence twice.

So we are trudging along and exploring what works to help Pumpkin.  Princess should be a wiz at reading before we know it since she gets roped into playing our games to help Pumpkin.  If anyone has any ideas to try on Pumpkin, we are all ears!

The last few posts have mentioned sickness.  After about two months we are almost sickness free.  Pumpkin got his pneumonia shot earlier this week.  Princess has a bit of a runny nose.  My voice has returned and I am not coughing too much now.  Of course after all this time it would be silly to believe that I would reach 100% so soon, so as fate would have it, I sprained my ankle on Thursday.  Go figure!  At least I got a nifty new ankle brace through my workplace.

One of these days I will get back to attempting to loose a few pounds.  Maybe I can tempt hubby to join in too.  I need to get myself to my quirky normal before I can attempt to even go on a leisurely walk, take a hike, or play with the kids in the yard.  I guess that I could at least start with eating more fruits and vegetables (wink, wink).  Oh and you will never guess what happened!  My sister roasted brussel sprouts the other evening, yuck!  But I tried them anyway and liked them.  So I bought fresh brussel sprouts at the store today and will try my hand at creating my sister's recipe.

Life In These Four Walls

We are kicking back and relaxing this morning.  Hopefully in an hour we may venture out to the library.  I was able to get my grocery shopping done last night.  We had chocolate crumble muffins for breakfast and I had mint hot chocolate.  Yum!  It has been a while since I have cooked a breakfast besides Pop Tarts for the kids.  It is always rush, rush, rush in the mornings.

The kids snuggled in my bed this morning with a Lalaloopsy movie while I snuck to my secret hiding place and inventoried what I had for each child for their upcoming birthdays.  I have realize that I need to even out the presents still.  Just a couple more presents for Princess and I will be done.  Maybe hubby and I can find someone to watch the kids this evening, so we can have dinner together and finish birthday shopping.  Sometime today I need to figure out when we will have their birthday party and who to send invitations to.  Next weekend is definitely too short of notice, so most likely we will plan for the weekend after that.

Right now the kids are watching Epic.  We would be watching PBS kids, but with all of the wind today that station is not coming in too well on the television.  Pumpkin is trying to build an elaborate Hot Wheel track out of the couch cushions, pillows, and other various objects like a stool, laundry basket, boxes, and more.  Princess is working on getting dressed and snuggling with her Specs Read-A-Lot Lalaloopsy silly hair doll.

Pumpkin is recovery well from his surgery on Monday morning.  He had the remain ear tube removed.  The doctor also found a cyst in association with the tube so that has been removed too.  He goes back in two months for a recheck to see if the hole in the ear drum has closed.  Monday afternoon you would of never known that he had had surgery that morning by the way that he was bouncing off the walls.  Never boring in our household.

I have heard from the special education administrator that I contacted a few weeks ago in regards to Pumpkin getting an education evaluation.  After talking to her supervisor, we are being transferred to another administrator that works more with parochial schools.  So hopefully I will hear the new person in the next few weeks.  I hope to make some progress soon.  Kind of tired of feeling like we are always in a holding pattern.

I talk with the childhood behavior pediatrician yesterday and she has recommended that Pumpkin have an autism panel.  It will be about a two month process to actually get to the appointment date, but hopefully it will answer more questions.  I really like this doctor and she has talked to me multiple times on the phone and answered any questions that I have.  In this day and age you are lucky to just get past talking to the nurse.  Anyway, most likely we as parent and probably his teacher will have more paperwork, surveys, and evaluations to complete prior to the appointment.  The doctor said that the appointment will be an all day thing, so hopefully I can manage to schedule it on a day off from school.  We will meet with a speech therapist, then a childhood occupational therapist, then our doctor who is specialized in autism, and finally a educational psychologist.  Then everyone will have a break for lunch.  All four doctor will reconvene and share notes and thoughts.  Then our doctor and probably the educational psychologist will sit down with us and share their finding and thoughts.  The main purpose of the panel is to help distinguish what aspects of our son's behavior are caused by ADHD and what might be caused by high functioning autism.  Once we have the information it will be easier for us, the school, and the doctor to determine what are the best methods and treatments to help our child succeed academically and socially.  I am going to hate to see how much this is going to cost.  I know that we have met our $2,500 deductible on Pumpkin with the surgery he had.  So maybe that will be in our favor for all of the other appointments that we will have this year.

Pumpkin is struggling at school, but his teacher is working with us to see how we can modify things to help him improve.  Right now math is the largest hurdle.  We are working on Touch Math, which works perfect for 1-5 but 6-9 is confusing to him.  He did get 100% on his spelling test yesterday.  YAY!!!!  That has not happened since September.  He enjoys listening to the Junie B Jones books so we got him the collection through Scholastic to see if it would help to entice him to read more.  He picked up one of the books that we have read in the past and told me all about it, but yet he cannot get a single question right when he takes the computerized AR test at school on the book.  I talked with him about trying to read the books today and he told me that the words were too small.  Ugh!  We will have to figure out a solution to that problem.

I am still trying to wrap my head around everything.  I am glad that we are finally starting to understand our son's quirks.  It could be so much worse.  I keep reminding myself that I survived my mom losing her battle to cancer, survived losing two family members just a month apart, survived my dad's bone marrow transplants, survived family alcoholism, and survived many more hurdles.  I am so tired of dealing with the continuous hurdles of life, but I can survive this.  There may not be an easy fix.  There may not be a cure.  But, my son should live a long and healthy life.

I worry though.  I worry that Princess will not always get the attention that she needs.  I worry that both kids will get teased at school by their peers.  I worry that we are not doing enough to help Pumpkin succeed at school.  I worry about what the future holds.  I try to not plan ahead, because nothing ever turns out the way that I plan.  Believe me there are so things in life that I definitely would not have planned.  I know, it makes us the person that we are today.  Struggles strengthen us and fortify us.  God is always with us and picks us up when we fall.  It is just frustrating to see how easy it is for others when it seems like our world is a constant struggle.

I know for me, I need to work on finding myself again.  I feel like I do for everyone else all of the time.  My Energizer Bunny wears me out on a daily basis.  I have lost my love for cooking along the way.  It is always fast and rushed, so we can get on with perpetual homework.  Cleaning usually has to wait until the weekends because there is no time during the week.  Then when the weekend comes, I do not want to clean.  I just want to relax and unwind.  My only escape from the world right now is reading. 

Well back to reality and the monkeys.  I hope that everyone has a great weekend!

Ups And Downs

Pumpkin has been bumping along on the pathway of education.  He definitely has his ups and downs in the past few years.  He is our Pumpkin.  He is just himself, nothing more and nothing less.  He is a loving child.  He can be a helpful child.  He loves to play with his sister.  He loves to invent and tinker.  He loves sharks and penguins.  He enjoys Piggie and Elephant books.  And he has ADHD (attention deficient hyperactivity disorder difference).  

He was diagnosed at the end of November.  He is not defective, he just learns and acts a bit differently than his peers.  He is an active child that does have trouble focusing and can be impulsive.  He is an active child that would much rather be outdoors than inside (what child really wants to be stuck indoors anyway).  He is an active child that has so much energy that he just cannot contain it, kind of like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh.  ADHD has such a negative stigma at times.  But he is a child.  He is not suppose to be mature all the time.  He is not suppose to know all the answers.  He is just different.  He is just Pumpkin.

This year we have learned how to establish eye contact.  We have learned that repeating simple rules creates ownership and better adherence to actually following the rules.  We have learned that we cannot defect from our daily peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich for lunch.  Yikes!  We have learned that it helps to take breaks during homework time.  We have learned about online games that help with learning spelling and math.  We have learned that sometimes parents need a time out.

Pumpkin also has the social skills of a rock.  Last year we had to ask the teacher send home pictures with the kids names, so he could learn his classmates names.  He still cannot tell us the names of his "new" classmates in his class this year.  He does not ask social questions of others, just talks about himself and his interests.  If someone says hi to him it is like he has blinders on and he just keeps going.  He shies away from shaking hands at church.  He laughs at things that may not necessarily be funny.  If he drops a glass of water on the floor at home, he will shriek like a banshee until someone comes to see what has happened. 

We had a second appointment Monday and he is border line high functioning autism (HFA).  He met most of but not all of the criteria on the parent survey.  He also had a 18 point difference between his verbal (108) and analytic (126) IQ values.  The childhood development pediatrician that we saw is going to consult with colleagues to figure out what our next steps will be. There is a very good chance that we will need to travel to a larger city in the area to partake in an autism panel to determine if he does indeed have HFA. 

We met with Pumpkin's principal and teacher today.  Even though he attends a parochial school, it is encouraging to know that they have had students in the past that have been successful academically with similar diagnoses.  They are receptive to helping us and Pumpkin succeed.  We are looking into methods and ideas since he is more designed for visual learning instead of verbal learning.  As suggested by the specialist, we are looking into obtaining an educational evaluation through our local "home" school.  I am sure that it will be an uphill battle since we have not gone the traditional route through the local school system.  I have tried a first mode of contact and if I do not hear anything within a week, I will try my next method of contact.

I have been read the book Easy to Love but Hard to Raise by Marner and Bashista.  It has been very fascinating.  Unfortunately, I will not get a chance to finish reading it before it has to be returned to the library on Friday.  I will either have to order it through interlibrary loan again or purchase the book for reference at home.  From what I have read so far, I think everyone should read this book to obtain a better understanding of what it is like to have a child that is considered different and to add a bit of humor and insight to enrich our own lives.

We have a long road ahead of us.  Rome was not built in a day.  So we will take one day at a time.  Some days I wish mom was still here.  I have questions that I would love to ask her.  At least we are starting to grow our own network of knowledgeable, kind, and supportive people.  And for me talking about things helps.  It helps me to process information, it helps me to de-stress, it helps me to heal.  So from time to time Pumpkins ups and down will probably appear on this little old blog.