A Day

Today has been "A Day". A VERY long day. Actually, it's been a long 2 weeks. School ended on the 16th and we have been managing to pass the time. But some days have been easier than others. I have so much to say, but I thought I would just describe this morning. There are several more posts coming soon (probably starting next week), but I miss doing this and I need to just get back into writing.

It started like any Thursday in our house.....Kevin gets up and gets ready for work around 5:30. I hear him get up and make my attempts to fall back to sleep. Unsuccessful, but I make the effort. Then, as he's coming downstairs, I hear the gate carefully being taken down and moved to the side and four little feet come running into my bedroom. Yup, it's just before 6 and Rachel and Simon are up and ready to run, jump and play. But we snuggle in bed. It's nice for about 10 minutes before we need to get moving.

ADHD.....

I turn on the television for our early morning television programs so that I can go to the bathroom and brush my teeth in peace. Only interrupted twice this morning.....slightly better than average. Take Rachel to the bathroom, get the kids dressed and we get ready to head downstairs. Rachel goes into her room to "get dressed". (yes, she's already dressed) Simon wants to go downstairs for "Trashy Town". Domino (the dog) is blocking the stairs. I convince Rachel she's already dressed and we all start heading downstairs. I grab their laundry, and lead the way so that Domino will follow me. Success!!!! They all come downstairs.

What exactly is ADHD?

I get them strapped into their booster seats and start working on getting their breakfast ready. I also need to prepare Rachel's lunch since her summer school has begun this week. I need to time television shows so that there is no risk of a program ending while I'm taking Rachel out to the bus. I plan to show them "Super Why", their current favorite program because all of the recordings are over 25 minutes long. They wanted Jack and the Beanstalk. But that's Rachel's absolute favorite episode, so I chose The Three Little Pigs. Apparently, that was the wrong choice. Simon starts to scream. Jack!!! Jack!!! Jack!!! "No, Simon," I explain. "We're doing Three Little Pigs". He screamed through more than half the episode. Rachel is getting upset because if Simon gets upset, so does she. Eventually, Simon settles down. Finally the bus comes and she leaves for school. Simon watches the rest of the program, Daniel wakes up and comes down to breakfast. Domino wants to go for a walk, but I can't go. I take the boys downstairs, Daniel goes to the Wii and Simon goes to the computer to play. I take advantage of the relative silence for 10 minutes.

And why would you want to give a hyperactive child a stimulant?

Morning progressed pretty smoothly at this point. We head out to run an errand and then go to Chick-Fil-A so the boys can play in the play area that they have at our local store. We arrive quite early (around 10:45) so they (and one other little girl) are the only children in the play area. They are having fun for about 20 minutes before Daniel decides he's hungry. So, we have an early lunch (and then we would play again). When we finish lunch, it's a lot more crowded in the play area. There are now probably about 12 kids in there (including my 2 boys). Simon is having fun climbing up and going down the slide. One of the times he climbed up there, a little girl (I would guess she was about 18 months old) was sitting at the top of the slide and not going down, but not moving out of the way either. Her father moved over to the foot of the slide and blocked my view, so I don't know what happened next. But 2 seconds later, this father was putting himself into the corkscrew slide to pull his daughter out and yelling at Simon who was (apparently) kicking her as they went down the slide. He wasn't trying to avoid hitting my son either. I immediately jumped up and was telling Simon to keep his feet quiet and told the father that he is autistic and he doesn't understand his emotion. He allowed me to squeeze in and help hold Simon back while he pulled his daughter out and then I held Simon and told him to say "I'm Sorry!" and put Simon in a Time Out (well, our version of a Time Out). After I let him go and he goes back to playing, I quietly (and calmly) explained to this father that (1) I'm sorry this happened and (2) I realize my 4 year old son looks like he's 6 (and is as strong as a 6 year old), but he has the maturity of a 2 year old. Yelling has no effect on him. I suspect he growled about me and my son after this incident to whoever would listen.

Is it appropriate to medicate a 4-year old?

So, we leave Chick-Fil-A on a less than lovely note. It's time to pick up Rachel and drop off Daniel at his camp for the afternoon. My head is spinning. I'm still recovering from the doctor's visit the previous day which confirmed our suspicion that there's more going on with Rachel than just autism. And it's only 12:00!!!!

My sanity left me a long time ago. I'm not really sure what I have left, but that's quickly disappearing. One more day and then I'll get a bit of a break -- holiday weekend followed by our full summer schedule. Hopefully, the time that I will have to myself will allow me to find some of that energy I so desperately need.