Seek....and Destroy

Long overdue update

2010-03-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

I haven't been on to update in a LONG time. The boys are doing very well. Dominic is in 1st Grade this year and so far everything is going well. He's still got a few things to work on with keeping his hands to himself and his emotions but other than that he's doing very well with everything else. He's average compared to his peers but he still does need a Para to keep him on task. As far as speech, he is doing so much better. We are at 2 weekly 20 minute sessions.

Damien has done a 180 turn around on his speech. The apraxia is still there, we won't be rid of it for a long time. He still has some slobber issues but he's got words and sentences now! Everything continues to begin with a D but that's ok. I won't lie, we are still struggling to understand and get REALLY frustrated on both ends but we're understanding some of his wants and needs. He is getting speech 3 days a week 20 minutes each session.

We should have our IEP's coming in the next month so I should have more to update then.

Dominic's new IEP

2009-04-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

Today is a day I dread every year. To have to do it twice (once with Dominic, and then with Damien) is even more of a pain. Dominic's is always in April, Damien's in May. I hope today goes well. I think for the most part Dominic completed his goals well this year. Nothing has been said about medication although I have expressed that I would rather not put him on ADHD medicine. The only thing that had been said this year was that Dominic may have PDD's of Autism which we have been hearing since he was in 3 yr old preschool.

So hopefully it will go well and we'll get some good goals or better yet maybe he'll graduate! That would be awesome! I doubt though but as he goes through each year he has grown greatly by the end. It will be interesting to see the goals they have thought up for him!

It's been awhile!

2009-01-14T12:55:00.000-08:00

I haven't updated in forever on here. There's been alot going on with the boys. I'll start with Dominic.

A few months back we had parent-teacher conferences. His teacher wanted to tell us something but as she said she didn't know exactly how to put it. Dominic did "things" that are different than the other kids and she wanted to bring it to our attention. She went on to say that she didn't want to say he was autistic by any means but carries some autistic traits. I flat out told her not to feel standoff ish about informing us because I have been aware for 3 years. She was really worried to say anything. I told her in Early Intervention that they had classified him as PDD~NOS but we have never done the actual testing for it. He has done SID and ADHD testing which showed he has both. She said at this time she didn't think we should have him tested because another label isn't going to do him any good which I agree really! Just more crap for the school to say something about. His sensory issues have been mild lately except for nearly ripping off his skin due to certain fabric feels. Sounds are still bugging him alot too. Sometimes it gets way too loud in our house which can cause him to act up or cry. He cries alot over just about everything. It's so hard with him. You have to watch what you say.

Dominic had his tonsils taken out a few weeks ago and I was told this could fix his attention, behavior, bed wetting, and snoring. It's fixed 2 out of 4 so it did do some good for us! He's no longer snoring or wetting the bed!

Damien is doing better at speech but still way behind. He's starting to learn little one words like dog, cat, ball. He still does alot of sound effects for certain things instead of calling them by name. His tongue thrust is less but still there each and every day. His speech apraxia is getting alittle better as well. He finally potty trained at 3 1/2 year old which is a major deal!!

In all things are going well!

Why Is It

2008-09-22T14:11:00.000-07:00

That kids learn much better learning in a school enviroment? Damien had no interest in learning signs but now 4 weeks into the school year the kid has come home signing to me after I tried doing ASL here with him at home.

Signs so far:

Hungry
Milk
More
Please

I hope this continues and I can learn more with him. This has been awesome. Much better than the charades we usually have to play to figure out what his needs are.

Quirks

2008-09-12T11:24:00.000-07:00

Dominic's teacher sent home a note the other day saying he refuses to use and then gets very upset over the fact that he does not have the same crayons as the other kids in his class so she's supplying him with Crayolas until I can buy him some. According to her, he can see a difference in the color between Roseart and Crayola. I have no clue and he won't tell me. Anyways it's a bit frustrating!

Change Is NOT Good

2008-09-04T11:12:00.000-07:00

My life with Dominic could be described as anxious you could say. Every school year the first few weeks I am a worrying mess about if anything is going to trigger him, if a teacher isn't going to understand his needs, etc. Overstimulation is one of the biggest problems we have with Dom and I feel like we are always walking a tight rope.

School has been in session for about 3 weeks now. Dominic has came home upset nearly daily about 2 of those weeks. (sigh) Come to find out there are 2..count them....1....2....Dominic's in his class this year. The teacher informed me before school started that she was going to have to come up with some way to call the boys' name. Well her answer was to call Dominic "D." Yes just the letter D and he's not taking it well at all. He comes home very upset with tears welling up in his eyes (he is super sensitive) screaming or pounding on the table, "I'm not 'D' I'm Dominic!!!!" He talks about the other Dominick in an evil tone clearly despising there is another kid with this name in school. I'm afraid he may just take action and try ridding class of the other Dominick.

I wrote his teacher a note trying to explain he does not adapt well with change which is part of his IEP situation since he's been diagnosised with SID. I asked for her very nicely if she could please try to find another way to call Dominic rather than "D" because it's too much of a change for him and he's really not liking it. She wrote back she noticed that he was pretty upset with it and that she would try to figure something else out. I think the worst part is that the kids in his class have started doing it except for 2 that were in his class last year and he's probably screaming "my name's Dominic, not D!!!!" It's all very upsetting to him.

Hopefully she figures something out because it's little things like this that can really screw up the year. We've had several instances of just the slightest change that will throw him off such as having to move from a blue chair to a red or not sitting on the Dinosaur in circle time anymore. These little things can ruin him for weeks if it's not solved quickly. He's got a Para sitting with him and hopefully she can help him by calling him Dominic since she's dealing only with him (part of his IEP for the ADHD and SID)

Dee Dee!!

2008-08-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post. I plan on posting a new video of Damien soon on his speech progress. The past month or so he has been trying to say some new things. It's pretty incredible. I love how Dominic and Alex's eyes get real big when they realize he just said a word! Then they come screaming to me what he said which in turn makes Damien try saying it again. Sometimes we get a word, sometimes we get a spitting tongue thrust. His biggest word right now is dee-dee (baby) He says dee-dee and pats my tummy or lays his head on it. He's quick to say dee-dee in public and point to my belly showing everyone mommy is pregnant. lol

On the 18th he will be starting school leaving here at 7:30 and coming home at noon M-F. I am so hoping with this intense school routine and therapy we will have more words soon. We had a teacher meet and greet this week and come to find out there is some boy who is deaf in class so they will do a LOT of signing. I've worked with him on some signs but hopefully he will learn more and understand that we know what he means with these gestures. Gestures right now is a sound or a charade to let us know what he needs or wants.

Update

2008-07-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

We start school in just 16 days and surprisingly I am not too nervous. Dominic will have a Para sitting with him half a day to keep his attention focused on school. Damien will hopefully be learning different ways to speak other than "mamma, dadda, and dis." He seems to really like playing charades and anymore it's how we speak to each other. Heck, any way to get him to communicate what he wants/needs so we don't end up into meltdowns is great.

Being frugal as always, I told the kids the other day they had to use a backpack we already had in the basement. We have about 12 of different characters through the years. Dominic chose to reuse his Transformer bag, Alex a Jansport pink Camo that I picked up at Target last year for $3, and Damien given a choice between Spongebob, Superman, and Thomas chose Spongebob by saying....."ba-bab." I'm sure he saw my eyes get big with a happy smile. I immediately praised him telling him (like I'm supposed to) I love it when you talk and use your words! Since then, no more "ba-bab." But I'm taking it in because he has continued to say "blue" day in and day out.

Dominic has really done awesome this summer. His outbursts have been mild (for the most part), we haven't had too many sensory issues. The biggest thing lately is that his bed wetting has pretty much been solved. We discovered that by picking Dominic up and carrying him to the toilet at 10:30 pm, having him go pee, he stays dry all night. We can both handle doing this task nightly just to keep him dry and away from surgery. I hope that eventually we can wean him of this nightly ritual but for now it's saved me so much laundry.

Overall both are doing really well. I hope to see some improvements when they are throw back into their school routine. This will be Damien's first year of school and he will be going 8-12 M-F! Much different than the 1 hour once a week home visit. He is so excited though when we talk about it though and riding the bus. It'll be harder on me than him I'm sure.

Amazing!

2008-07-03T14:48:00.000-07:00

In one week Damien has said 2 new words. "bubble" and "blue" which is more like bwoo.

Here's a list of his words now. He turns 3 in just a few days!

bubble, blue, cheese, mamma, dadda, mom, uh-oh, uh-uh, yes, dis, boo, moo, yay, yeah, please, and peek-a-boo(pee-bo!)

Damien Speech Update

2008-06-03T08:02:00.000-07:00

I wish I was posting to identify new sounds or words Damien is making but that's not the case. Since talking to Early Intervention about the speech therapy program the hospital has to offer, a few things came about. They want to try sticking Damien with a different SLP at the center for 1 hour a week. This will be from 9-10 AM. After that at 10 am he has speech playgroup with Linda (his first SLP) and other kids till 10:45 am. I want to be positive that having nearly 2 hours of speech therapy a week is going to help some but I know it's probably not. We all realize that with Apraxia, no matter what, it takes some serious time to get the mouth a going.

I still am interested in getting him in the hospital program just because it's also 1 on 1 and extensive therapy. The problem is towing all the kids around twice a week, keeping them busy for 45 minutes, etc. I think I'll get burnt out. I think I'm already burnt out as it is but I know eventually he will talk, whether with words, sign language, gestures. I can get some gestures out of him (finger on mouth making mmm.. sound for more) but most of the time he will bring whatever he wants or needs to me to figure out what he's wanting. For example if he wants a drink he'll bring me a cup.

Here's a video from the other day of him telling me exactly how he feels about giving up his bed to Mia so the new baby can sleep in the crib. He thinks Mia should stay in the crib. This is the gesture speech I am also talking about. He does say yes, no, mamma, lots of tongue thrust and spitting. Usually active speech where he is excited or mad there is lots of spitting and tongue thrust.

Ready To Fight....I Guess

2008-05-14T07:02:00.000-07:00

Since both boys have had speech issues, I've heard for awhile that I should contact our local hospital to get them in their intensive speech therapy program. This summer Damien will have playgroup once a week for 1 hour, no real speech services though except through play. Most of the people I talk to say that their insurance has paid for the hospital program. I called Blue Cross Blue Shield and asked if we had coverage on our plan for this and she told me it's a gray area. Great. She basically told me that I needed to jump hoops for BCBS before they will agree to cover speech. They definitely do not cover articulation which I can understand that but she thinks with enough paperwork they would approve us for therapy. So I called the hospital to ask what they thought of my situation. I told the woman Damien has Speech Apraxia, tongue thrust, and a constant slobber. She is 100% positive they will have to cover therapy for him. He'd have two 30 minute sessions a week. I am so worried with no REAL services focusing on speech for 3 months he's going to fall further behind. He'll be 3 in just a month and a half and still speaks at a 9-12 month level. Mia saying Bailey now clear as day and Damien saying "dis!" to everything is just heartbreaking day after day after day.

Crazy Talk

2008-04-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

Dominic scares me sometimes. He came up to me today with obvious bite marks on his wrists and hands. He said "take them off." I asked, "what your hands??" He replied, "yes, I don't want them on anymore." I told him we need hands to grab things so we need to keep them on. He starts trying to pull off his hand and says, "I want them off. I want to see my bones. Take them off so I can see my bones!!"

Now I would worry too much but I always catch him obsessively doing things. I catch him all the time biting his toenails off and well the other day he had bit one down to where it had began to bleed because it was so short. Anyways- hopefully he'll stop and I won't have to take him in to the Dr with weird bite marks on himself and then have to explain it all to his Ped at his Kinder shot appt in 2 weeks.

Ohhhhh.....not good.

2008-04-17T05:52:00.000-07:00

Damien is nearing 3 now so he can really understand most things like...... how to get under his brother skin. When playing with his stim box (mouth helpers as I call them) the other day, he pulled out one of the whistles he likes that is a bit on the loud side. He took it straight over by Dominic and began blowing as hard as he could. Poor Dom jumped about a foot in the air followed by screams and grabbing his ears yelling for him to stop. Since Damien understands that Dom can't handle loud sounds he continued to toot it and run around the front room in circles. I finally ended up taking the stupid thing away and putting it in time out.

Poor Kid

2008-04-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

Today is Kindergarten Round up! Thing is we won't be going. Dominic puked a few times Saturday morning and then Monday morning before the bus came he came down with the Hershey Squirts. It was a very long morning of him running to the toilet. Thought he'd be ok to go today but again right before the bus came he said, "uh oh, mommy I think I pooped my pants!" So sure enough his tummy is still not good. I went out again and told the bus he wouldn't be going.

So sadly he'll miss out on seeing his future classmates and the classroom visit they are doing but good thing is he already goes to the school for preschool, we know his teacher and I can get him in for alittle tour of the classroom later.

"Pee Boo!"

2008-04-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

Damien has really opened up to playing Peek-a-boo with us all. He can actually think to say it now when he puts his hands to eyes. Other times though he just puts his hands to his eyes and laughs.

Dry For One Whole Week!

2008-04-13T09:05:00.000-07:00

Dominic has been completely dry in the morning for a whole week. This is the first time this has ever happened and he's 5 yrs 2 months. We've been told for years that because of his severe snoring he's not getting a good nights rest and we needed to take his tonsils and adnoids out so he could wake himself to go. It's always been a complete surprise to Dominic when he has woke up wet. He has no idea. We started using cloth pull ups that look like underwear (Bummis) because he was to that age where peeing the bed is kind of embarrassing for him.

We've told him if he continues to do so well, we will go to Target (his favorite store) and he can find a new bionicle. He's excited so every morning he wakes, checks himself and screams, "mommy! I didn't pee the bed!!! I get Bionicle now??"

Dominic's Re-Eval for his IEP

2008-04-11T07:26:00.000-07:00

First off I was really impressed how the meeting went. A bit overwhelming but I made it through. A summary to all this below is Dominic will have a Para working with him daily 2.5 hrs in the morning. He will not be taken out of class for special ed services which is AWESOME so he will be just like the other kids (except for the para)

Dave and I were there along with the following staff.

Mr. George Principal of Elementary school
Mrs. K- Dominic's current teacher
Kris- Dom's EI Special Ed teacher who comes to work with him
Lena- School Psychologist for Elementary school
Susie- EI Speech Pathologist
Barb- the Elementary Special Ed Teacher
Mrs. B- Dominic's assigned Kindergarten Teacher
Susan- Elementary Speech Pathologist
(missing) Robbie- Occupational Therapist

As far as academic achievement and performance, they found that he is still cognitively delayed and will need some help to keep up with his peers. On Communication he is at a 55 mth level (he's 63 months old) for expressive language. He is at 50 mth level for Receptive. So basically he communicates awesome now but when you ask him to do something he doesn't quite understand. He made some improvements on completing tasks but still not up to par. Because of this he has a hard time following directions and answering questions in a classroom.

Socially he has improved quite a bit but is still delayed. He needs to learn to share, follow rules, play with peers. They described him quite abit as a loner which makes me sad. Here is what exactly is wrote on his IEP from the teacher's standpoint.

Dominic s active in the classroom often touching other students, getting in their space, or moving around in his set. His attention to task varies. Sometimes he is very engaged in the activity while other times he is completely turned around looking away from the source of instruction. he has difficulty understanding personal boundaries as well as classroom expectations At times it appears as though he acts on impulse without realizing he is breaking a class rule, such as when he takes objects out of the center areas around the classroom. It doesn't appear as though he is doing this deliberately to be defiant but rather he is playing and just wrapped up in what he is doing. There are tims when he is defiant and resists adult instruction especially when it is a table time activity that is little interest to him.

When he was 4, his EI teacher had me have him tested for ADHD which he scored borderline ADHD/more oppositional. I don't believe she ever put it in his folder though. It seemed to me they were trying not to just slap the title on him so I went ahead and told them that we expected this as he had been tested for ADHD and did score that he did indeed have ADHD but we chose not to medicate.

The Sensory Processing testing we did a few months back did identify him as a SID child/student (THANK THE LORD!! ANSWERS! OMG!) Just hearing that finally made me just about start crying right there at the table as they read it. I had my head looking down just shaking my head in agreement. Based on classroom observation by EI, testing his Teacher and I both took they will be giving him OT to work with this and fine motor skills since he still can't hold a pencil right.

So here's his accommodations this year

classroom visual schedule
seating close to teacher
removing extra materials from work area
clear explanation of behavior explained in a way he can understand
prepare for changes n chdule but maintain consistet schedule as much as possible
allow additional time for responding to tasks
demonstrate activities or directions that need to be completed
frequent prompting and redirection
small group instruction as much as possible
frequent repetition of new concepts
use of visual cues and hands on learning
teacher will use behavioral charts for rewarding
Special ed teacher will check in twice a month for updates

On District and State Assessment testing he will be given additional time, a small group environment, demonstration o directions, and use of visual cues as allowed.

We made a Behavior Intervention Plan with strategies, consequences, and crisis management (lets hope that never is needed!) Dominic has always had a very hard time controlling anger. At Early Intervention, he hit, kicked, screamed, slapped teachers and bus drivers. They would have to restrain him, rock him, put him in a quiet place to settle down. Now he hasn't been hitting much but he won't move to where he needs to go, runs away, screams, cries, etc.

So anyways that is a summary of the meeting. In all it was a hour and a half long! We had a book of papers to take home and go through. It went very well though, I'm pleased, alittle worried about no summer services but we'll try homeschooling as much as possible this summer to see if we can keep him on task and caught up.

Today Is The Day

2008-04-10T08:31:00.000-07:00

Dominic's IEP review is today. Why is today's meeting any different than the last 2 year reviews? Well, this is the big one. Transitioning him to Kindergarten. Dave is coming with me so we will see how this goes down. The School Psychologist, School Speech Path, Kindergarten teachers, and Special Ed Teacher and of course Kris his Special Ed teacher from EI will be there. This will be the most overwhelming meeting I've had to endure so far. I know only good will come of it but it's where we have 1 agency letting us go and now we'll deal directly with the School District with Dominic. To me it's scary but maybe I'm scared of nothing, I don't know. lol I still have no clue what his review scores have been except that social did not change at all from the previous year. Wish us luck.

Mad as HELL!!!

2008-04-03T06:08:00.000-07:00

I am so mad right now at Dominic's School. Tell me what you think we should do. Ok so Dominic is in Head Start, not because of income, but because of the fact he is at risk and on an IEP through Early Intervention due to his delays. I was not happy that he would be in Head Start in the first place because of how ANAL they are, BUT unless I wanted him shipped to a different town to school (same district) because of the IEP, he had to go there and I wanted him at the same school as his sister.

So here's the deal. First, the Stupid moronic women running the program know nothing about special needs. I should have found out more before deciding to pull him out of Early Intervention. If he gags, throws up, it's stomach flu and they send him home. He has Sensory Intergration Disorder so certain foods, smells, etc will send his senses into overdrive. So we started having phone calls at lunch saying he would gag looking at the food or when he tried eating it. I told them about this at the beginning of the year he had this and he might do these things. Well they started asking me to pick him up a few times because they didn't want to take a chance he might puke on the bus BUT they also said he would have to stay home the next day. Most days he never touched his food and would just look around the lunch room which was one of the reasons they had also called. Finally I said, look. I'll pack lunches for him, things I know he can eat, he likes and won't get sick on. For about a month we've been fine. Till yesterday.

I get a note saying this
my nutrition coordinator at Head Start, ------, asked me to request a doctors note from you about bringing his own lunch. She said due to the lunch program that head start uses, they will require a note of explanation. If you have any questions about this you can call.......

I pack him healthy lunches, not crap. Believe me since I used to do daycare i should know what's healthy!! Should I just let him starve to death? Sit at school at eat nothing and ride the bus home for a hour? This is another stupid hoop they want me to jump through and I'm freakin tired of it. So this time my dh is calling the nutrition coordinator. Early Intervention has also said because of the SID incidents in the past to call them if we needed help with anything so I may be calling them today to about this.

I will never put my kids in some stupid state funded program again. If you have a child on an IEP and they offer a spot in Head Start, DON'T DO IT!!! They call me all the time about this and that. They need proof of this, they need to talk to me about that or I'm breaking some stupid rule. I told Early Intervention I made a huge mistake trying to put him at the school he'll be in Kindergarten at next year and Damien will be there at the EI center ALL of his preschool years because I am not dealing with this again.

Worst part is now I have this IEP meeting with the principal, Headstart teachers, EI special ed teacher, and the Kinder teachers trying to figure out who's class he gets next year. I am already stressed out completely about it and having the Headstart teachers in there I may just explode and say GET OUT because I don't want to deal with them anymore. I just want May to come and to deal with the school district from then on out NOT Headstart.

Oh and before I noticed this note, I packed Dom a PBJ, Strawberries, Apple Juice, Gogurt. I was NOT going to take that away from him so I sent it. He saw me pack it. If they don't allow him to eat it I will be PEEVED!! He will not eat Chicken Noodles over mashed potatoes.

Jordan

2008-04-02T13:16:00.000-07:00

My cousin Jordan is severely autistic. Ever since having my own set of problems with Dominic my aunt has always been there if I had any questions, especially when finding out some of the "traits" he has had. Dominic however is nothing like Jordan.

Jordan is 17 now. My Aunt's son but my Grandmother's baby. She puts on his socks and shoes, fixes his hair, she takes him to the park to play. He gets excited being with kids, flapping his arms and hopping in place. When he was a baby he seemed pretty normal except for a rather large head which runs in the family. However by the time he was 1 ish, it was apparent there were other things going on. He would space out, not talk or notice you were there. As he grew older, his behavior, ticks, flapping, etc were so extremely hard on them both that it was enough that my Aunt and Uncle decided that Jordan would be an only child because he would require so much work. He was enrolled in Early Intervention by the time he was 2 and started meds by the time he was 4. When my uncle would come to family events with my aunt and Jordan the visit would always be short. I felt terrible for my uncle, you could tell he was always embarrassed by his behavior where ever they were to go. I remember when my uncle moved to a new home about 6 yrs ago, it just so happened the boy next door was special needs as well and he and Jordan hit it off becoming great friends the first day they moved in! We were all thrilled watching them. That was Jordan's first "real" friend.

Jordan is doing so well now. Almost ready to graduate, participating in the Special Olympics. His parents have come so far in the past 17 years. So scared, overwhelmed with him as a child to wow, what a blessing he is.

IEP Review Appointments

2008-04-02T13:11:00.000-07:00

Dominic- April 10th

Damien- April 30th

Why oh why do I always get so nervous for these??? Ugh.

"My Head"

2008-03-31T13:47:00.000-07:00

You can imagine the the look Dave and I gave to each other after Damien responded "my head" to Dave asking "what hurts?" Can't imagine? Well our eyeballs nearly popped out of our head with our mouths opened as wide as they would go with our hands going up quickly to our mouths to cover them. UNBELIEVABLE!!!! We asked (or shall I say begged and pleaded) again however and he couldn't say it. I was so so crushed. I wanted to crawl in a hole and cry. I keep trying to believe Linda that he's making progress but when all you hear is mama, dadda, dis all day....how can you believe it? Is Apraxia really reverseable? I just want this to all end. Will he speak more than a few words by the time he's 3? Odds are in this game, probably not.

Cross Eyed

2008-03-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

I am being asked by the school to get Dominic into a Pediatric Eye Dr because when he's focusing on things his one eye is crossing over to his nose. I've noticed it for a long time but have hoped it would resolve on it's own. Guess not.

Long Time No Update!

2008-03-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

Ok so I really should update here. Still no real new progress with Damien. Hopefully he'll have some kind of a language explosion this summer but I doubt it. His Apraxia and tongue thrust are so severe. We are however getting him to make more sound for his needs. If he wants a drink, he puts a finger on his lips and says "mmmmmm" Most of the time he brings me cups and whines or says "ya ya ya" He is about to be lapped by Mia on speech we can already tell. She is so smart too which is sorta sad to see. She's only 14 months and comprehends so much. Daddy asked her if she pooped the other day while sitting down for dinner and she put her hand by her butt sitting in her highchair, looking at him and said "uh-oh!" Then laughed about it. Damien has learned "please" but it only works if he can bring me an object. Please is easy since it is like "cheese" which he can say too. He puts his backside of his hand near his mouth when attempting P sounds so he can feel that he is blowing the air for the P. He's working on Alex which comes out (Al-eh) Speech is so spontaeous, he can not speak on command for the most part except momma and dadda. We just continue intensive therapy and hope for more to come. I have his switch meeting from an ISFP to an IEP at the end of the month. Next year he will attend early intervention preschool. This summer he will either have 1 hour playgroup a week or 1 hour with a SLP.

Dominic is doing so well right now. He is definitely ready for Kindergarten except for his social interacting. He has completed his IEP Goals and we will be having his IEP meeting soon deciding whether a Para is necessary or not. I think as long as he has a good teacher, then they will be able to work with his quirks. I am fairly confident of that. I still have no idea how he ranked on his SID testing. I know when they ranked him on his social last year, not much had changed.

It's great to see one boy of mine finally moving up and out (hopefully) of developmental delays. Now we just need to get Damien fixed up. We know that his tongue sits forward which is why he spits and has so much tongue thrust. Lately he's been biting his tongue quite a bit on accident when he's running around. So those are my updates.

Dominic's Parent Teacher Conference

2008-02-19T05:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had our 2nd parent teacher conference with Dominic's teacher this year. She told us that Dominic is really doing pretty well on his school work. He's recognizing letters, counting to 20 easier, overall he's improving on everything. She said his social skills have really improved from how he was at the beginning of the year.

She said behaviorally they have good weeks and bad weeks with Dominic. They'll have several good weeks and then be stuck in a bad one which is how it is here at home. She started telling me of a few situations which I will tell EI about because I know she hasn't. She mentioned how if he's zoned out of what they are doing or when frustrated he will sit with his head on his knees and rock back and forth which she "knew" was an Autistic trait but she didn't see him as Autistic. People she has NO CLUE about Disabilities. I think that's what frustrating me the most with the school is the lack of knowledge. After that remark I told her that at Early Intervention I was told when he was 3, he resembles a child with PDD's of Autism. I explained to her how it was a branch (so to speak) of Autism but a child appears more "normal" if you want to call it that. We talked about the SID testing that she had filled out and how she thought some of the questions really pertained to him. I told her I had been researching SID for awhile so I was confident that was what was going on too but I had no idea that Aspergers or PDD's (highly functioning Autism) children usually had SID.

She said that when he is upset he will still run off and hide or sit in a corner. At the beginning of the year he would only sit on the dinosaur at circle time but now he is willing to let other kids sit there. If upset, sometimes he will roll all around the room instead of walking. He will have a bad day when she is gone so they have to be careful on those days. If she tells him their schedule has changed, he will blow up at her for example no show and tell. He talks about hotwheels all day at school but does his work. He is still not able to hold a pencil right but hopefully the OT coming from EI will be able to work with him on that.

Overall it went well. I think she knows that he's got some problems that we need to get solved with him before Kindergarten. I am so scared for next year. I know we'll be having most likely some sort of transition conference to discuss Kindergarten with the principal and 3 teachers. I want someone next year who can tolerate his behavior yet help him when his Para isn't around. I want him to succeed instead of being labeled a bad kid and failing because some stupid teacher can't help figure him out.

Daddy's Had It and Mommy has too.

2008-02-17T16:32:00.000-08:00

Friday night was so much fun. Damien who usually loves mashed potatoes and gravy puked them up all over in a bowl at the table. I pushed Dominic down under the table so he wouldn't see and be set off. Dave had to help since I was on the other side but afterwards stood up and announced, "I'm so sick of this!!!!! This is such bullshit!!!!" Oh like I'm not sick of it!?!?!?!

Saturday I put a shirt on Dominic. "ITCHY!!! It's ITCHY! I don't want to wear this!" I had to walk off. This is draining us. I put a cotton long sleeve T on him and he was fine for about a hour. Then we started tearing at his back again saying it hurt. I told him to have Daddy change it but Dominic needed to find a shirt he could wear the rest of the day. It worked I guess because we didn't have to switch again.

Dominic has been an emotional mess again. He's cried alot today about Damien bugging him playing with his toys or bugging him while playing the Xbox. He cries so much over stupid things. I just don't even know how to handle it anymore. What a fun weekend this was! lol

Dominic Playing XBox on Break From School.....

2008-02-15T09:54:00.000-08:00

"Awwww man! Momma! I've been Served!!"

I can't even believe that 2 years ago we couldn't get 2 words pieced together out his mouth and now look at him.

Sick...Supposedly

2008-02-14T05:32:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I got another call from the assistant teacher this time telling me I needed to come pick up because Dominic just threw up in a trash can at lunch. They would not be putting him on the bus and I have to come get him NOW and he's not to come back to school tomorrow. The way she said it pissed me off. If he's sick, it's usually a very easy thing to pick out. So I changed the other 2, got coats and shoes and we drove to the school which is about 10 minutes from our house. I went in through the gym and the nastiest smell hit me. They were having some awful looking Ravioli. Dominic was sitting in the office waiting for me since the 2nd preschool class had started and they needed to put him somewhere. He was fine so we started going back through the gym because I wanted to ask what happened. They told me he was just sitting there looking around then he got up and walked to the trash can and threw up. I almost wanted to say the smell in the gym made me want to throw up so I see why he did but I kept my mouth shut. By this time Dominic and Damien are jumping and playing around. Dominic's not acting sick. I tell her before I left, "well I hope you guys are right that it's stomach flu because he throws up at our table nearly everyday. It's not a big deal for him to get sick at home and that's why Kris is going to be evaluating him for SID." She probably doesn't even know what the hell that means.

We come home and he's fine all day. Stomach flu for any of us is only a 24 hour thing. They were trying to tell me Monday he was tired and Tuesday he was acting sick. He's completely fine here. No throwing up at home, played with trains, transformers, and watched some Thomas movies. He fought with Mia about getting off his train track, he did not act sick after bringing him home. I asked him if he felt sick and he said no. We even took him to Awana last night and he had a blast. So anyways today is Valentine's day and he's missing out of his party because they say he is not to come today. He is going to be so upset if he sees Alex with her Valentines from school and he has nothing. There's no school friday and next week they don't even HAVE school so I'm calling the office to tell the receptionist to make sure Alex gets his stuff because he's already pissed he can't go to school.

I am so mad and oh don't start Dave back up on this because he's ready to lay into the teachers. If they can prove to us some sort of stomach flu then fine but when he's acting great but the food looks and smells like shit, then I'm sure that's what set him off.

Phone Call From the Teacher

2008-02-12T13:15:00.001-08:00

Mrs. K: "Dominic came to school saying he puked this morning. Stomach flu is going around if that's the case he needs to stay home."

Me: "well we've been having more throwing up issues but like I've said before, this I believe is part of the Sensory Intergration Disorder I believe he has.

Mrs.K: "so he did throw up today?"

Me: "yes he did but he throws up or chokes nearly everyday so of course I just sent him to school. If it's stomach flu, I'll notice the difference."

Mrs. K: "ok well I just want to make sure this isn't the stomach flu because we don't want to contaminate any other students."

Me: "while I have you on the phone, has he been eating at school? He comes home hungry daily. Could you please ask him to take some no thank you bites if he's not eating well?"

Mrs. K: "Oh well we don't force kids to eat."

Me: "I'm not saying force him but ask him to take one nibble of what he has on his plate. If it's soft that'll set him off so just like the chicken nuggets, corn dogs, and other things."

Mrs.K: "I will ask one of the other ladies to see if they can get him to eat some. Most of the time he just sits there with his food and watches everyone else."

Me: (thinking, oy oy oy!!!!!!!) "ok well that's fine then.

Mrs. K: "well if he throws up and appears sick I'll give you a call later."

Me: "ok. Thanks!"

Argh. I really do not like that these preschool teachers at the grade schoo have no experience with special needs.

Handwriting

2008-02-11T13:16:00.000-08:00

I got a note today from Dominic's Special Ed teacher from EI saying that she's going to be sending me a "permission to evaluate" form to sign so they can start evaluating him for SID. I guess Motor skills have something to do with SID and since he can not write his name correctly they want to look at fine motor skills. Dunno. He's a lefty but he holds his pencil/markers/crayons fisted if you know what I mean. That's how he writes, colors, etc and he can do it quite well, it just looks like some old 90 yr old did it. lol

They are starting to notice this "tired" trend with him. He lays his head down quite frequently. I've been getting them to bed at 8-8:30 so I have a hard time with him being "tired." He has on occasion, sleep apnea, bad snoring and I know they "think" this could be part of the ADHD/ODD but I'm still having a hard time thinking we should just rip out his tonsils and that will fix that AND his bedwetting. It seems so simple, I just have a hard time believing it. Like an instant overnight cure.

What In The World!!!??

2008-02-06T07:00:00.001-08:00

I finished some really indepth sensory testing and handed it in to Damien's SLP to give it to the OT for me. They asked me to comment underneath on each section. If you've taken these tests before for any kind of developmental problem you remember how they say "always, most of the time, sometimes, never. Well some of the questions didn't seem right in line with sensory issues but I guess I didn't think about it and commented as much as possible. I commented on the questions about his social skills and how he won't share at school, how he falls apart at any changes in routine, his fascination with the computer, hotwheels and Thomas. He can name all the Transfomers, all Thomas characters, etc. How he seems pretty knowledgeable on school work, etc.

Again people online say I need to research Aspergers. I looked up the symptoms and My God that has to be it. I have a feeling that this OT might say that this is his problem. If this is it, it would answer so much. His old teacher already said she was sure he had PDD's but I'm not sure if this is much different. How long can a parent be drug around before getting any answers? He's almost 5!!! I WANT FUCKING ANSWERS!!!! I'm so damn tired of it!! I just want answers!!!!

Why does he jump off the couch and bed repeatedly?
Why won't he attempt to share or play side by side with anyone?
Why does he hurt Damien and act like it's no big deal?
Why does he zone out when he's on the computer?
Why does he talk to himself about Hotwheels when we aren't even in the same room?
Why if anything changes here or at home he falls apart crying?
Why can't we do anything or go anywhere without something being too loud or too bright.
Why can't he understand no??? Why does he do things again after we say no?
Why does he repeat everything so much? He drives me nuts! I know his birthday is coming!!!
Why does my son puke at the smell of baby poop or certain textures in his mouth?
Why can't he wear all his clothes?
Why is he so fascinated with Blue chairs, the D Dinosaur spot on the circle rug, the blue cups.
When will I feel like I can take him to a friend's birthday party?
Why does my family treat him like he's a plague? My family has Alex over but never Dominic.
Why do people always say "he's just a boy!" Why don't they see what we see?
What is going to happen to him once he's in school?
Is he going to succeed?
Why does his school have teachers who are unaware or to help with special needs?????

Another Note

2008-02-05T13:41:00.000-08:00

Dominic was really tired today. He complained most of the morning saying "I can't do it" because he was tired.

Another Note

2008-01-28T07:26:00.000-08:00

Really worked hard on sharing issues this week. When new toys arrive in class he has trouble wanting to share. Explained how others are hurt when we don't share with them. He cried for 20 minutes of the morning on not wanting to share.

I hope they give these weekly notes to his EI Para (dealing with Special Instruction) too. I have a bad feeling they don't.

What!!

2008-01-28T07:22:00.000-08:00

Damien was in the bathroom doing something and calling from the front room for him he answered, "what?!!!" It was plain as day and Dave and I both said at the same time, "did he just say what??!?" I think Linda his SLP is right that it's going to come sparadic rather than pushed. They worked on "P" this week and he's just not able to make that sound. Every day that goes by I wonder how much further behind his brother he is. Dominic atleast said SOME words before entering EI, Damien says just a few select ones that Mia is starting to now say.

2008-01-08T13:30:00.000-08:00

About a year or so ago when I started updating this blog more, I wanted to add more videos basically so people (or teachers) could see things that I feel I need help with. Today when Linda was here for Damien's ST, I told her I made a video of one of the SID occurances that happened lately. I told her I figured the videos would help since they probably won't see much of it. After I showed the video she was shaking her head in disbelief. She'd never seen the pain side of the sensory issues, just the anger that he shows alot of the time when she's here. Anyways she really wants Dee, the OT (occupational therapist) at the center to start working with him ASAP. Like we've discussed though, as long as I change things to accomodate him, he's ok its when things aren't changed that there's a problem.

Man Up!

2008-01-02T06:41:00.001-08:00

The past week Dominic's emotions have just been out of control. He cries at everything. He's seriously out to kill Santa for not bringing him a Mr. Big Modfighter by Hotwheels. Seriously. He was telling me that it fell out of Santa's sleigh and you could just see the anger and tears starting to appear in his glazed eyes.

Last night we went to Target. Target for me is a nightmare but I knew they'd have 75% off Christmas by now. So we went and it was an absolute nightmare. Dominic wanted an roboraptor and was not leaving without one. When I shopped the day after Christmas i found this mini wind up Robopet thing that I believed was in his tastes so I bought it. Big mistake. The robo pet is now his favorite toy and he cries if he's lost it. It's name is "cocoa" but it's green. The box showed the other robo toys and now he wants them all, especially the raptor. So long story short, I bought my things and Dave took him to the car. We came home and he was still sobbing uncontrollably about not getting it. We told him we'd take a few of his duplicate toys back and he could get a roboraptor but he needed to calm down. He was having a hard time breathing he was so upset. It was awful. I can't say this was the first time he acted like this because it's not. That's why I do the whole thing where I let him put a toy in the basket and then ask the clerk to put it back at the register because I'm not buying it since if I say no he'll fall to the floor in a fit. It's just easier to break his heart in the car after he's buckled up. Wrong I know but after it getting harder to deal with in the stores now I've had to resort to that.

Last night Dave was trying to calm Dominic, treating him like a baby. I really don't think this is how his crying fits need to be handled. He can't always expect toys when we go to Target and Walmart. I asked him if he'd like a big bawl baby son when he's in grade school because that's how he's going to be the way he's treating him. I don't know if Dominic's emotions are out of whack from being spoiled or if anything else is to blame. I'm getting to the point where I hate to say "oh it might be this." I'd like to say he's just trying to get his way.

Hooray!

2008-01-01T07:08:00.000-08:00

I got Dominic to wear a sweater all day yesterday without trying to tear his skin off and without a t-shirt on underneath! It's a miracle!

Be Fair and Share

2007-12-28T21:46:00.000-08:00

Dominic has always had a very hard time sharing and actually part of his IEP is working on his social skills. Since Christmas and this new assortment of new toys flowing into the house, he's been getting worse. Every boy type toy in this house he believes is his. No matter if he saw Damien open it for his birthday or Christmas. I'm completely frustrated with him about how he melts down throwing himself on the floor bawling. His Para says he's doing OK with sharing there but you can tell he bites his lip alot of the time and just wants to deck a kid for asking for his toy and having to share.

Tonight was just horrible. It started with a Hotwheel that Damien was playing with that Dominic got for Christmas. He ran up to Damien and snatched it. Then Damien got upset and we told him he couldn't do that (like we always do) and told him to give it back in which he threw it and then threw himself on the floor rolling around screaming and crying. Then Damien kept trying to give it back to him (yeah Damien hates seeing his siblings crying and always trys fixing the situation) and then Dominic just kept screaming and kicking so we sent him to his room.

I just wish this would quit. He going to be 5 in just 2 months. You'd think he would outgrow this stage but he's not. This is like an everyday thing for me and I'm so sick of it.

New Word

2007-12-27T21:57:00.000-08:00

"ho ho ho!" (eyes bulging) I couldn't believe it but he was saying this today when I gave him a Santa Mr. Potato Head I bought at Target half off.

January

2007-12-19T07:02:00.001-08:00

In January, both boys will be taking some sort of standard Sensory Test. Yesterday when Damien's SLP was here, I had said something about Damien starting to exhibit some of the signs Dominic did when we realized he had SID. She asked what he was doing so I explained about smells making him puke, seeing someone gag making him puke, textures making him puke, disliking certain textures on his hands or touching him, etc. So she definitely wants to get him checked out and she wants Dominic to start in their OT program. I told her I was going to be getting him involved into another center and she really would like me to stick to their free program instead of using our insurance for appointments. So we'll see!

New Word!

2007-12-18T07:09:00.000-08:00

"ewwww yuck" That's considered two right?? lol

Ba-Ba

2007-12-06T06:21:00.000-08:00

Damien's SLP came over Tuesday right as I came home with Alex and started picking her for head lice so I didn't get to sit in on his therapy. She felt so bad for me at the moment she said she would keep both boys busy with activities so I could get a start on Alex's hair.

Damien is as she thinks "trying" to make words. We're really not getting much new out of him but out of the blue he may just start saying a new sound. He is so good at making sounds of animals. It's just weird that he won't try saying any words. I don't know if he needs to see pictures to SAY a word? You show him a picture of an animal and he'll try sounding like it. If he sees some kind of an action going on like a plate falls on the floor. He'll say "uh oh!!"

His new sound last night was "baa baa" He just kept saying it over and over which was neat because he never has! Dave kept making him say it to me or scream it I should say so I would pick up that it was new. So when she comes next week I'll have another 2 syllable sound to tell her he's making.

There's Just Some Things You Can Tell

2007-12-03T08:22:00.000-08:00

I know there are people in my life who think I'm "overacting" or "overrating" the boys problems. I know many other mom's in their own situations feel the same way. Dave's parents are some of the worst when it comes to what we deal with. First they have no idea when they visit once or twice a year. They are one of the firm believers that "Dominic is just a boy" this is "normal" "he's going to grow out of it." I hear this from soooooo many other people. It would be nice if it were true. It does upset me though that so many people believe it's just a "phase." It makes me doubt myself and doubt the Dr's and Teachers who have dealt with him.

There are instances though when we can tell the difference in real and fake with Dominic. This weekend his finger hurt. He made quite the show of it, it was hilarious. He held his pinky up like Dr. Evil all day and would loudly say "oww!" out of the blue. There was the coughing and needing "medicine." These are so typical for little kids to dramatize.

Not typical though: Having things thrown at you when you say no. Having a kid screaming when dressed, having a kid up at 10 pm jumping in bed acting like they took acid, kids only having one color they want of everything, having a kid that won't watch TV unless it's one thing they enjoy, Stacking that one thing in special order, having a kid cry from other kids in the classroom playing because they are too loud, having your kid throw up at the dinner table atleast once or twice a week, having something minimal set your kiddo into a raging fit and ruining their whole day.

How do we get people to understand Special Needs? I almost feel like I need people to come live with me for a week.

"It's Itchy!!!!!"

2007-12-03T08:16:00.000-08:00

I bought a sweater for Dominic a month ago that I absolutely love. Dominic hates it. It's really cold right now so I put it on him and he started itching and freaking out saying "it's itchy!" over and over so I pulled it off. I put a long T on and then the Sweater. He was a bit weary but ok in it then. He was still itching his neck though. I hope he lasts 4 hours at school.

DAS~Verbal Apraxia?

2007-12-02T07:34:00.000-08:00

Damien's SLP stressed this week that she really thinks he has Verbal Apraxia. We discussed this before but now that he's nearing 2.5 yrs she wonders if that may be part of the problem. We played ball the other day here at the house and she would say "mine!" to have him roll the ball in which he would say "mamma!" then roll it. She'd say "me, my ball, mine!" and he would say "mamma!" and then roll the ball. When I think of it, she has to be right. I've told everyone for years everything is "dis" but I thought it was just the only word he could make but he's been making it ever since he was 10 months. It sounds like for now from her we just keep stimulating his mouth, do more aggressive ST, and praise him for whatever we can get new to come out of his mouth.

Little Clues

2007-11-29T05:57:00.000-08:00

I think after experiencing so much with Dominic's issues, I'm picking up signs that Damien is following the same path on alot of the same problems Dominic has had. Either that or I'm just losing my mind. The speech thing by 18 months was pretty apparent. Lately though he's starting to show signs of SID (sensory Intergration Disorder) He has been itching his back raw lately. Cries when he hears loud sounds. He's only prefering a few foods and is extremely picky. He threw up last night as soon as I opened Mia's diaper. He threw up watching Dominic throw up at the dinner table last night and a few times before this. SID sucks y'all. I don't want two kids with it!!! I certainly don't want two kids at the table throwing up by certain tastes/textures we've asked them to try or by one seeing the other puke. (sigh)

SID In Action

2007-11-21T06:45:00.000-08:00

I didn't record everything but I caught a few moments on video. This morning Dominic woke up all upset. Everything is itching, sticky, and loud. Usually however the morning starts is how the day will end up. So since he's only been up for a hour already whining about itching, everyone being loud at the table, and washing his hands twice in five minutes because something is sticky, I expect it to be one long day with him. We need to go to the store for Thanksgiving items so I'm alittle worried. Alex and I planned on spending a bunch of time in the kitchen.

2007-11-14T12:39:00.001-08:00

This week Damien's Path really pushed the letter M. Damien makes MMM noises when playing with cars. He makes a "mooo" sound too when he sees a car. He won't say any of others but will say "mama!" He does try to say "mop" we think. So she knows he's able to get the letter out.

I'm noticing that Damien is much more out to share then Dominic. Dominic is always trying to steal Linda from Damien at therapy. She'll give him something to share with Damien but he won't but other way around and Damien will share whatever he is given.

Back Pedaling

2007-11-09T09:37:00.000-08:00

Tuesday at Gymnastics, I asked the lead instructor about Dominic if he was doing ok in there the past few weeks. She said he has his moments but is doing pretty well. She thinks more repetition in the class and he'll learn to sit still and do as he's told. Not run off, etc. lol While there one of the assistant teachers from his school was there to work out. We talked for a bit and I told her I was able to talk to someone from this new EI center that deals with psychological issues for children. She tells me he is just fine with her and she doesn't think I should really worry about how he is acting. So she has me questioning myself again. Is he normal? Is he "just a boy?" Do ALL boys act like this? She says she's the only teacher out of the 4 that is able to get him to listen, mind and not have outbursts or wailing fits. That to me is not normal. When she's not there his day is down the tubes. I don't like that little changes set him off. It's not right.

I still plan on contacting them though to see what they can help with.

Auditory Bombardment and Making Progress

2007-11-08T06:04:00.000-08:00

It was definitely interesting this week with Damien's Speech Path. He got a headset that we are talking directly into a mic which keeps him focused looking at our mouths. She is trying 2 syllable words this week so she gave me a list of words to read to him twice a day along with the oral therapy toys to "wake up" his mouth with sensation. I told her after she had asked me about drooling that all the sudden I noticed that yeah he does drool a lot. She said she has noticed while being here he always has his mouth opened, it's like he doesn't know HOW to close it. Interesting. lol So our homework with the words is hopefully get him to say 2 syllables. On Hot dog after hearing the word about 40 times he did in fact say "ha....."and then did the tongue thrust spit thing to end it. She said that counts as 2 syllables because he tried. When we talk to him, she wants us to clap or tap out the word. For example: Hot- Dog (2 claps) Cow-boy (2 claps) Da-mi-en (3 claps) He caught on quickly though and so did Dominic (who sits in on his therapy for attention lol) that the claps separate parts of the word.

2 New Words Damien can now say... ha (hot) Boo! (said a lot during Halloween)

Auditory Bombardment

2007-10-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

Damien took something caled a Hodson Speech Test the other day. Not sure of the results but it will be interesting to see. Next week the Speech Path will start something called auditory bombardment. I believe how this works is she will focus on one sound each week to see if we can get anything other then a vowel sound out of him. Basically drill letter sounds into his little brain if you will. We'll see.

Words at 28 months:
Yes, uh uh, dis, hi, yeah, ha ha, uh oh, mamma, dadda, boo, cheese, whoa,

Good Days, Then The Bad

2007-10-26T12:17:00.002-07:00

Dominic has had a pretty decent week. We had Parent Teacher conferences and his teacher believes they just need to figure out all his little quirks. I agree. I think once they find what sets him off, what to keep him from, what zones him, etc. they will have better days. That was how it was at Early Intervention. He's earning behavior bucks when he's good and they are sending home a daily sheet I send with him. They circle a happy or sad face for each day and that is how he earns his buck. The bucks can be then used for something like a hot wheel car or a happy meal, etc.

Bed wetting started happening so frequently (with him sleeping straight through it) that I've recently put him back into pull ups for the time being. I'm good at finding the deals so as long as I can get them cheap I'll just buy them again. I've looked at tons of sites for absorbent cloth pull ups but they are too expensive for one use ($20-30 for 1 pair!) and some sites can't guarantee they can even be used all night so that was a dead end.

Otherwise things have been well. I was about to give up on keeping him in gymnastics but then he did great this week so now I just don't know! I know the involvement in sports and other activities really help but I hate putting others through having to work with him when they first don't understand why he acts the way he does. Most people think he's just spoiled or "hyper."

No Foods, Only Enviromentals

2007-10-22T05:39:00.000-07:00

To see if foods have anything to do with Dominic's behavior, we had Dominic allergy tested the other day which was not fun. No food allergies but he was allergic to just about anything enviromental. I had no idea you could be allergic to Coackroaches. He'll never come into those with daddy's profession. LOL!! Again I was referred to Heartsprings so I researched their site online. Oh my! I hope they will take us in and help us!!! Not only do they deal with children on IEP's for speech and other delays they help with behavioral issues as well! Maybe we can finally get some answers figuring out what going on with Dominic. So today I am calling the insurance to find out if it will cover the appointments. I'm also going to call the ENT about getting his tonsils removed since the allergist thinks it needs to be done. We saw an ENT Dr about a year ago and I just couldn't put Dominic through it at that time because I didn't think it was necessary.

Mouth Helpers

2007-10-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

I am still at a loss about all this stimulation Damien needs for his mouth to be zapped into working mode. I just don't understand how it works. She says his mouth is just "dead" and needs to be woke up. Anyways now he has his own little oral stimulation box equiped with vibration toys, horns, whistles and teether things. He is eating crunchy crackers (to wake up his mouth)and other things like she'd like but still prefers the smooth foods like the yogurt, cottage cheese, applesauce, etc. But she is the SP and I will let her do her job. lol She gave me an oral grocery list of item I could buy and put in his box.

I'm About Two Seconds.....

2007-10-10T11:07:00.000-07:00

from calling Dominic's old teacher at his old school and beg her to put him back in her class. Dominic so far this week has been hiding under tables from the teacher, yelling "no!" running from them on the playground when it's time to come in. He's supposed to go to Kindergarten next year. HOW?!?! How is this to work? He is so smart but everything else just holds him back. I don't know what else to do besides call his old teacher. I think he needs to be back in that setting. At gymnastics he didn't get a stamp because he wouldn't listen. They were having a hard time and would have to hold him on their lap to keep him in place but when it came to doing somersaults or trying cartwheels he'd do a great job! He can do things when he wants to but when others want him to do something or NOT to do something he just can't mind. His limbs are always in overdrive. He always has to move, or act up. I am getting to a desperate spot with him again.

2007-10-05T14:25:00.000-07:00

Notes for the week came back on Thursday (last day of the week for Dominic) I guess Dominic spent all day Thursday crying at school and then had an episode where he kicked and screamed at his teacher. This is not good. Parent Teacher Conferences are in 2 weeks. I'm sure there's going to be a lot they'll want to discuss.

Too Loud

2007-09-27T05:46:00.000-07:00

I don't know what's set Dominic off this week but it hasn't been a good one. Dave tried coaxing him for 20 minutes into his Awana cubbies class last night and then finally brought him to the gym where we were with the bigger kids doing games. BUT when he brought him in and set him down, he was ok for about 5 minutes and then I looked over to see him start wailing, holding his hands on his ears and rocking. I didn't even tell anyone I was leaving and just ran to him, scooped him up and took him out of the gym quickly. I explained to him that I had to help with big kids and he really needed to go to his class. I asked if it was too loud and he said yes. So I decided to help out with Cubbies last night since it was the only way to get him in there. There's about 40 little 3-4 year old and it wasn't too loud for the most part but any shrieks and giggles he'd bury his head into my chest holding his ears. We made it through though and they were happy he stayed. I tried to explain that he was sensitive to sound and since they are all older and never probably heard of it back in the day they looked at me kinda confused and with this pity look. I sent him on the bus this morning in good spirit so I'm hoping he has a good day.

Another Note

2007-09-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

Sabrina,

Dominic had a really difficult time today. He did a lot of grunting, yelling, and crying. He didn't like much of anything that we or anyone else did in class today. We tied to encourage him to use words, but he was pretty upset most of the day. Lunch did go well and he gave us a smile. Just wanted to let you know.

I'm so sad! I have no idea why he had a bad day at school and maybe this explains his non- cooperation and crying in gymnastics. (I just found the note before going to bed.) I have noticed lately the rages have been coming around more but I don't have a clue what's making him so angry again. He's been really knocking Damien around and just kicking and going nuts on the floor, flopping around like a fish when something doesn't go his way. This is the 2nd day in a row they've had trouble with him this week.

Intensive Speech Therapy

2007-09-25T19:23:00.000-07:00

This is an update from my other blog. Damien's home visit today went well. Not only was Jeanie (developmental therapist) working with him but so was Linda (speech therapist) She worked with Damien when he was about 22 months old at the Early Intervention center and this summer at the summer centerbased speech playgroup I had him in so she's familar with him. I told them if they really wanted to get him talking that they were more than welcome to take him into Dominic's room to play with the train table because he loves playing on it with me or daddy, it gets him really excited so they did that. He probably said "dis, Yes, and uh uh" a few hundred times showing them Thomas trains and scooting them around the track. He had a great time.

Linda realizes that creative and manipulative play are not working because he's not imitating, he's not parroting, he's not jabbering like most kids would TRY to do. So we are going to cut out the developmental therapy because he seems to be doing better on everything else. He will have intensive speech therapy with Linda on Tuesdays around 12:45. Still playing but in a more controlled enviroment (sitting at the kitchen table) So that was that! I can't wait to see how next week goes!

This Blog Is About To Change....

2007-09-22T11:22:00.001-07:00

Now with 2 little boys with special needs, I am changing this blog a bit. I plan on posting updates on both boys and more frequently then I have. I plan on digging out the posts on Damien on my other blog and sticking them on here eventually.

Dominic has been in school for about 3 weeks. So far, no notes saying he's going to be expelled (lol) but I have received a few notes from his teacher about things she's been concerned with pertaining to the SID (sensory intergration disorder) issues. I visited the school recently and we talked about it and she's going to be as sensitive as possible and hopefully won't forget before it's too late. lol So far he's burst into tears from a tag on an apron rubbing his neck and when it gets too loud he cries. I begged her to watch anything soft food wise like mashed potatoes or applesauce because he will just gag and throw up and same with strong smells. So she will try her best to avoid anything that will set him off and I gave her a list.

Damien's home visits are going well! He is loving Jeanie. Still no new words though, still the same 8.

Dominic and Damien

2007-08-28T14:04:00.001-07:00

Well Monday was Dominic's first day at his new school. This is the school I worked really hard to get him in at our Grade School. It's not a Special Ed setting like before. He LOVES it. We hung out for about 1.5 hrs and watched how the day normally goes there. Dominic had so much fun showing off his little brother. It was cute. There were 5 other parents there and I did feel abit ackward at times. It's hard because you feel like you need to explain how he acts so they aren't automatically thinking, "what in the world is wrong with her kid!??" He was so excited and a bit loud, he would do what he was asked for about 30 seconds and then wanted to go somewhere else and he was making all sorts of laser sounds from Action figures. lol There are a few things though that I plan on writing a letter to his teachers about. I did explain the ADHD/ODD thing already but I haven't said anything about his sensitivity issues. When they put an art apron on him, he flipped out. He started screaming "IT'S SCRATCHING ME, IT'S SCRATCHING ME!" He was really upset. They were loosing the belts and trying to figure out what the problem was. Finally he stopped. I probably ought to make them aware of the sensitivity thing because I'm afraid after seeing a whole row of bongo drums they will pull those out and he'll run out the door crying! lol He hates certain touches, sounds, smells will make him throw up easily, textures on his tongue cause him to gag at EVERYTHING. For 2 years he had Kristi as his teacher and she knew every little unique detail of him so now I'm starting all over so we'll have to do alot of communicating with his teacher the next few months.

Then Damien had his first homevisit today and will have visits every Tuesday at 9 am. It went well and he really clicked with his teacher. I like her too! Very nice lady. She tried getting him to point out animals, they played ball, tired to get him to say anything different then his normal little "dis, uh oh, yeah, and whoa!" She's going to talk to some of the other ladies about his tongue thrust and see what we're going to do. His tongue always comes out when he says his few words. She thinks that it may be more tongue thrust than Verbal Apraxia. So... we'll have to see. Whichever it is, I can already tell he's got a long road of speech therapy ahead of him like his brother. This is much different than Dominic though because Dominic just wasn't talking! Damien says a few words but he's more like Sylvester the Cat when he says "Suffering Sucatash!" That's the best description I can give of Damien. lol

So that's about it! It's weird having one sorta leaving this journey and then entering it again with another little one. I have learned so much through all this. I think Early Childhood Development would be a great field to take up once my kids have entered school. Dominic has came a long way on his speech although he does have a lot of other things on his IEP to work on, he's made SO MUCH progress! I am so proud of him! Damien so far just thinks this is all fun and games! lol Although he cried the first few times being in Speech Playgroup during the summer, he loved it in the end. Today when she arrived this morning you could tell he was thinking, "cool! Someone else wants to play with me!"

2007-08-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

I'm really lacking on updating this blog! So I'll try to sum up our summer in a few paragraphs. First, Dominic language has completely exploded like it did last summer! It's amazing how much he says now. He's is almost caught up to his peers I think. He will be going to Alex's Elementary School in the mornings for preschool. He'll be only M-Th though which kinda bites but they're both at the same school which is awesome!

Dominic did a few productive things this summer. He passed swimming lessons, and tried really hard at T-ball although when that sun started blazing during the games he wanted to quit so we'd have to bribe him to keep him out there. One thing he really will have a hard time with after school starts back up is detoxing from websites. lol He's played Starfall, Hotwheels, Cartoon Network, PBS kids all summer long. Usually about 2 hours a day! He's really good at chores and helping out if he gets a reward for doing so.

The biggest change as of lately is he's transitioning from that preschool stage to a young boy. He's facination of Thomas is still there but not as much. He likes bigger boy things like Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Monster Trucks. He's using her bigger words such as ridiculous. He's saying things like "mommy! I told you....." or "you have got to be kidding!" He's just a riot.

2007-06-18T12:37:00.001-07:00

This is another long overdue update. Things are going well as they could be with Dominic I guess. We're still not medicating or going to counseling. Our main problem right now is emotions. He is constantly breaking down crying about everything. Constant mood swings. The other day Alex had a dentist appointment and he didn't and the tears started welling up in his eyes. He fell to the floor bawling hysterically in Target last night because we told him he couldn't have something (Thomas Legos) and at home anything that Damien does that really doesn't affect Dominic will put him in tears. Other times he's just the best kid ever! I think the hardest part is explaining why he acts he way he does to new people we meet. I explained to his T-ball coach some of the things to watch out for. In gymnastics last month I saw a friend I hadn't seen forever. His son was in the same class and I explained to him why Dominic wouldn't sit still and why he was acting all goofy and weird while the other kids sat and listened to the teacher. I always feel like I need to tell people why he acts different and that makes me sad.

His aggressiveness is about the same. Dominic and Damien are always taking toys from each other and fighting. Usually he gets really mad and will sit on Damien or push him hard. He hasn't thrown anything in awhile which is great. He still disagrees with me on alot of things. He'll say "I told you NO MOMMY." when I ask him to do something or "I SAID YES!" if I tell him no he can't have a snack right this second. His hitting me has slowed down quite a bit and he'll usually just end up crying in the end about whatever we're disagreeing about.

So far this summer has been going well. We're working on workbooks and a CDRom trying to keep up with school. He is having a hard time writing I believe because he's left handed. I don't know how to teach him how to hold a pencil left handed either.

Damien has started Early Intervention Playgroup and he really enjoys it. Dominic is sad that he can't go since it's at his school. Damien unfortunately is starting to show some of the same "signs" as Dominic did early on so I worry abit that we could be going down the same road with Damien. We'll see though.

Long Overdue Update

2007-05-02T09:38:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't updated on here in a bit so I will today! Dominic is doing really good. I had his IEP appointment about a month ago so he'll be able to get into any preschool when we move at a short notice because he has that. He's doing really well at school except for a few issues, alot being social, some cognitive, and speech. His misbehaving at home is about the same. He back talks alot, calls names, and just will do something repeatitively after we tell him no. He is constantly battling it out with Damien on toys and just starting fights out of the blue with Alex which normally end in someone getting hurt. He still is not falling asleep till 9:30-10 after he goes to bed at 8 and I couldn't tell you when the last nap he had was, it's been that long. We still have no answers on why he acts the way he does. I feel like I just don't know anything with him anymore. Some days I feel like he's fine, or then sometimes he's got the ADHD that he was diagnosed with, but then other days I wonder if his teacher is right about PDD's. Then days like last night when he was upset about his shirt tag in his pj's and not wearing a certain pair of shoes that he adores when I think maybe he does have sensory intergration dysfunction. He desperately needs couseling but this small town we live in doesn't provide Child Psychologists specified in these areas. He can get help but I don't think we'll all get the help we need.

So things are going pretty well. He will not do summer school this summer so I plan to get some workbooks and homeschool so we don't forget anything. We want his last year of preschool for 07-08 to be a good one! Thanks for reading!

1st Dentist Appointment!

2007-03-27T07:09:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness for Camera phones. LOL Dominic had a great 1st dentist appointment. We found out that even though he's missing a bottom front tooth and only has 3 that it may come in as a permanent and it may not. If it doesn't there's no reason to worry about it because most of the time with just 3 you can't tell anyways according to the dentist. Dave actually has 5 on the bottom so the Dentist joked that maybe dad took Dominic's. His teeth look great and he'll go back in 6 months where we'll attempt to get x-rays. The first 2 four year old visits are usually just meet and greets so they don't scare the kids. Then on the 3rd visit they will TRY to clean his teeth. He gave me some disclosing tablets for the kids (they LOVE those!) and he got a new cool looking toothbrush, kid's mouthwash, floss dinosaur, and toothpaste. Then he picked out a ball out of the toy basket. He told EVERYONE last night about his visit to the funny dentist. Our Dentist thinks he's a comedian. To me he's just a bit strange but the kids adore him.

ADHD and Karate?

2007-03-13T19:38:00.000-07:00

I am so sad tonight. We took Dominic to watch the Tae Kwon Do and all he wanted to do was get up and try to go under the chairs or go out the door. He wouldn't sit 2 freakin seconds and watch. It really made me wonder if maybe I should just load him up with meds. Maybe I should just give, screw it ya know? They'd scream "kee yah" and he'd hold his ears and say it was too loud. One of the teachers said maybe I should try back in a year with him but then said if Dad got into it, maybe Dominic would follow. I told Dave he should try and see. Dave did it as a kid so he knows alot of the moves, he can even do the splits!! I bet if he saw Daddy out there, he'd get excited to try. I think it upset Dave too that he wouldn't sit there. I know he wanted the boys to be in martial arts.

Eeeee Yaaaw!!!

2007-03-12T07:50:00.000-07:00

This week we will be taking Dominic to watch some Tae Kwon Do by younger kids and see if he's interested in trying to do it. He's already jumping around saying yes. He's excited. Dave did Tae Kwon Do as a kid and has always said the discipline and structure would be great for him. Well I started hearing that martial arts are great for kids with ADHD and researched it. Turns out it is. Here's one article on it. So if this all works out after he sits in a few sessions, Dom will start doing this on Tuesday evenings.

Dominic's Parent Teacher Conference

2007-03-09T10:12:00.000-08:00

Dominic is doing extremely well at school. So well that they think he would do great in a more normal preschool setting. He will still be on an IEP but normal preschool. How does this make me feel? Extremely happy! I can't believe it. Little backround. Dominic goes to what is known as EI- Early Intervention. It's a preschool but made up of children with developmental disabilities. Most of the children are there for minor things like Dominic's speech and behavior, but there are some with more indepth complex problems such as blindness, deaf, down syndrome, motor skill problems, Autism, MS, etc. I knew what his school was like as far as classmates and it pleased me because I wanted him to be exposed to being around children that have some disabilities so he understood that they were just like him but in a wheelchair, using a hearing aide, a cane, etc. He's made great bonds with the kids and considers them all his "friends."

Dom's teacher had nothing but praises for me. She said that he's making an effort on everything and his fits are less and less it seems. They are still there but not as bad as they were (hitting teachers, kicking, etc.) Here's a few things he's doing great at.

On Cognitive-Row counts to 6 then starts skipping #'s
recognizes all the basic colors except brown and black
understands basic patterns
places things in order by size
recognizes his name in print
On Language- says his first and last name
knows gender and age
speaks in 2-3 word sentences, progress being made on 4-5
Follows 1 and 2 ste directions
understands some positional concepts. Up, Down, In and out. On and Off
Points to Same, different, big, little, more, less, tall, slow, fat, hot, cold
Self-Help: tries a varity of foods
can use cup and bowl
washes and drys hands without help
can undo zippers, takes off coat, uses toilet with no help
can nearly point to everything except for wrist, ankle, waist, hips, heel.
Social Skills: follows the routine
follows directions
knows staff and classmates names
initiates interactions with adults
pays attention now for 3-5 minutes!!!! That's great!
Fine Motor: dominant right hand
can complete a 20 piece puzzle
builds a tower of 10 blocks
self portrait with 3 details (arm, stick torso, legs)
snips paper
Gross Motor: walks upstairs
jumps down from things without falling
balances on one foot
walks on a balance beam
throws, catces and kicks a ball
jumps with 2 feet

Here's what we need to work on though. Social skills are still not all there. He's having a hard time with asking adult permission, sharing, watching and listening, waiting his turn, attempting to solve conflicts with peers, initiateing an activity with others such as "hey let's play with this.."

His language is there but he's still not able to follow 3 part directions yet. Cognitive and Language still need alot of work There are still some positional concepts he doesn't get yet such as between, behind, etc. He can't answer questions yet either which I knew that. He can't hold a pencil without clenching it and still doesn't like to attempt coloring in the lines. It's more or less scribbled. He doesn't recognize letters or numbers yet. Catagories he doesn't understand at all. We'll get there. I expressed my concerns about if we do put him in a new preschool setting that he would fall backwards. She said she would work with the teacher. They would also send a speech therapist to the school to work with him. Overall it went really good and I was pleased!

Spring Break

2007-03-07T12:13:00.000-08:00

Dominic's Spring Break is here! He's out till March 19th!!! I might just have to ~~shoot myself~~ pawn him off on my Grandma a few days the next week or so. If not, I may just ~~kill him~~ end up in a nuthouse. I'm sure though, everything will be just fine, 4 kids and all. I'll just have to think of 300 activities a day for the 14 hours he's normally awake. Any ideas?

Update on Progress

2007-03-05T13:21:00.000-08:00

So since Dominic has turned 4 now I'll give an update for the Baby Book. lol

As far as I know school is going really good. We have PT Conferences on Thursday. Last I knew, they do timeouts if he misbehaves and they have been able to keep him attention for the most part. He only wanders off occasionally now BUT they always have a teacher sit him on their lap so that probably makes a difference! He loves school though and the other day when it was out, he was really upset telling me he wanted to go.

He is still totally fixed on trains. Everything in his life is Thomas. He lines them up and plays with them. He only wants to wear Thomas underwear, Thomas Shoes, Thomas clothes. He plays with them 24/7. Still 1 year later, I'm making his toaster strudel icing into a train for him to eat.

The freaking out from shirt tags has stopped. Which is good because I want to know what the size of everything is for Damien to wear when it's handed down.

Naptime has been nonexistant since he turned 2 1/2. He's always been on the go since then. He's still up WAY too long. He wakes at 6:30 AM and is up till around 9-9:30. That's a LONG time to me for a kid. If I have a hard time doing it, I can't see how he does it. He's always running around the whole day laughing, giggling and doing all the wrong things. He still never thinks before he acts but then he realizes his mistake a few minutes later and will say sorry.

Outbursts are less it seems. If you remember some of the videos on here of him knocking the crap out of me, they are less but still there especially if you piss him off. He may say something like his school bus is BLUE. You correct him saying it's yellow and he'll tell you your wrong and it's BLUE. Now you can keep trying to correct him but it's best to just drop it because he gets really mad screaming his answer, clenching his fists and finally gets physical. This happens in public and people's eyes bulge and stare. He is always physical with Damien and Alex. I saw him twist Damien by the neck and throw him on the floor the other day for playing with his things. He jumps and beats Alex all the time. This is what the Dr said he'd really prescribe the meds for is the ODD part of his ADHD. To calm him before anyone got hurt. When I came home from the hospital I figured for sure this time I'd have a baby in the ER for some of his tantrums but so far we're ok. I keep a constant eye on her from the boys. Fits in the store are pretty much the same and we have them alot. Sometimes I can put them off by carrying suckers in my purse or a train from home he hasn't played with in awhile. I keep toys in my purse and diaper bag.

Last, his speech is soooo much better. More like a 4 year old now. The boy talks all the time in sentences!!! He's improved so much! We still have letters he can't pronounce and prepositions we are learning but he's getting there!

Spencer The Naughty Diesel

2007-02-28T14:24:00.000-08:00

It was a nice day down at Sodor. All the trains were busy taking their loads to and from. Sir Topham Hat asked all the engines to be on their best behavior while he left the station with Toby. They were to listen to Gordon, the wise old engine and do as he said. Gordon was very proud of his new job from Sir Topham Hat and told him, "You can count on me, Sir!" Gordon told a few of the engines their jobs for the day but there are so many engines, there was some miscommunication. Thomas was to pick up passengers at Wellsworth Station but instead Edward, James, Percy, Rusty, Salty, Diesel and Culdee showed up! Oh no! Then there was so much commotion on the tracks, Culdee derailed and fell over on his side. Sir Topham Hat was NOT going to be happy.

Thomas was headed to the Wellsworth Station when he got word that he was to pick up barrels at the dock. Gordon followed him there. "what are you doing Thomas? You're supposed to be picking up the passengers at the station?" "I am?" he replied. "Spencer told me that I was to pick up barrels at the dock!" Gordon grumbled, "No! You are to pick up passengers! Emily is to pick up barrels." Thomas took off quickly to the station.

Just then Emily was spotted by Gordon. Gordon spouted, "where have you been? You need to pick of barrels immediately." "Sorry," Emily replied. Gordon was getting very angry.

Just then Gordon spotted Spencer. "Spencer, why did you tell Thomas to pick up barrels?" asked Gordon. "It was a joke! HAHA!" Laughed Spencer. "Well it's not funny" said Gordon. "I am incharge, Sir Topham Hat said so. You don't do that again!" Gordon said angrily.

When Thomas arrived at the station, it was chaotic. Culdee the purple engine was finally flipped back over and on his way. Everyone else was behind. Finally the passengers were picked up and put on Annie and Clarabel and they were on their way.

Finally, Sir Topham Hat returned with Toby.

"Gordon, the passengers have left and the dock work is all done. Great job." he said. "Thank You, Sir." Gordon said. Spencer, nearby came over and apologized to Sir Topham Hat and Gordon for his dirty trick. "Spencer, you are a naughty little engine." Sir Topham Hat replied. Then he sent all the trains back to the Roundhouse to go to bed.

The End.

Dominic's 4!!!

2007-02-19T10:32:00.000-08:00

Ahoy there Me Hearty's!! We had Dominic's 4th Birthday Party at CiCi's Pizza yesterday and it was alot of fun! We love CiCi's! I'm glad they were nice to us since we probably made a huge mess and dirtied a zillion plates.

Dominic with his Treasure Chest Cake

Shiver Me Timbers! Look at the booty in the treasure!

Notice the pirate flags we used to reserve the tables we were using. Arrrrgh!!!!

Dominic and another cheesy grin. He always makes the same face showing off his teeth.
Dave's aunt/uncle on the left. My Mom and stepdad Mike on the right.
Grandpa with a mouthful!
I have no idea what I was staring off at when Dave took this. Mommy helping Dom with his gifts.
This is my sister Mandi.
And a group shot before bedtime.....

Mia before leaving to the party

2007-02-14T08:39:00.000-08:00

Well we are trying something now. Finally. It's that Focus Factor for kids. I see NO RESULTS but it's only been about 5 days. Dave seems to think it'll need to work into his system and won't just work instantly like I want it too. He's still laughing and running around like a moron all afternoon. I swear if he could do backflips he would do them over and over. He is still very impulsive. I think that's what I'd like to change the most is his impulsive behavior. I haven't seen any improvement with concentration either. I read nightly to Alex and he won't sit for it. He will for about 1 minute then he's done. Anyways- it was at Walmart for $10, we give him 3 wafers a day since he's not quite to the weight limit for a 4 year old.

Book Shopping

2007-02-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

While venturing out for supper with the crew, we stopped by a big music/book store in town. D headed to the Xbox games, I headed to the books. Dominic decided he wanted to come with me which was ok......till we got in the book section. It's like going to the library and he was just off the wall running around the bookshelves, grabbing books looking at them and putting them wherever, and laughing at pictures of baby butts on the covers. I must have asked him 20 times to stay in the area I was but he was just running all over. (sigh) So I didn't get to shop that much. I did find a few books but didn't find the two I was looking for. I did find quite a few for ADHD and I think I may go back and pick up ADHD for Dummies. I did not however find Raising yor Spirited Child or the Out-Of Sync Child. Amazon has an amazing selection of books so I may just go back, look at books, write down the titles and order online since it's cheaper buying used.

2007-02-05T10:02:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile. So alot has happened with us around here and it has affected Dominic quite a bit. My first hospital stay from having Mia didn't really phase the kids too much. The 2nd stay though for the pancreatitis though turned him into a mess. He was crying alot, got a bit of an attitude at school, and fits got pretty bad for my parents. I was still so sore when I came home that my grandmother was coming to help. There was one day when she went to get him off the bus. I was there that morning but when he saw my Grandma was there to get him off the bus, he flipped. He came in the house and fell on his knees wailing. I asked him if he thought I was gone again and he said "yes." It was heartbreaking the first week home. The boys were like little monkeys clinging to me. Then Dominic had a major anger thing going on and started being really mean and not listening to me at all. He was so bad I was crying all the time. I even went back to his pediatrician crying and asked him about getting him on the meds. When though he called me about putting him on the meds, I couldn't buck up and do it and I said things were better. They are a bit better but he's still got fits going on at home. He's doing really good at school again.

One major thing that came out of all this was that his teacher sent home all his pull ups saying he's doing a great job and she didn't think he needed them anymore. Ever since then he's been going to school in underwear. He hasn't pooped his pants in atleast a month. It's been AWESOME. He's still having a pee accident maybe once or twice a week but he's been wearing underwear when we go out in public and has never had an accident. I think I can say, we finally have him potty trained completely now, and before he turned 4. Potty training this boy has been one crazy ride. I'm glad it's finally done!

Our next step now as Mia starts growing is to get him to a child psychologist which we are both for. We have insurance for it, we might as well do it. We also are going to try a Homeopathic herbal route with Dominic. It's especially made for children with ADHD. I still haven't purchased it but we've known about it for awhile. Things are just so crazy around here and with me forgetting, it's going to take a major fit or meltdown for me to remember "oh yeah! I need to buy that."

Me Too!

2007-01-01T06:58:00.000-08:00

Dom's newest phrase to everything is "Me Too!" He says it about everything from wanting to eat or drink to wanting to leave the house, he says "me too" on everything. He hasn't said me too when I've told him I was giving his brother a bath though. lol

I was really hoping to have Dominic potty trained before little Mia arrived but it doesn't look like we'll be quite at that spot but we're almost there. Dominic never poops his pants anymore which is AWESOME! But he still pees in them. (sigh) It's weird because this was totally opposite of him about 6 months ago when he was crapping himself and never wet. I don't get it but I'd rather change him wet than poopy! When he does poop on the toilet he makes it huge deal screaming "MOMMY I POOPED! I POOPED ON THE TOILET, A BIG ONE! COME LOOK MOMMY!"

Honestly I don't think Dominic gets that we're bringing home a new baby next week. I say I have a baby in my tummy and he says "me too!" patting his belly. When Damien arrived he hated him and completely ignored his brother. He was only 2 and I don't think he understood that he came from my belly. Guess we'll see how it goes. We'll either have more aggression or maybe he'll be completely loving this time around.

Dominic's School Christmas Party

2006-12-22T09:19:00.000-08:00

Dominic had his Christmas party at school and we went by for cookies and punch. Santa gave each kiddo a present. It was alot of fun for the kids. They sat and waited their turn with their little hands fidgiting around because they knew Santa had a present for them. Dominic's teacher (woman in the white) told me that he's been doing a great job and his outburst are becoming less and less. She said that he's doing an awesome job potty training too which is good because here he switched from peeing on the toilet all the time to pooping on the toilet all the time and peeing his pants. Anyways she said he's doing great. The lady in the pic below in the black is his speech therapist and I didn't get to ask her how he was doing with her. His speech has exploded all though the words still aren't coming out exactly how they should. I tried to snap a few pictures of the day though and Dominic loves pointing out the people.

2006-12-11T07:01:00.000-08:00

Hasn't really been too much to report lately. Dominic's language is EXPLODING again this year. At this rate, I think he may be able to go to normal preschool next year off the IEP. The other night Daddy was complaining about something at the dinner table and Dom looked at him and told him to "Go back to work, Daddy!" It was the funniest thing ever because he's never said that one before. He's also speaking in bigger sentences now and trying to explain what's wrong and why he's mad or crying. He'll say something like "Alex hurr me" or "Day-un took my train." There's still alot of working with him on words, they're there now they just don't come out right. He's been really branching out into singing too which he has never done. He sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star all the time and tries to sing Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer. Super excited about Santa or "Ho Ho" as he calls him coming soon to the house. This is the first year he's really understood Holidays and what happens with them and it's really neat to see his eyes get huge when he talks about Santa coming.

I think one of the best things that has happened lately with Dominic is that he's really becoming more open with Damien. When he was first born, he hated him and wanted nothing to do with him. As a baby he was ok but then when he started crawling and liking Dominic's toys things went downhill again. Now he's come to realize I think that Damien is not out to steal all his toys and Damien really thinks Dominic is pretty cool and just wants to be like him. They are playing together alot more and run around the house together. There are still usually one or two times though where Dom freaks out and either hurts Damien by pushing him or takes toys from him causing him to cry. I think we'll always have those though.

Shirt Tags

2006-11-30T16:42:00.000-08:00

It's been a real pain in the ass getting Dominic ready in the morning lately. He's started to get really upset over shirt tags but I'm not going to start taking them out of his clothes. Everyday I put his shirt on and the first thing he does is pull the tag out. After a few minutes of fussing about it I'll distract him, push it back in and he stops making a big deal about it. This has been happening everyday now for the past month and just started out of the blue. I don't get it because it's never been a problem before.

Back in Gymanastics

2006-11-29T07:37:00.000-08:00

Last night Dominic went back into Gymnastics. I talked to one of the instructors afterwards and she said he did a great job he's just got to learn to listen to them and do as he's told. I told her we took a month off because of how he acted the first month and I told her about his ADHD diagnosis and how we thought maybe this would help him out some. She said she thought the month off did him some good because he really appreciated being back. LOL We ended up missing the lesson since we went to look for a new vac but I'll make sure I'm there next week. I really wanted to get some pictures.

Everything has been going pretty well. Seems like there are days where I think to myself that Dominic is totally fine, just being a rowdy boy but then there's day I can barely handle him he's so wound up screaming and just all over the dang place. We can tell him "no, don't do that" 20 times and he'll still keep doing it like he doesn't hear us which he does. He hasn't taken a nap in so so long and still stays up till 10 atleast but we put him to bed at 8:30. It's frustrating. We've been so busy we haven't scheduled another therapy appointment either. I've been researching Homeopathic Herbs for ADHD instead of going ahead and sticking him on the Adderall. There's so much information out there and it's all quite confusing! If herbs work though, I'd rather do that then anything.

He Lives....He Breathes..........Thomas

2006-11-23T20:06:00.000-08:00

Red Dye Dangers??

2006-11-22T07:28:00.000-08:00

I heard there was going to be a special on the news last night about Red Dye and it's affects on children so I wanted to catch it. I had no idea what it was really about but after watching it Dave and I just looked at each other like what the??? Could that be our problem?

Here's an article on the internet about it.

So basically they are saying children have a sensitivity to dyes put in our kids food which causes behavior problems. The lady on the news said her 4 yr old would scream "I'm going to kill you!" and "I'll hit you!" Which are two things we hear alot out of Dominic. She said that after 2 weeks of getting the foods out of his system he was a totally different child. We decided to go in the kitchen and low and behold EVERYTHING has Red Dye in it. Poptarts, juice, toaster strudels, canned fruit, cereal, etc. The kid will starve to death now if we try the 2 week experiment. I'm thinking we should at least try cutting it and see what happens. I just can't believe I had never heard of this before.

Meltdowns

2006-11-21T08:59:00.000-08:00

The meltdowns have gotten to be too much lately. I don't know what to do anymore. Any and everything upsets him, even things that you would think he'd appreciate. Daddy and I are basically begging it seems just to appease him. I'm probably not making sense here so I'll explain with a fake example. We give him a cookie, but it's not the kind of cookie he wants. He doesn't want a Chips Ahoy, he wants an Oreo. So we give him the Oreo but it's either too late the damage is done or it's not in the right bowl and he's hysterically crying. Then we give him a cup of chocolate milk to go with it but he didn't ask for chocolate milk which he absolutely loves so he'll freak out crying even more, screaming that he wants regular milk.

Most of the other meltdowns are from him not getting something he wants such as running around the stores, getting pushed back from Alex or Damien when he's bothering them, or something is wrong with a toy he's been playing with.

Sunday afternoon he was outside riding a tricycle and I told him he would have to come in because it was freezing out. Bad move. I had to carry him kicking and screaming inside. He threw the biggest fit for a good 30-40 minutes crying because he wanted out. I had to use our locks on the tops of the doors to keep him in because he was so determined to get out.

Yesterday for no reason he was bothering Alex and her friend playing Hot Potato. He kept kicking Alex in the back over and over and then trying to do a somersault between them. I asked him if he wanted to play with them and he'd scream "NO!" He continued over and over till finally he decided to jump on Alex as she was sitting on the floor and she ducked down which made him fall over her and hurt his back on some plastic toys. He cried and screamed and cried and screamed for about 30 minutes. Even when her friend's mom came to pick her daughter up he wanted nothing to do with her either. He was very angry screaming "leave me 'lone!!!!!"

This morning I was trying to get him ready for school but he insisted on not only peeing on the toilet but pooping too but he didn't really need to do it. FYI- he only poops or pees on the toilet when he wants. When he really does have to go he usually just goes in his pants. So after 20 minutes of me saying we need to get dressed or you won't be able to eat before the bus gets here he finally came out. It wasn't because of me saying that either, because for 20 minutes all he did was slam the bathroom door and scream "leave me 'lone!" and "Go 'way!!!" The way he screams at you just makes you want to pop him in the mouth. He's very hateful and loud.

I did notice him snoring the past 2 nights but I moved him and he'd quit so I'm sure he got plenty of sleep. He hasn't taken naps forever now it seems. The afternoons are mainly him playing with the trains for a few hours. He did take some interest in hotwheels cars yesterday which surprised me. He hardly ever plays with anything besides the trains. We might as well sell every other toy he has.

My Own Observations

2006-11-16T14:54:00.000-08:00

I was going to list some of the things/issues we have going on with Dominic mainly for my record. This is off the top of my head so it may not be too complete. I'll probably have to add things later on.

Running around all the time
doesn't like to sit and listen to direction.
runs all over the place when not secured in a basket
no naps
very loud play even after asked to be quiet
hates changes such as sitting in a new spot in the car or if something moves
Usually cries or holds his ears when babies cry. Gets upset when he's yelled at and says to stop.
ALWAYS playing with Thomas the train

Videos for the Week

2006-11-15T06:27:00.000-08:00

I noticed some slight snoring last night with Dominic. He didn't really have his mouth opened real wide or anything. I moved his blanket and he stopped. I'm not going to have his tonsils removed "just to see." That's just stupid. I'm glad his Dr agrees with me on that one.

I had told Dominic's teacher awhile back I was trying to catch Dominic during some of his wild times and recording it (when he wasn't looking) so I would have proof to show like his Dr or anyone else. These are some recent videos I took of his behavior.

Here's two with his hyperactivity. This is pretty much him from about 3:30-8:30 and why I always say he acts like he's cracked out on Meth. BUT this first video is from 7 AM this morning.

This one is two different temper tantrums. He either hits or will freak out on the floor.

Here's an old one I think right about when we realized Dominic had some issues going on. This fit was over a snack and I gave him a poptart but not the one he wanted.

2006-11-13T13:53:00.000-08:00

Talked to Dominic's Ped's nurse today. She talked to his Dr and he doesn't feel at food allergies would be something that is his problem. I thought it was a bit far fetched myself but thought I'd ask. He said to go ahead and continue with therapy (unless I really want the meds) and see what that gets us. So I guess we'll call and find out if the woman we went to has some references for a Child Psychologist for us. Her title in general is a Social Worker. She has like 5 letters behind her name but I'm not even sure what it stands for. His Dr also said that with only seeing 1 instance of snoring in the past week he doesn't think I should have his tonsils taken out which is what I felt too.

Note to self: No Nap/Slept from 9 PM-7AM/Didn't snore at all. Breakfast Ate 2 cinnamon rolls, Milk, Lunch: 4 chicken nuggets, 1 1/2 banana, milk.

2006-11-12T11:40:00.000-08:00

This weekend Dominic has been acting pretty insane. Running around, jumping on Dave when he's laying on the carpet, being extremely loud, aggravated by the slightest thing like if Alex looks at this toy catalog we got in the mail he'll freak out. We went out to eat yesterday and it actually went pretty well. It was also 4 PM since I like to go when it's totally dead so we don't get looks from people. He was pretty vocal and loud so we had to keep hushing him but I brought playdough and we made things which kept him occupied for a bit. He did venture under the table a few times but came up if we asked.

The worst this weekend has been the crying. I swear he's a bigger baby than Damien and will cry at the stupidest things. Alex sat down at the table for breakfast and he went under the table bawling. Damien takes a toy truck that he's left on the floor he starts bawling. This isn't just alittle crying too it's the meltdown cry where he just drops to the floor and you can't talk to another person because he's so loud. We try to comfort him but it usually just gets him even more pissed off and he starts sceaming "leave me 'lone!!" One thing though, he's super excited for Christmas and has been going through ads and having me write toys on his list. He shines with happiness when you mention Christmas is coming which is really cute.

Note to Self: No Nap/slept from 9-7 AM/No Snoring that I noticed

2006-11-11T08:08:00.000-08:00

I can't think of anything off the top of my head that made yesterday extremely hard to deal with, with Dominic. For the most part it was really good. Before school he ate 2 toaster strudels! At lunch he ate 5 fish sticks and some grapes. After lunch Spongebob was on so he was glued to that for awhile since he loves Spongebob. At naptime he played with his trains as usual so that occupied him for a good hour or so. I had to get to the bank so he was excited to get out of the house. We ended up taking the truck since my van battery got drained somehow so he was especially excited about taking the big truck. He did rather well in the store and didn't stray far from the basket but on the way home he got pretty upset because instead of the food store he wanted to go to the regular store like Walmart or Target so he got whiney and upset on the way home saying "no go home." After we got home, I went to make dinner. There was some random arguing with him and Alex at the table before dinner but nothing major. He ate 1/2 a hamburger, 8 hamburger dills and a few fries. Around 8 my dad came by and then he turned all crazy. He kept trying to jump on the back of the couch, jump on my dad, and play in this sleeping bag. We had to yell at him alot during their visit to settle down but this is normally how he acts when they come over. They didn't leave till late so we just threw them in bed.

Note to self: No Nap/Went to bed at 10 PM-7 AM this morning/No Snoring last night.

2006-11-10T09:03:00.000-08:00

First, Dominic's Thyroid test came back normal so his thyroid is not causing any of his behavior issues.

Yesterday there were a few difficult moments with Dominic. He went to school, finally got on the bus after getting upset about "the man." After school he ate really good! A whole Grilled Cheese just didn't eat the crust and some grapes with some kool-aid since we were about out of milk. Then in the afternoon I had Kelsey (4) so since she needed a nap I put him on the couch in the basement for "quiet time" since he doesn't nap. He played quietly downstairs for about 2 hours without coming up for anything. After Alex got home though he turned into a live wire. He kept getting upset about everything with his blanket not rolling out on the floor perfect because he was rolling himself up in it as a mummy. He was pissed off that the blanket wouldn't cooperate and just kept screaming and bawling about it throwing the biggest fit ever. I told him that I was going to put him in his room if he didn't behave but that really didn't work.

At dinner though he turned back to normal and ate some pizza before we all went to Alex's Brownie meeting. He loves going to Brownies but sometimes can't do the activites or Alex won't share with him and he gets upset. One of the mom's gave him some pipe cleaners to make candy canes with so he was really really good. He didn't run around like he was on crack, he didn't climb under the tables or climb on everything. He was actually pretty enjoyable to have there. Before we walked in the door, Alex slammed his head with the van door so maybe she knocked some sense into him. I felt so bad for him, that had to hurt but he was ok after a few minutes. When we came home I promised him popcorn as a BT snack so he was more than willing to get in the bath. He cooperated getting ready for bed and listened as I read to 2 books to the kids.

Note To Self: No Nap, Asleep by 9:30 PM, very light snoring when first asleep but then no other snoring heard throughout the night.

The Man

2006-11-09T12:28:00.000-08:00

Dominic is having a hard time getting on the bus in the morning now because he wants to ride the bus with "the man." I basically had to tell him he couldn't take a train (a fiddle toy) if he didn't go. His bus driver was out for a few weeks so they had a man bus driver come for him and a different man bring him home so now he only wants to get on the bus if it's "the man." Ugh. Is this kid difficult or what? I don't get it.

For my info: Dominic did not snore at all last night. He slept from 10 PM- 7 AM with no nap.

ENT and Thyroid Appointments

2006-11-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

Well I'm not even sure what I should have expected from going to the ENT Dr. While we were waiting I actually thought to myself that this was probably a total waste and that he's just going to say let's take out his tonsils "just in case." Sure enough. He says that if it was his 5 year daughter in this situation and she was snoring occasionally and jerking in her sleep and having behavior problems, he'd probably go ahead and take out her tonsils so it was ruled out. He said they aren't abnormal but they are large. They can do a sleep study but it'd probably have to be done in Wichita or KC. He was sympathetic though in seeing what kind of a difficult position we're in on this whole deal which was nice since you could tell he was obviously not feeling well. In the waiting room I overheard the receptionists calling his patients for the day canceling and saying he was sick. I'm supposed to get back to them on if we want to do the surgery or not. I'm going to feel awful if we were to put him through a unnecessary surgery so I'm thinking on this one for awhile. I told him I think for the time being I'll keep a log on how many times a week I catch him snoring and how loud. Last night he did not snore at all that I noticed. I didn't hear anything coming from his room.

Before the appointment we went to the Lab to have blood drawn to check his thyroid. I wasn't worried at all since the kids just had lead tests back a few months ago and they did fine with Dave. Boy was I wrong. As soon as she inserted the needle he started screaming and crying "owweee!" and took his other hand and tried ripping the needle out of his arm. It took a second to pry him from it, scared all 3 of us to death. They got the blood though and we'll hear back on that soon.

2006-11-06T11:41:00.000-08:00

Dominic's ENT Appointment and Thyroid Blood Draw- November 8th.

Dom's had stomach flu on and off since Thursday, November 2nd. He's pretty much been off milk and drinking 7up and applejuice. Would it be weird to say that he's acting better? Could the therapist be right and maybe he IS allergic to milk which causes his erratic behavior?? It sounded pretty far fetched to me but he has been so much different. I wouldn't say it would be milk though unless he was 100% well. If his appointment on the 8th show him as OK then I guess we go the allergist route next and rule out any allergies.

First Therapist Appointment

2006-11-02T15:02:00.000-08:00

Well the woman we went to talk to about Dominic wanted us to go by ourselves the first time then the next visit she'd have Dominic come so she could give us her perspective. By the end of it though, she wants us to rule out any "physical" problems first so I'm going to be calling and making him an appointment with an ear, nose, throat specialist on his snoring and a blood test to check his thyroid. Sounds stupid but it is the right thing to do. Kids can actually have behavior problems from allergies to foods also so they may want to rule that out as well.
Dominic has a snoring problem but I really didn't think anything of it till the other day when one of my daycare mom's said something about it. I guess if a child has snoring and sleep apnea, it can actually cause them to be more active during the day instead of an adult who just wants to sleep. On the thyroid issue, I think it's alittle far fetched but my Mom, Grandpa, and Uncle all have Graves Disease so we do have thyroid issues in the family but to have it skip over me and go to Dominic just seems strange to me. On the food allergies, I'd heard about that in the past but I don't think he has one.
Basically last nights appointment was about us as a family. She wanted to know how long we'd been married, jobs, etc. Then she wanted to know our concerns on Dominic. I told her after a year old he just got so much more active and then by 2 was when I really started having issues. I told her about some of the problems at school and home with his anger and over activeness. So after she heard all that she decided we should look into his physical health, and if that looks OK then it sounds like she may refer us to an actual child psychologist. Ugh. This is going to be one hell of a process. Thank God D's insurance gives us 3 free visits before insurance kicks in.

2006-10-27T10:55:00.000-07:00

Dominic got his new pirate Jack Sparrow wig to go with his costume yesterday in the mail. He loves it and wore it all night. He makes such a cute pirate.

In other news, the Dr's office called me about him again yesterday. I knew that his Dr was making a trip to the school but I wasn't sure if he was going to be able to talk to his teacher or not. It sounds like it was kind of a luncheon to talk to a few teachers about some of their students that are his patients. Basically she called back to tell me that now he would prescribe a medication for him (Adderall) and we'd see if that made a difference. I told her we have an appointment with a therapist and we'll see how that goes before we do anything else for now. A few days ago though, all I cared was getting him on meds. Really I don't want him on meds, but I feel for everyone's safety and for his own wellbeing it'd be better but we'll see what therapy does first.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

2006-10-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

Scary woman Pumpkin Storyteller

Well we got intouch with a place intown to start Dominic on some mental evaluations. We visit with her on November 1st. After that he'll be going to her. In all he's been acting pretty good except for a few times a day we'll have some moments.

Tuesday he had a field trip to a Pumpkin Patch so I went along taking Damien and Kayla. Damien and Dominic didn't want to sit still for storytime at all so that was fun. They were both fighting me. I met Dominic's buddy Justin and his mom. Atleast I know who Justin is now! They went through the pumpkins, played in the hay bale maze, had a snack, and storytime. I think they all had a great time.

Dominic and Justin going through Pumpkins

Dominic as a pumpkin

Teachers and kids lost in the Hay Bale Maze

And The Results Are In.........

2006-10-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

He's Borderline ADHD. More of an oppositional thing he thinks. Oh.my.freakin. Dear.God. You've got to be kidding me. His pediatrician is recommending no medication at this time, just therapy. Do the parents and teacher get therapy because we are going to need it for ourselves for the next few years. This was sorta expected. I mean it's a freakin TEST that he adds up numbers and does an equation to figure if he has it. You'd think the day we visited the Dr's office where he was climbing the walls right infront of him was enough for him to say the kid needs some help. Nope. No help for any of us that deal with the fits, the screaming, the runnng off, the late nights without a daily nap, the constant jumping off furniture, or the shitty and pissed on diapers at almost 4 yrs old. You know what this makes me feel like? Like 2004 when I had all those kidney stone and no one believed my pain and all the Dr's made excuses for it. I really feel helpless right now.

They are now trying to get me in touch with a Child Psychologist which is who his Early Intervention school wanted me to contact in the first place. Fuck me fuck me fuck me 1,000 times. This sucks and now I've got a headache.

2006-10-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

I finally turned in the Connor Evaluation Tests on Tuesday so now we'll wait and see I guess what the next step is. I've been thinking about calling our insurance and asking if Child Psychologists are included with our plan. I know some insurances don't cover mental health but I believe ours does. D's company must believe is some mental help for their employees because they have this hotline for their employees to call for counseling.

I had Dominic's PT Conference yesterday. So far he's doing great except for the outbursts and fits at school. He hasn't been too physical this school year with the teachers. He is learning so that's awesome. He knows 1-10, all basic shapes and colors. He can say a million things now but just doesn't pronounce them well. He's been working on the ABC song too. Anyways it was nice and encouraging atleast to hear that he is getting something out of school, not just another place to act like a monkey and climb the walls.

No School- Time to Drive Momma Insane!!

2006-10-13T06:19:00.000-07:00

I don't know why the school thinks they should have days off. LOL Today Dominic is out of school. We'll see how THIS goes. So basically he has a 3 Day weekend. Next week he's out on Thursday AND Friday because of PT Conferences. Fun. I'm sure it will go well though. We'll hope!

Dominic did great getting his pictures taken the other day. We probably told him a good 100 times to put his hands down though. He'd keep his hands down for about 20 seconds then put them up by his chest or his face. Damien got in a few of the pictures and was really good at smiling it was just Dominic and his dang hands all over the place which was always the problem. Afterwards I had told him we'd look at trains. I was hoping he'd pick one out for $6.88 at Walmart but instead he found a train for $9.88 plus some boxcars for 7.88! I tried everything to get him to put them back but unless we were going to be there all day or I was going to pick him up kicking and screaming I wasn't getting out of the toy department without a fight so I just said screw it. Since he got these new toys on Wednesday, he's played with them every second of the day. TV as usual is pretty much nonexistant to him because he's zoned on the trains.

A new issue that's popped up the last few weeks is spitting. Whenever he disagrees with what we say, he's sticking out his tongue and spitting then running around like an idiot. It's the most annoying thing. I wish I knew where he gets half the stuff he does. TV? School? It's like he was just born with these abilities, kinda like how kittens know how to use a litterbox when they are babies. You'd think some days I just let him sit around eating candy all day with how he acts. LOL

All Aboard!!

2006-10-11T07:32:00.000-07:00

I'm taking Dominic to get his pictures taken today at Walmart with that Thomas backround. Why that ugly backround?? Well I have NO good pictures of Dominic. He always turns away, fights and screams when I take him in to have them done BUT I think having the Thomas backround behind him may help. So this is what he's wearing. Old Union Pacific coveralls and his Union Pacific hat. His Grandpa (D's Dad) worked for Sante Fe and the K & O Railroad for year and years so he's been pretty happy that Dominic loves trains so much. They bought this outfit for him way back when. It's not one I put on him often as you can imagine. He wore this to school today, even the hat since his picture appointment is at noon.

2006-10-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

Dave completed his ADHD test finally today for Dominic. Now I have to find time to take them down there to be graded. I'm not even going to say anything but he only rated Dominic a 3 (very often) on 1 item. Most of everything else he put 2. I would say he's stupid and is lying but I think the best thing to say would be that he's not here enough to see what the hell I or even his teachers deal with. He deals with Dominic on the weekends and from 5-8 PM during the week. He knows how bad he is from me telling him all the time though. I don't know.

Gymnastics tonight went pretty well. He was still acting up abit but I didn't see the teachers have to chase him once. He did keep moving around on the floor from where he was supposed to be and on the trampoline he was supposed to be sitting but instead he started bouncing on his knees and would make the girl who was supposed to be jumping fall down. Afterwards he became a very bad boy. He started screaming at me "No Momma!" on everything I asked him to do so I eventually let him crawl on the floor and run around while Alex finished her class. I felt bad for not controlling him better but I was so worn down from the day I just had no energy to do anything about it. This baby is really killing my energy level right now. He refused to leave either after Alex's class was over and I had to chase him around the spring board and mats.

He did though take his bath willingly and go straight to bed (fell asleep before 9) since he didn't take a nap once again.