I haven't blogged much lately so it goes without saying that I haven't clued anyone in on how Tayton's been doing. When we left Missouri we had a diagnosis of Sensory Integration Disorder and Anxiety Disorder.
Since moving here we've been screwed out of him receiving his occupational therapy which was a life saver while we were in Missouri. But he's been seeing a child psychologist and child psychiatrist which we struggled and never succeeded in getting into in there.
They are now officially willing to say he has "asperger traits", severe anxiety, OCD and of course the Sensory Integration Disorder. All of which are the asperger traits. He also has some signs of ADHD but not a true diagnosis. I actually agree with all of this.
He's an amazing kid! He just needs things done a little differently. He needs constant reassurance and refuses to let himself make mistakes which hinders his school work. Teachers don't love to have to tell Tayton three times that he has permission do something. And he's a rules kid. There's never a gray area with him. He got sent to the office last year because he knows we don't talk to strangers and no one introduced him to the gym teacher so therefore he was a stranger. The gym teacher tried to talk to him and he ran and hid behind behind the mats! Ha ha!
We went to a local pool yesterday and the rule was that the lifeguard had to tell you when it was clear before you get on the diving board. (yes that's right, he was jumping off the diving board into 12.5 ft deep water!! He's amazing!). So every time before he got on the diving board even though he could see it was clear he would yell "excuse me ma'am, all clear?" with his hand in the air thumbs up. They laughed every time because even if she said go ahead before he asked he still had to ask and they still had to say it again. That's my boy!
So now that we're moving to MI for the deployment I'm hoping we have great resources available for him. If not I will seek them out and we'll have a year of fabulous progress!
In a short time we went from him being scared but really wanting to jump off ..........
To throwing caution to the wind and running and jumping like a champ!!
Well I haven't blogged in a while because facebook life has taken over. Mackinley will be 5 months old this week and I'm ashamed to say I haven't taken a whole lot of pictures in the past month. She got her first tooth yesterday. She's rolling all over the place and shows signs of sitting up in the near future as well. She laughs a little but isn't cooing too much. Last week she weighed in at 13lb 6oz and is 25 1/8 in long.
Mackinley at 4 months old!
Mackinley in her new BB Bib made by my beautiful sister in law and her fabulous sister! You can get your own here.
Korbin is doing great. We haven't been giving him his ADHD meds cause we like a lively little boy running around the house all day!! He's much more fun off the meds. His kidney check up was scary because it's swollen and retaining urine but when they compared it to last years scans there weren't any significant changes so we're gonna wait it out.
Korbin on our zipline out back.
Korbin at work on family day with Kirke.
Tayton is doing okay. They are now calling his issues "Asperger's traits" as a combination of severe anxiety disorder, OCD and Sensory Integration Disorders are kicking his butt these days! He's going to be 9 soon. He's gone back and forth with some things lately. For one he's getting himself so worked up he cries and within minutes gets a killer headache. But they're going away within a reasonable time frame with Motrin. He's also gone back to biting himself a few times recently. He's seeing a pediatric psychologist and psychiatrist right now and testing out some medication.
Tayton on the zipline out back!
Mackinley with a silly nose. I came out of the bathroom and found her this way...thanks Tate!!
Lots of funny, crazy, insane things go on inside these walls everyday unfortunately facebook gets all the funny stuff and blogspot is just getting the updates. I'll work on that!
I got a comment yesterday from someone who stumbled on my blog through google searching "retain kindergarten". I'm still surprised that I'm google search worth even if it is 12 pages into the search.
Anyhow this mom has a child who has Sensory Integration Disorder like my little Tayton. It's not often that I find other people who have ever heard of SI let alone are in my boat. So I thought I'd answer her question.
We had an advantage when it came to retaining Tate in kindy because we knew from the first day of kindergarten that he would be a two year kindy kid. He had already done two years in the same Pre-K class so it seemed natural to him. But when it came time for him to complete the first year of kindergarten and his classmates to go on to first grade we worried about how he would handle the news.
We talked to him about how much fun kindergarten is and how some kids have to go to first grade. Then we explained to him that some kids get to be in kindergarten for two years and he was one of the lucky ones. With Tayton's SI he does not handle change well at all so it was fine with him. He actually told us "I don't ever want to go to first, second, thrid or fourth grade, I just want to stay in kindergarten forever."
Maybe telling your son will be that simple. Maybe not. SI kids need so much more time to adjust to new ideas than other kids. The way that their brains process information is like a highway that's congested in some areas and deserted in others. Tayton is scared to death to start first grade so we are talking about it often and reassure him like crazy that it's what comes next.
We did tell Tayton too that some of his other classmates that were going on to first grade had already done two years of kindergarten so now it was his turn. And of course that was true. Taytons second year of kindergarten made a world of difference in him. He finally started socializing a little bit with his peers and blasted to the top of the reading charts. He started to talk to his teachers more and just matured overall. Kids are resilient he will adjust but the more time you give him to get used to the idea of kindergarten again the better off you'll be. Good luck! Let me know how it goes. You can always email me at my address on my "about me" page!
We have these Tupperware team meetings monthly with our director and the rest of her team. It is usually fun and I get to laugh. The ride to the meeting was fun as usual but the meeting was blah today. Here are the notes I managed to take:
*Every Midget Seal counts! (Our director said so, apparently we are an equal opportunity midget loving company!)
*(referring to our Director) "Use her and Use I we're here to help!" (she said that too! And she just got a free car, not a company car, it's hers to keep forever even if she quits TW tomorrow! Here's a picture)
They like to put us in it and take our pictures. Weird...like hmmm...too bad it's not yours sucker! No really its for motivation to earn our own, I think. This picture is Brandy, Amber, Roxy, a little girl we don't know and I.
*let the hugging begin
*We've met our quota of Kathy/Cathy's for the team. There are three at the table and it's starting to freak me out. Like the gremlins they keep multiplying.
Those were the best of my notes. I took some real ones too but those were my wandering thoughts or noteworthy moments.
We watched the movie Juno the other night. I loved it! It was very funny and I loved the music it cracked me up! Amber hated it though. Which made me love it even more! So of course I volunteered to drive to our meeting tonight which meant I got to play my ipod! Woohoo, I limewired the song Loose Lips right away when they left to get ready for the drive.
Please don't hold the comments made in this song against me just because I like the song doesn't mean I agree completely with the politics of the song....And it's really freakin fun to try to sing the song. I told the girls I'd learn all the words so I can sing it much better then I did tonight. (sorry girls)
Here's the words cause they make me laugh! I need to laugh!
loose lips might sink ships but loose gooses take trips to san francisco, double dutch disco, tech tv hottie, do it for scotty do it for the living and do it for the dead do it for the monsters under your bed do it for the teenagers and do it for your mom broken hearts hurt but they make us strong and
we won't stop until somebody calls the cops and even then we'll start again and just pretend that nothing ever happened
we won't stop until somebody calls the cops and even then we'll start again and just pretend that nothing ever happened
we're just dancing, we're just hugging, singing, screaming, kissing, tugging on the sleeve of how it used to be how's it gonna be? i'll drop kick russell stover, move into the starting over house and know matt rouse and jest are watching me achieve my dreams
and we'll pray, all damn day, every day, that all this shit our president has got us in will go away while we strive to figure out a way we can survive these trying times without losing our minds
so if you wanna burn yourself remember that I LOVE YOU and if you wanna cut yourself remember that I LOVE YOU and if you wanna kill yourself remember that I LOVE YOU call me up before your dead, we can make some plans instead send me an IM, i'll be your friend
shysters live from scheme to scheme but my 4th quarter pipe dreams are seeming more and more worth fighting for so i'll curate some situations, make my job a big vacation and i'll say F*CK BUSH AND F*CK THIS WAR my war paint is sharpie ink and i'll show you how much my shit stinks and ask you what you think because your thoughts and words are powerful they think we're disposable, well both my thumbs opposable spelled out on a double word and triple letter score
we won't stop until somebody calls the cops and even then we'll start again and just pretend that nothing ever happened
we won't stop until somebody calls the cops and even then we'll start again and just pretend that nothing ever happened
we're just dancing, we're just hugging, singing, screaming, kissing, tugging on the sleeve of how it used to be
Oh and another funny Best Boy moment. We were leaving the battalion the other day after we dropped off Kirke. Korbin and I were crying and Tayton said "Mom why are you guys even crying, he's only been gone a few minutes?" It was funny. He's so logical in his little mixed up mind! Today at OT he spun and spun and spun in super fast circles for most of his hour of therapy. All Katy said was "wow it sure is taking a long time for him to process that information". I said "you're gonna be dizzy when you get off of there" and she pointed out the truth "that's not gonna happen". He doesn't get dizzy because his head is in a sort of constant dizzy state so it doesn't phase him. He loves circles, spinning anything like that that is repetitive and never ending it's soothing for him. It works, we're okay with that.
****Hey Kirke, I want to know if you're really reading my blogs over there or just watching the videos and checking out the pictures. Lets play one of those fun little games I like to play. You know, the one where I leave the longest voicemail ever just rambling about nothing? Then at the end I say something stupid like "if you listened to this whole message you'll say the word apple when we talk again". Yep here we go, if you've read to the bottom of this My Love, you'll mention our first kiss when we talk/email/IM again!
I walked into my bathroom to see two little blond boys piling all of the laundry onto the scale to see how much it weighs!
I know that I suck at keeping up on the laundry but come on guys!! This weekend I will be finally conquering Mt. St. Laundry before it erupts and spews my underwear across the neighborhood!
Ugh I suppose you want to know what the scale said? Fine I'll lie tell you.... Tate was standing on the scale with one foot holding the laundry in place with his body so it said 37.8 pound! Then I made him move and it said 3.2 pounds. I'm pretty sure the truth lies somewhere in between!
Tayton had his school program tonight and I wanted to blog about it because we are talking super major gi-normous HUGE FANTASTIC leaps and bounds forward in his disorder! He would never have stood in front of a crowd last year. He couldn't sing songs other than "i love for swim, i love for swim. I love for swim, I love for swim." over and over in his whole life till this year and now he is really progressing. AND and and and you're never gonna believe this........he did the little arm movement dancey things too! I'm so proud I could cry! I can't wait to get the video uploaded for you!
As the day has gone on today my throat has been hurting worse and worse and now I can hardly swallow or talk. Doesn't God know that there is no time for me to get sick? OH NO! This is my punishment for that phone call I made on Saturday!
The boys have just been boys today. Korbin aka Cool Dude got out of the shower last night and spiked his hair up and used ALL of my expensive salon hair spray to make it "just right"! Darn kid! He slept on it all night and went to school today with all still sticking straight up except where he laid on it! I should've taken a picture! OH wait I did! Because they said goodbye to our very good friends this morning and I took pictures then. Now where did I put that camera? He's so funny I get such a kick out of him except when he's throwing fits and acting like a two year old!
Tayton, my little Tayton, brought tears to my little eyes last night. Socially Tayton has many issues. He can't stand being touched by other people especially kids. Well he came down stairs last night when he heard Megan and Jada, who had been staying with us for a few days, come home. He said he wanted to give Jada a hug! My little boy just doesn't do that! I was so happy! He even did it again so we could take a picture AND hugged her this morning too! He's so awesome! Here's the proof!
Today has been interesting. Tayton woke up at 3am screaming cause his eyes were stuck shut by goop. I had to get him to let me use a washcloth to dampen it and losen it. Tayton having Sensory Integration Disorder and an Anxiety Disorder makes times like this tough. He can't stand to be touched much and I'm usually a big exception to that rule, he loves to sit with me and play but god forbid I try touching his face to much so it wasn't good. He got in to the doctor and surprise surprise who'd have thought? Pink Eye! Thanks alot little brother, just what Tate needed. He has now missed 21 days of school this year!
I was helping him get ready to go to the doctors and I told him he needs to learn to tie his shoes because I know he can do it he just won't try. His response was simply this:
"Mom some people are capable of certain things and some just aren't".
That from my six year old. I guess that means he's not going to try. He's very resistant to things that might be difficult because he is fine motor delayed and some gross motor skills just might not come at all, like the ability to ride a two wheel bike because his sense of self awareness and where his body is in space is different than ours.
Last summer when Korbin was 4 he said "Mom I want a motorcycle". I replied "you can't have a motorcycle you still have training wheels on your bike." He said "fine I'll just take them off then!" And he did! He started riding a two wheeler that day!
I asked Tayton if he would like to try riding with no training wheels. He had another simple response:
"Mom, my bike doesn't have training wheels, it's a tricycle!"
I've mentioned before that my oldest son has Sensory Integration Disorder. I've worked my tail off to get him to a point where most people have no idea he's any different from every other six year old. This is great except when people assume he's just being bad or acting out and that I should have more control over him.
This is Tate's fourth year in school. He went through two years in a special education pre-k in Alaska and progressed into a mainstream kindergarten last year. We put him in kindergarten with the plan to retain him, do kindergarten again and then promote him to first grade when he was 6. Well school in many respects is going fantastic for him lately. He is reading at the top of his class, his hand writing is improving greatly despite his fine motor delays. Socially he's coming along too and talks to adults much more frequently. He attempts to talk to other kids but is more drawn to kids older than him. He's nervous about a lot of things and gets really clingy whenever we go out and about.
Today it was time to go to school and he cried and cried because I was letting his daddy take him to school instead of me taking him to school. These little changes in his day are tough but sometimes they need to happen. Now I feel guilty for sending him off to school this way but I know that it's important to let him try new things.
His brother on the other hand tells me that I don't need to walk him to class (pre-school) and that he's big enough that he know's how to find his class. Tate on the other hand won't even walk two steps in front of me down the hallway. How can two boys raised exactly the same be so completely different?
Thanks for stopping by! Please leave a comment or two or twenty!
I'm a mom of two wild little boys that are my world! My husband is in the Army which makes my wild boys a little more wild due to lack of consistency in their life. My oldest is 7 and has been diagnosed with sensory integration disorder along with an anxiety disorder. He's an awesome kid and I wouldn't change him for the world! My baby is now 6 and is a typical 6 yr old boy.....wild, curious, and hilarious! My day never lacks an adventure!
Korbin at work on family day with Kirke.
