Misc.

Today is the first official day of school for my kindergartner, and you'll never believe what he has lost already. Yep, his new school shoes (remember this post?). He only wore them once since we couldn't find any of his other shoes on that particular day. But, we're not letting it deter us from our excitement. We have AWESOME teachers this year (see this post). Woohoo!!! So since it begins, I'm going through and organizing. I can see how desperately we need better management of our time and our lives. Any tips? Any blogs you like to follow?

And so it begins

Tonight was back to school night. The boys started school this week and tonight was our opportunity to see the classrooms and meet with the teachers, and all I can say is:

GIVE ME A HALLELUJAH!!!

I have a feeling that this is going to be a great year for my boys (I reserve the right to take that statement back at any time). Why is it going to be a great year?

DS1 has a teacher that is organized, and structured, and fun, and calm, and very prepared to make sure the kids are bringing home their homework AND turning it in. She recognizes that not every child CAN do all the homework in the expected time, and is ready and willing to make adjustments as needed. She sends home weekly missing assignment sheets (novel!), and puts expected homework up on her website...wait for it...every day. EVERY DAY! Or at least she says. Oh, oh, and she has a system for parents to know what is important for THEM. Purple paper. Simple, but genius. We are stoked.

DS2 has the BEST kindergarten teacher in the world. No lie. Well, at least that is what we are told. As an added bonus, my hubby actually knows her...since she was a neighbor of theirs while he was growing up. That extra little love right there will go a LONG WAY. Her classroom is insanely organized, and she is so, so happy.

HUGE sigh of relief right now. I mean, I don't want my hopes to be up so far because my heart will break if they are dashed, but already this is better than what we had to deal with last year.

CAN I GET A HALLELUJAH??

School is just around the corner and can I just tell you how excited I am to get back in routine? After a hectic summer I am craving it!! I am on the count down (only 6 more days for my oldest, in case you were wondering, and Kindergarten and pre-school come quickly after that). Hooray!!!

So, now I'm trying to plan out my hours of ME time. What will I do without the hustle and bustle of summer camps, swimming lessons, and kids off of medication? Aaaahhh...maybe clean the house. Decorate. Finish painting. Go shopping. Read a book.

Whoa...can't get too far ahead. I don't have THAT much time. But it's coming...it's coming!!

Diet

Okay, so I know. I KNOW that so many people with ADD/ADHD kids start with the diet. We've never been "bad" eaters. We've always tried to eat lots of veggies, tried to keep the sugar out of the house, we don't buy soda, but will drink it if at a family party, etc. But I'm starting to wonder if it's something I need to be more in control of. I do believe that what we put into our bodies affects how we behave (both physically (i.e. sickness, growth, brain function) and emotionally). But I've never been a "food nazi"...just tried to take things in stride. Earlier this week we tried an experiment. We followed a basic ADD diet. The next day the kids were wonderful. Well, the following day we had a horrible diet (McDonald's for dinner, ice cream, cereal for breakfast, etc.) and the following day the kids were horrible. So...makes me think maybe I should be better. I'm looking into the Feingold program but wondered if any of you few readers (is anyone still here?) have actually tried this, and what you think?

You play with fire and you're gonna get....

So the other night we were putting the kids to bed and my husband asked my five year old what his favorite part of the day was. We'd done some really fun things and had had a good day as a family, and we figured he'd say something about spending the day at the lake, or playing at the park. But no. Instead he said he liked when my oldest (11) took these:
And this:
And made this:
So we had a good long talk with DS 1, and had to show him pictures like this:
to try to get the idea through his head that he shouldn't be doing any of the above. Sometimes it worries me just a little (or a lot) that my child seems to have no executive functioning or impulse control.

How do you manage a child and teach them responsibility? It's moments like this that make me think I might have to follow him around every moment of his life for the rest of his life.

It's days like today...

...where I love and hate my children. Yes, I just went there. No, I don't really hate them, but it sure feels hard to love, or even LIKE them somedays. Days like today when the house is a wreck, as usual, and I'm trying really hard to clean it (rather, I'm trying to make my kids clean it), where I have so much work coming out of my ears that I don't-sanely-know how to hold on. It's days like today where I have a sick baby, and my only sanity (my daughter) is gone getting sparkle toes, and I would much rather be with her than here. It's days like today where it take four hours, yes 4, to get one child to get dishes into the dishwasher, and the other child to pick up the couch pillows from the floor and simply put them back onto the couch. It's days like today where I've decided rather than eating with my children, I've taken my leftover red beans and rice and hidden away at my computer to browse blogs for lunch, hoping that I'll have just fifteen minutes where I don't have to deal with the screaming that is coming out of their mouths. It's days like today where that's not going to happen. And when I had a teaspoon full of clear Claritin syrup sitting on the counter waiting for a child to take (who has severe allergies), and I hear my DS2 screaming, then DS1 comes in to tell on him, and I sigh. And then he tells me that DS2 just spilled the Claritin all over the place, to which I am not surprised since he spills something EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. And to try and keep calm, it's days like today where I tell DS1 that it's okay, DS2 will just need to clean it up. And then DS1 leaves my room, calling after DS2 and tell him, "You need to clean up that oil spill..." and it's days like today that make that actually funny. It's days like today that make me grateful for the children I have.

Where are the shoes?

Does your ADD/ADHD child misplace or lose things? With my oldest it has always been a variety of things: jackets, pencils, backpacks, homework...his brain ;-) . But my 5 year old has one thing that he misplaces/loses, and I think it drives me even more batty than everything my oldest lost put together. It is ALWAYS his shoes. Every time (yes, really) we need to leave we are scrambling around looking for shoes. Oh, I should try to compensate for this, you say? I do. I start getting the kids ready an hour before we need to go anywhere, and somehow it always still comes down to those darn shoes. Some we have yet to find! I look everywhere...the shoe closet (duh, why would they be there?), his room, the bathroom, under the couches, under chairs, every room in the house, outside the doors, in front of the trampoline. The thing that kills me is sometimes one will be in the bathroom, while the other is buried in a pile of dirt, or in the oven (okay, not really). But still...I need a tracking GPS device just for my five year old's shoes.