Brags 6/28

[akafred]

Let's hear them!

[akafred]

We move on Saturday. I am, predictably, seeing an uptick (more of an upswing or spike, honestly) in anxious behaviors, which in Charlotte usually manifest as defiance, lying, controlling, talking back, etc. Which of course is challenging at the best of times but I am stressed also. It's almost gotten to the point that if she opens her mouth you can expect lies to come out. And last week she was late coming home from a friend's house 3 separate times (but PROMISES she'll never do it again, waaaaah). Shoot me. I haven't grounded her from the friend because this is the very last week she will be walking down to this friend's house. She did get the iPad pulled after the second time but still did it a third time.

Doesn't sound like a brag so far. But Monday night I didn't let her go play with the friend. She of course demanded to know why and I told her I didn't really feel like arguing and wonder if she can figure it out herself. She again demanded to know why and *promised* not to throw a fit. So I just asked leading questions. What happened yesterday aftee church? What happened Saturday when we took friend to the new house? What happened Friday? Thursday? Etc. She answered the questions and then said absolutely nothing for at least 20 minutes. When she did, she was normal in tone. And then she told me "the truth" about something I guess she had decided to lie about. She is in camp at the $$$$$ special needs prep school this week and she was supposed to do X in the morning session but chose to do Y instead (I guess they let her?) because a friend did Y, and she was afraid to tell me. But Y is academic camp. LMAO! 😂 😂 😂 Anyway, she did not argue or ask to go play with friend again that night and in fact was supremely helpful and loving, no arguments, even got a ma'am a couple times, and that makes me proud.

Then I let her go last night, and I drilled her on where to be. Where will you be at 7:15? INSIDE THIS HOUSE. Where will you be at 7:10? Walking home. What will you not do? Get distracted. She came in at 7:04 panting, having run home (it isn't far but it is up a steep hill all the way).

Also after a bad start where I had to re-read the whole first two chapters because she wasn't listening AT ALL, she is doing a wonderful job listening to "Wonder." We were rolling last night when they were laughing about the principal's name. It's been a while since she has been read to instead of at least alternating pages, and she seems to be actively seeking out ways to stay focused or remind herself to get back on task when her mind wanders. Telling her my job was to read and hers is to listen seemed to have helped. She always takes specific jobs more seriously than general statements.

[mamaturtle]

DS has been planning our cat's birthday for awhile and the date is next Monday. DS said he wanted to get a pinata and candy bags for our guests. He invited everybody we know and has said we need to have the big party. Geez. He even wanted my parents from out of town to join us for the cat's birthday. He asked the technician and the BCBA what they wanted to drink when they come over for the cat's birthday party.

I explained we can have hamburgers at a fast food restaurant or order a pizza for the two of us after OT which is from 4-5. I did explain to DS that I plan on getting some store bought patriotic cupcakes and decided our aba technician and possibly two bcba's will be coming to join us for cupcakes from 6-8.

I appreciate this planning ahead but I am embarrassed that DS did ask them what they want to drink in front of me.

[akafred]

mamaturtle, it's not appropriate but it is ridiculously cute!

[miranda]

We are surviving the first week of summer STEM Academy. I have been a basket case. The bus situation is a nightmare. I've known since February that they had his bus information incorrect and have made over a dozen phone calls between transportation and the school to correct it. I have some legit anxiety over buses after an incident in kindergarten where they found my kid several towns over after putting him on a homeless and highly mobile bus. So, I decided the only way for me to feel comfortable was to follow the bus and observe DS getting on and off the bus to make sure they were putting him on the right bus. On the first day, despite my neurotic attempts at getting things straight, they STILL gave him the wrong bus card. I intervened, bitched out the front office a bit, and shot out some pretty poisonous emails. They seemed to wake up the next day, and I sent DH to give an additional level of scrutiny- he said everyone was on their best behavior and DS appeared to be getting white glove treatment and has been on the right bus since. DH said multiple teachers came up to him when they saw DS and introduced themselves warmly and commented on how nice and polite DS was in class.

ASIDE from busing- it's been great. I'm very proud of DS. He doesn't complain about any of it, even the hour long bus ride to and from school. He doesn't say he loves it, but I think he is enjoying it a little. They split the kids by gender so he's in a small class of 15 boys. All of his teachers are male. He changes classes/teachers every hour. They are learning bike safety and taking long bike rides every day. He's taking a class on guitars, but says it's hard, which I'm sure it is given his poor fine motor. I'm happy for him, even though I'll be glad when it's over in August. After STEM academy he's going to chess camp with his two best friends.

[miranda]

akafred, I have taken to making DS wear a digital watch and then I set a timer on it to remind him when it's time to come home!

I don't want DS to have a phone yet- combination of him not being mature enough to leave it alone at school and the probability that he'll lose it or destroy it. However with all this bus nonsense someone clued me into Gizmo watch that allows me to track him via GPS and also make a phone call. Only $5 a month. It's ginormous so he'd probably just keep it in his backpack.

[akafred]

I just don't want to micromanage her that much. She has an iPod touch. She has digital watches. And she has friends and their parents. She can figure out a way to get home in time, in my opinion. I have also offered...let me know if you want my help figuring out how to solve this problem. So far she isn't taking me up on that. But the last 2 days she came home on time and she will only have one more night left. After that she'll have more constant supervision at the new house until i feel confident about the neighborhood, the kids nearby, and DD's knowledge of the area etc. So it's a short term problem for now.

[duff]

We thought that DD was going to need another surgery - this time on her diaphragm. The right side has been a little high since she was born, but we met with the surgeon yesterday and he doesn't think that surgery will make any difference in her breathing, so he's suggesting we hold off and maybe reassess when she's a little older! I also told him that she's been taking 80%-100% of her daytime meals from the bottle and we're really only using her g tube at night...he was so impressed with her! I really hope we'll be able to start introducing the bottle at night in the next couple of weeks. I want her to be comfortable and 100% on daily bottles before we start the night feeds. I know I'm going to be a zombie, but I'm so excited to lose out on sleep if it means I get to feed my tiny girl.

She also did really good in pool therapy today. The way they had me holding her, I couldn't really see her face, and she slept through most of it, but her therapists were very happy with her reactions to the water, positioning, and the massage they did. They were also really happy with the fact that she spent so much more time awake the past week. Granted, she's been super sleepy today, but hopefully she'll be a little more awake tomorrow.

[mightymaude]

DD(6.5) begged for some of DS(9)'s math practice work over the weekend, and then when we indulged, she not only finished before him but got everything correct and he did not. Obviously her lifelong trouble with communication is that she is actually made of numbers instead of words. She inherently gets them.

Behaviorally, we're in the doldrums of summer. Not much good there.

[akafred]

mightymaude, impressive!

DD is at camp at Vanderbilt this week. When I picked her up yesterday, I saw a flier asking for kids who have recently finished second and third grades to do a math study where they take an MRI of the child's brain while doing math, presumably to map which parts of the brain are used. For half a second I considered it. Then I remembered she hates math, and still pretends she can't do minus. If I word it a different way ("less than", "take away", etc) she is fine, but "what is 9 minus 4" is going to get an "I don't do minus." Never mind that there is no way she would be ok with the MRI machine tight space or the noise it makes. Idk what I was thinking, except "picture of her brain, cool!"

[mightymaude]

Jul 4, 2017 20:39:16 GMT -5 akafred said:

mightymaude, impressive!

DD is at camp at Vanderbilt this week. When I picked her up yesterday, I saw a flier asking for kids who have recently finished second and third grades to do a math study where they take an MRI of the child's brain while doing math, presumably to map which parts of the brain are used. For half a second I considered it. Then I remembered she hates math, and still pretends she can't do minus. If I word it a different way ("less than", "take away", etc) she is fine, but "what is 9 minus 4" is going to get an "I don't do minus." Never mind that there is no way she would be ok with the MRI machine tight space or the noise it makes. Idk what I was thinking, except "picture of her brain, cool!"

DD would completely flip out in an MRI machine. She was sedated when she had an MRI post seizure as a toddler. Obviously that couldn't happen if she had to do math.

She would have the same reaction to the idea though. She desperately wants to see the inside of her body. Not pics of other people's. Hers specifically. She primarily wants to watch the digestive system in action.

[freezorburn]

DS had his first day of skateboard camp today ... he had gone to a couple of free weekend clinics with his dad last month and seemed interested, so we found a camp run by the same organization and signed him up for a week of half-days.

This is his first camp that is not run by his preschool ... so all new counselors and kids, except for one other friend from preschool that we knew had signed up.

He was goofing off about 10 minutes before camp officially started, and ended up taking an awkward spill on a small ramp. He was a bit shaken and a bit bruised, but eventually worked himself back up to participating (I have parents visiting this week, so my mother stayed with him for moral support while I ran back to the house to walk the dog and help my dad with an errand).

By the time I got back to watch the last half hour or so, he was pretty tired but seemed a lot more comfortable with the counselors and the other kids. And, he was eager to demonstrate a skill that he had worked on that morning (going down a ramp, assisted). He's looking forward to going back tomorrow, and I'm just so proud that a) he tried something outside of his skill level, even though he failed; and b) he didn't let that first spill ruin the rest of the week.