A Whole Week

Tomorrow starts the beginning of our first "real" full week of work and school in almost three weeks.  I think we are all ready.  Ok, maybe it is just me :)

Blaine would rather never go to school.  He tells me every day that he can't (and doesn't) learn anything at school that he can't learn from PBS.org.  And he actually says it just like that.  Some days I think he has a point when I see what kind of homework he has.  This week or next, in fact, I will be visiting a private school here in Broomfield that I hope will turn out to be very beneficial for him.  They have a long wait list but he would spend Kindergarten there if he got in for this upcoming school year.  Our other option is Meridian Elementary, Blaine's home school, where he would spend Kindergarten if we didn't put him in a private school setting.  The school we're looking at is called Bal Swan.  I think Blaine will need some kind of enrichment program this summer too but I am unaware of what is out there so I should start that research now I suppose.

Our time at STAR center is also winding down.  We have sessions through the end of January and then post testing in February which will show us where Blaine improved in certain areas.  The verdict is in (for the most part) though and the areas that we were all hoping would improve drastically for Mister didn't, so in this last month a team of professionals that range from Dr. Lucy Miller (who literally wrote the book on SPD and started the first foundation around SPD) to Blaine's OT and the center's psychologist will be meeting to make one last push towards giving us some answers and support.

I needed a lot of rest this weekend and all of us came down with a cold so Daddy came to the rescue and while I ran a few errands and cooked for the week, he did the kid-centered activities.  Our recreation center is awesome - complete with a rock-climbing wall, huge pool and basketball courts - all of which Blaine played on this weekend with Dad.

Hannah bossed me around the house while her brother was busy climbing walls.  She has added a new line to her list: "Oh my Gosh, MOM!  Are you kidding me?"  She says it about everything now, and it's funny every time.

Now that it is 2013 it is also time to start thinking about a house... our house that we will own instead of rent... before July 1st.  (WOW!)  The person that helps to manage the house we rent now (the owner lives in the Netherlands) is a Realtor and we trust him so we'll start there.  Tomorrow I have to call a few mortgage brokers to see what our first steps should be.  Another exciting year and ANOTHER move.  I can't wait!  (Can you sense my immense sarcasm!?!)  Hey, know a good moving company?  Because there is one based in Texas that we will NOT be using! :)

If this is your first FULL week back... good luck and I hope good days are ahead :)

Charts, Tickets and Changes

Because of these charts:

Blaine has been earning these stickers (and he's so proud!):

Because he does chores like putting away the dishes now:

And the more stickers he gets the more quarters he gets and the more quarters he gets the more fun he can have at the arcade!  (Look at all those tickets!  We hit major jackpots on Friday night when we went.  He ended up with over 400. :)

Blaine has been on his meds for almost a month and it's been the best month of our lives together as a family.  This is how David and I look all the time now... (ha!)

All joking aside - our world is totally different now and Mister is blossoming at lightening speed.  He is soaking up school (because he can now) like a sponge, he is helpful and loving with his sister, and with the structure of his new chart/sticker system he is making huge strides at home.  He loves this arcade/bowling/go-karts place, Boondocks, and likes to go there to spend the money he earns during the week.  Every day Mister gets more and more independent - we're very proud of him!  The tears of joy that have poured out of me these last few weeks have felt really, really, good.

Making "goo" with his therapist, Ms. Ali.

Because Blaine can focus for long periods of time now he has been glued to his new bible.  The Big Picture Story Bible came with an audio CD which Blaine follows along with while I do my Bible study.  There are 451 pages and he has already went through the book twice on his own (in two weeks.)  He loves the Bible and God so much - it's amazing to watch him grow spiritually too.

The kids both had some days off of school last week for in services and such.  Tomorrow is the start of a full week for both kids and Mister will have two OT sessions at STAR.  We met with his OT on Friday for his first session and it went really well.

In addition to everything else we're doing we went to a behavioral ophthalmologist because Blaine watches TV upside down 75% of the time.  Long story short, he did an amazing job for the doctor, he has perfect vision, healthy eyes and the doctor believes that it is Blaine's vestibular system that is causing him problems with watching TV and he believed that intensive OT would correct that problem.

The next phase of our journey includes the conclusion of full neuro-psych testing for Blaine and getting into our intensive OT treatment program. 

Things are getting good people! :)

Change

The one thing that is constant is change. 

Sometimes change is painful and we really don't want to face it at all.

And then other times change is welcomed with open arms.  Our family has been waiting for a change for what seems like forever and lately it really seems like the pieces of the puzzle are really beginning to fall into place for us.  This is big.  Huge.  Amazing. 

It is hard to write about this because so many people have so many opinions and judgements about this topic so I will just get to it.

Blaine is on a new medication and...

It.

Has.

Changed.

Our.

Lives.

I met with two pediatricians last week (Blaine's pediatrician and an ADHD expert that we are consulting with) who helped us put together a treatment plan which we began implementing last Friday.

In just four days we have been amazed at how Mister's life (and our lives) have improved.  He is significantly less aggressive, much more considerate, hyperactivity is down, and attention to detail is improved.  Not to mention his intellect is making appearances all the time now.  Instead of non-verbal action he is communicating with a beautiful vocabulary and he's sharing his knowledge with us.  We're amazed at the change and see now that this will help him achieve so much more in occupational therapy because of this new focus and "calm" he's been given.

Today is a great day.  I actually LOVE being at home now because it's not stressful, frustrating, and constantly challenging. 

And that's a change I can live with :)

Seeing STARS

I've spent the last five days trying to write this post.  I wrote it and erased it, wrote more and changed it and now finally I'm just going to write and click "Publish."

D and I have been processing what we learned at the STAR Center last Thursday evening.  Well, processing and thanking God for the relief and joy we have experienced.  The staff at the STAR Center have begun to change our lives.  We are so grateful and blessed to have the opportunity to work with them.  Over four months ago, Dr. Fasci, Blaine's developmental pediatrician in Austin looked at me in her office and said, "You are moving to the best place in the country, if not the world, to help your son.  Get into the STAR Center and I'm sure they can help you."  Here we are after so many hard years, unexplainable frustration, pain, and too many tears to count and she was exactly right. 

Thursday afternoon we got -

Answers.
Explanations.
Recommendations.
Reports.
Results.
Conclusions.
Plans.

And best of all -

HOPE!

And God came through in a big way this past week.  For the first time in a long time both David and I actually breathed a sigh of relief and felt that there was someone out there that actually knew what Blaine has been dealing with, what we as a family have been coping with, and not only that but they have a plan to help.  The OT, SLP, Psychologist and Pediatrician we're working with are amazing.  Just amazing.

From here I could go into great detail but I think I'll just hit the most important things we learned.

- Blaine does have Sensory Processing Disorder.  Research shows that a very intensive Occupational Therapy and Listening Therapy program can re-train Blaine's brain and help him immensely.  He will begin with the proposed 30 sessions (3 times per week) in a few weeks.

- The pediatrician diagnosed Blaine with ADHD, Combined Type (Both inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms) and recommended medication given the severity of his behavior.  After much prayer and discussion with the doctor we are going to move forward with this recommendation.

- Testing shows that Blaine has a very high IQ - in the High/Gifted range in fact.  I started crying when she told us this not because I was surprised but because it was such a relief to hear that what we've sensed for a long time is actually true.  They told us that much of his frustration and problems come from knowing that he should be functioning at higher level, cognitively, but not being able to access the information. 

There.  I did it.  Not really how I wanted to present this very important information but these are the facts. 

Finally, I just started attending BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) and it just so happens that we're going to be studying Genesis for the next 8 months.  Genesis is a Greek word that means "beginning."  The timing of this study and the new beginnings we're experiencing give me goose bumps.  Since July our family has been experiencing a new beginning here in Colorado and in just one meeting at the STAR center we can see a new beginning for Blaine too.  We're so excited for what's to come.

Thank you for all your prayers!

Oh.

Oh, Fun!

We took D. to the Denver Children's Museum this weekend - it was his first time and our 4th time.  We had a great time together and I personally enjoyed it much more than the other times because I wasn't chasing Thing 1 and Thing 2 all over the place by myself.

Thing 2 checking out her dance outfit at the museum.

Thing 1 taking Fido's temperature - rectally of course!

Oh, Hard.

Sunday was another beautiful day so we headed out to Boulder for a little family fun.  Minus the whining, crying, whimpering, complaining, and drama from Thing 1 and Thing 2, it was awesome!  I had to carry Hannah because David's ankle is still healing from an injury but it turns out he had to carry Blaine anyway after said complaining.

Oh, Cool!

Hannah has had the time of her life at school this week.  She literally ran to her classroom on Monday morning and found something to work with immedietely.  She thinks her personal cubby, hook, and tiny toilet are the best things ever.  She insisted on wearing her "cake dress" (Nana got her a dress with cupcakes on it) and "Siri's shoes" and even ate breakfast standing up next to her clothes which were hanging on the breakfast bar.  I wish I had a picture but we were in a huge hurry so the only picture I got of her on her first day was this.

This is HG eating a real apple on the way home.  Girlfriend doesn't eat fruit but apparently they had apples for a snack on her first day and she caved due to peer pressure.  She then got an apple for the ride home and munched it up.  So proud of her!

Oh, Good... we hope.

Blaine and I had an appointment with the school district on Monday.  We went to see if he would qualify for their free preschool and he did.  They did a hearing and vision test then went over paperwork I filled out and asked a bunch of questions.  He qualified for several reasons but since we were so late in the process of applying, the availability of a classroom was not looking good.  The good news is they found us a school, the bad news is where it is located.  The school is very far from our home and it is not in the best area. 

There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about my time as a teacher - a special education teacher none the less - and I am not sure if that is good or bad.  My time in Teach For America, in inner city Houston, was eye opening and I saw first hand what happened in public schools behind closed doors.  I was also able to work on the other side of the spectrum too (thank God!) - at KIPP - where teachers go above and beyond to meet the needs of their students - all students.  I'm not saying that Blaine is destined for failure because of where he's been placed, I'm just saying that I enter these waters with first hand knowledge of what could be.  I asked a lot of questions and found that he's going to be with nine other children that are dealing with the same challenges (I'm not a fan of this) and there will (allegedly) be five teachers in the room, so a 2 to 1 ratio, which is really good.  He will attend this preschool as a top priority 12 hours a week, the STAR center therapy will be a second priority, and his therapy with Ms. Ali will be third.  We have one year to prepare our Mister for Kindergarten and though I know that there is a lot we can do to help him, God ultimately has a plan for him and we are going to pray that this all works out wonderfully.  Ms. Ali believes that once he gets over a few academic hurdles that he will need to be challenged at a higher level.  Once testing is done we'll know where he is intellecutally but both his developmental pediatrician and Ms. Ali believe that he is not functioning where he is capable.  D and I know this but it's good to hear from the professionals that if we help him remove some of the blocks he is experiencing then he will blossom.

Oh, No.

Gymnastics camp didn't work out for Mister, but that's ok - we'll find something that's just right for him.  We believe he is the next Michael Phelps so individual swim lessons are next :)  He told us he's "ready to learn the strokes!"  Well then, here we go.

Mister really likes baseball too.  (At the same time dealing with big sports questions like, "Why is football called football when you don't use your feet.  Daddy, soccer should be called football..."

Oh, MORE fun (on a weeknight!)

Tonight was the National Night Out and the Broomfield police department put on a pretty neat set of demonstrations and had about two dozen information tables about safety and our community.  The kids loved it.

Mister on a Big Digger... well, that's what we call it.

The FD is about to use the Jaws of Life on this car.

Awww, Mister.

Helicopter landing.

Firewoman HG getting ready to mow the grass.

I think my kids were meant to be farmers.

Oh, I'm tired.
 

I Make Lists When I'm Tired

1.  I'm exhausted.  David's exhausted.  The kids... not so much.  This does not make for easy days.  This past week just plain kicked our be-hinds.  David put in 12 hour days nearly every day at work and I was putting them in here on the home front.  Since Blaine goes non-stop from 6:00 am to 9:00 pm every day, there is never any down time.

2.  We made good progress this week on Blaine's therapy.  We found - rather - God placed a woman in our lives that we both think is going to be great.  Her name is Ali Huckins and she is Behavioral Analyst as well as a Licensed Professional Counselor.  Basically this means that she knows behavior and she knows mental disorders and from what I can tell, she is excellent at what she does.  She has come to the house twice so far and will come twice this week.  After we figure out what our insurance will cover, she will come nearly every day.  Thank God!  Also Blaine's intake form for the STAR Center (http://spdstar.org/) was approved and the next step is for me to go in for an interview and tour this coming Friday.  If we agree to move forward, which I think we will, then I have a lot of hope that they will be able to really help Blaine and us.  They do so much more than occupational therapy and have an amazing multi-disciplinary team to make sure all bases are covered.  The really great news - insurance doesn't cover any of their services!  Ok, so that was meant to be really sarcastic...

3. Little Miss Social - Hannah Grace - will start going to Hope Montessori Academy one week from Monday.  She can't wait to meet new friends and learn, learn, learn.  We know she is eager to get out there into the world and make her mark.  She'll only be there three days a week from 8:30-11:30 but we think it's enough to give her what she needs right now.  One cute story: David called her "Baby" tonight and she kindly reminded him that she was "not baby, just Hannah."  When David told her that she would always be his baby she agreed that was ok.  About 20 minutes later she reached over at dinner and grabbed David's arm and looking into his eyes she said, "I your baby, Daddy."  So sweet. 

4.  Tomorrow is our 6 year wedding anniversary!  Yay!  I outdid myself (if I do say so) in this post from two years ago and if you remember list item #1 (tired) you'll understand why I'm not devoting a whole post to this anniversary.  One thing is for sure, last year at this time I never would have guessed in a million years that I would be writing to you from Broomfield, Colorado right now.  What a difference a year makes.  A Godly couple whom we love and look up to very much told us that this move would bring us closer together because all we would have in a new place is each other!  Boy were they right.  We actually watched our wedding video with the kids' tonight.  Hannah almost cried when she saw her Papa and Pops in the video, Blaine couldn't help but notice that we kissed a lot, and David and I reminisced about that beautiful day 6 years ago when we were married.

Well this list turned out to be short and sweet.  Here are some even sweeter pictures.

Blaine making pizza at the Children's Museum of Denver.

Movie Star!

Silly

Blaine's favorite activity at the Renaissance Festival.

On the "King Swing" at the Ren Fest.

Have a great week!

?

I really have tried to write something here for the last week but just can't seem to find the words - or any words for that matter!  Then so much happens in our family and I get overwhelmed and I think about the six people that read this blog and I know they're checking in on us and then I remember why I have this blog in the first place:

My Mister

My Boo

I love them.

Mister is growing like a weed still.  At his 4 year check up a few weeks ago he was in the 70th percentile for height and the 80th for weight.  I really don't know how that works since he looks so skinny and muscular to me but those are the stats.  He screamed about not wanting a shot and then when we finally held him down to do it, the nurse poked him and he stopped crying immedietly telling us, "Hey, that didn't hurt at all!"  And then he proceeded to keep his band-aid on for over a week because it was "protecting his shot." 

Mister is a beautiful little soul with a big heart for the outdoors, bugs, animals, water and strenuous and exhausting activity (though I'm the only one that seems exhausted!).  Mister (and the rest of us) continue to encounter some challenges.  Last week we went back to see Blaine's developmental pediatrician and she took him off the medicine he was on for ADHD.  The drug was supposed to slow him down just long enough for him to be able to "think before acting" but it didn't exactly do the trick so we're headed down a different path now.  ADHD, which Blaine was diagnosed with over six weeks ago, does not seem to be the major cause for concern right now.  While we have not had any neuro-psych testing done yet it is apparent to his developmentalist that he has a dysregulated nervous system and that is probably due, primarily, to a mood disorder.  The good news for Blaine is that he is highly intelligent and we're going to go to the ends of the earth to get him what he needs, God willing.  And with the right combination of diet, exercise, therapies, and perhaps medications we're going to do the best we can to provide him with a nurturing, loving, and supportive environment.

I have always thought Blaine was part wolf.  This confirms it - watch the video: (Please ignore my incorrect use of the word "perch" and Hannah's screaming in the background.  My vocabulary is poor and HG was in a BIG time-out.)

I kept hearing this howling noise in the backyard and when I went to check on Mister, there he was sitting on the table with back arched and head turned to the sky howling away.  Crack. Me. Up.
And then there is my little Boo who is 21 months old today.

Talking on the phone

What does a girl have to do to get some privacy around here?

A 24-Month size dress that she is swimming in.  Still cute though.


While still cute and adorable and all those precious things Lil' Missy has been spending much more time in detention these days.  Standing on the glass coffee table, slamming the blinds into the window, and telling us "No" are her favorite offenses.

Her favorite things these days are loving on (and harassing) her brother, playing with her babies and eating potato chips.  (She is not my healthy eater.)

Right now we're waiting for GG to arrive from Michigan but a number of flights have been cancelled so she may not get here tonight.  We sure hope she makes it in sooner than Friday which is her next option if she can't get here tonight (all flights tomorrow are booked - I guess because of the SXSW festival here in Austin.)

And coming up next month we have tentative plans to visit David's grandmother and her husband in South Texas which would include a two day visit to South Padre Island.  Blaine has been talking about the "ocean and sharks" for a year now, since the last time we tried to go to the beach but couldn't get there because the traffic was so horrendous.  We are going to make it happen this year though, no matter what.

I think that about does it for now.  Now that I have caught all six of you up on our lives, I hope you are fulfilled :)