Information Overload

So, this has been a crazy month for the people in my house. Atticus has been suspended 4 days in three weeks, and I've got an official diagnosis for him. Autism Spectrum (AS), Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD), ADHD and insomnia.  That was quite a lot to handle. I know that I'm not the only parent who has heard those words, or that ever will, but it's quite the information to take in.

My month has been nothing but non-stop appointments, suspensions, phone calls and filling out paperwork.. and that doesn't even include my day job! (Although at this point I'm not sure what to call my day job anymore, running around the medical health system for information or actual working where I'm employed!) This much information is hard to handle, so I've turned to my Mom super power - organizational binder!

I've created a binder to help with this information overload. There are quite a few categories, but these are the ones that I found helpful: Therapist, Psychiatrist, School, Pediatrician, Hope Community Resources (local group that helps people with disabilities), Stone Soup Group (another Anchorage local group that helps parents with kids with special needs), Individual Education Plan (IEP) papers, Parent Reports (especially helpful when trying to describe his behavior to everyone), and TEFRA information (a health insurance supplement).

I feel better with the binder set in place, but it still doesn't help the craziness that my family is going through right now. We're back to searching for the right medication, adjusting therapy times, and trying to survive kindergarten. We're about half way through, but to be realistic I'm concerned for next year already. I'm sure every parent of a SPED child is like that!

Thanksgiving is almost upon us then the craziness of the Christmas holiday is here. We're still waiting for snow up here (Yes, Alaska has no snow in the middle of November... so weird!) but once that falls it'll really feel like winter. I'm hoping this year he'll be willing to get outside and build a snowman or sled. I think it'd help him get through the rest of kindergarten if I can get him outside during the winter break a much as possible. We'll see. In the mean time I'll keep fighting the battle of information overload with my awesome red (and organized) binder. Bring it on!

Kindergarten - Five Year Survival Rate

Ok, we're here and nothing major has been broken or damaged! SWWEEEEEETTT!!!! Atticus started kindergarten yesterday and man was he excited. He strolled into that gym for Campfire in the morning like he owned the place. :) it made me so proud. 

This morning he was equally excited to go to school. So much that he woke up at 4:45.... Ready to go.... Trying to get me out of bed to drive him to school... You know, I used to be a morning person but that changed after becoming a mom. :P 

An Update

It's been a long time since I've updated this blog. It's been a while for two reasons. The first is time. I've been quite busy with school, work, Atticus, and Atticus's school. The second is that I am not quite sure how I want to proceed writing this blog. This blog started out as a way to update my son's father about what's going on. At time went by, the relevance of writing for that reason alone seemed silly. I then wrote as a way to keep family updated. That worked for awhile, but I was essentially repeating everything I was saying on Facebook. What is the point in writing the same thing twice? 

So here I am. I'm not sure which way to proceed. There has been so much that has happened, and so much that will continue to happen. Atticus is going in for his big testing tomorrow, and I will admit I'm nervous about it. I've waited almost nine months to have Atticus seen, and now that it's here I'm nervous. The fear I'm feeling comes from being overwhelmed with the decisions I have to make. When it comes down to it, I'm the one that has to make the decisions for my son's life and the help that he gets. I alone can make that decision... I... alone.... That keeps resounding in my brain. I alone.....

 I wish I knew someone who has gone through my situation with Atticus that I could talk to, confide in, and receive support from. I have yet to find that person. Maybe blogging about what's happening, and how his life changes and grows will help. Who knows, maybe these words will end up in the ears of someone of a similar situation. The only way to know is to give it a shot, so here I go. 

Atticus will go through nuropsych evaluations all day tomorrow. I get the results on September 6th. Maybe I will finally have answers to so many  unanswered questions. 

Christmas 2012

So here we are, the day after Christmas 2012, and I've decided to take up working on Atticus's Adventures, thanks to my sister Ali for the encouragement.  A lot has happened since the last post. There has been so much that I cannot even remember it all, but let's start with Black Friday.

My parents went Black Friday shopping, so my mini-man came to work with me. He sat there with chocolate milk and his puzzle, acting like he was the boss of the place. He always likes coming into work with me, but man it's a challenge keeping him quiet and still!

The only other thing I can remember to point out is his "unique" way of fashion. Half the time he dresses better than myself, popping his collar like a stud or wearing his hat like he's cool. Then there are the other times... where he could use a little fashion advice from his Aunt Ali. One day he decided he was going to wear a pirate hat, his winter coat, sweatpants with one leg smashed up, a Hawkeye's colored scarf, and camouflage snow boots. Even I couldn't come up with an outfit that crazy!

This brings up to Christmas Eve. We set out cookies for Santa, a glass of milk, carrots, celery, and one olive (Atticus insisted) for the reindeer. Atticus tried to stay up to see Santa, to prove that he was real, but he ended up falling asleep within half an hour of watching a movie.

Christmas morning Atticus woke up before me and came out to the living room. A friend of mine had sent me a text message and woke me up. I went out to the living room and there Atticus was, laying on the couch in the dark, no tv, no nothing. I asked him what he was doing and said "Santa isn't here". I told him that Santa doesn't stay, he just stops by, drops the presents off, eats the cookies and then leaves. Atticus didn't believe me and seemed disappointed. I asked him if he saw any new presents. He said no. I then told him to look at the table. He got up and looked at the table and saw a Scooby Doo doll on the table resting on top of a few presents. His face lit up and he excitedly said "Santa was here!" Whew! I'm glad that was all figured out. He opened Santa's gifts, then the gifts from each other, then over the creek and through the round-a-bout to Grandmother's house we went!

At Grandma's house he opened his gifts from Memaw and was excited about the electronic Angry Birds toothbrush he got. He finished opening those gifts and then Aunt Ali, Devin and Milo came downstairs. He was pretty excited to see them again.

As soon as Aunt Amanda and Uncle Shaggy got to Grandma's house the rest of the presents were opened and breakfast was served. The present that took the top of the cake was the remote control Honda car that Uncle Shaggy and Aunt Amanda got him. The car is as long as his legs are! It is also incredibly fast. Atticus was trying to drive it and was instead crashing it into everything possible. He managed to make all three dogs very nervous with that car! The second best gift was also from Aunt Amanda and Uncle Shaggy. It was an indoor military tent. Atticus made me put it up in his room the same day (which entailed me cleaning and rearranging his room most of the afternoon).

After the presents were opened, Atticus seemed to be acting very tired. For a child that is incredibly hyper, clever, and curious this is not normal. We figured that he was just tired from three rounds of opening gifts. When I brought him home I realized that he had a fever of 101.5. This meant he had to sit on the couch all day, with medicine. This also meant that he was not able to play with his new Christmas toys. Atticus was upset, and it was quite the challenge trying to keep him still.

Today he's still sitting home sick, and me finally finding the time to catch up on writing his blog. Hopefully he's better tomorrow, but only rest will tell.

Four Wheeler and a BB Gun

Atticus and I have been pretty busy lately doing a lot of fun things.

I started sketching again... I haven't sketched in almost six years. It was quite the stress relief, so I think I'll have to continue with it. They're not the best sketches I've ever done, but the point is that I'm starting to feel like myself again. I'm looking forward to going bike riding, sketching, traveling to Homer, Seward, and anywhere else I feel like taking us. I think this summer is going to be fantastic.
Atticus started Special Education classes, and gets to ride the bus. He is so excited about that. He goes two hours a day, five days a week. The cool part is that he already had a friend in his class, Koda. He will be working on speech therapy and social/behavioral issues. I'm really hoping this helps. During the week he's been much better, so maybe this is a sign of easier times coming. :)
Atticus went on his first trip to the Library with my Mom. Mom got a job at the Loussac Library, so she let Atticus check out a few things. He ended up with a book on CD, a few DVD's and a bunch of books. Mom said that he had such a great time that I'll have to go get both of us our own library cards.
We went the other day to feed the ducks and geese that have come back. Atticus was excited, and loved throwing the bread out as far as he could. (Of course he had to sneak a few bites in himself!) There was one goose that was trying to beat up the other geese, but Atticus made sure to tell him it it's not nice to hit.
Grandpa also taught Atticus how to shoot his BB gun this weekend. Rest assured Atticus is still a few years away from being able to (or allowed to) shoot it on his own, they had a blast. Atticus actually managed to hit something (I'm pretty sure it was the tree) and that made Grandpa excited. I can see those two sitting on the desk shooting coffee cans in the future. Grandma was a little paranoid and rolled her eyes at Grandpa teaching him so young to shoot the BB gun.
Ali and Devin came home this weekend too. Atticus was SO excited to see them. All week he was talking about Ali and Milo coming home. He got to play with Ali and did not hesitate to start walking Milo around like he was his dog. Ali bought a four wheeler while in Anchorage and Atticus kept calling it a "motorcycle". While it was in Ali's truck she let Atticus come up and sit on it with her.
Atticus and I went to Sky's 5th birthday party at the Alaska Club. I was doing face painting for the party, and Fabi (Sky's Mom) had made these cute crowns for the boys and fairy halos for the girls. Atticus had a blast. We got there and started playing immediately. When he came to me to get his face painted he said that he wanted to have his birthday party here again this year. Well, I guess that decision is made for me! :)
My Mom always find the best stuff stuff at Value Village. She managed to find a UND Fighting Sioux hoodie in the children's section. I tried it on and it's the same size as my other UND sweatshirt. So, even thought it was supposed to be Atticus's in a few years, I'm going to pay my mom and keep it for me. :P
Garrett brought over his Eevo over and Atticus had a blast sitting in it. It's a right hand drive car from Japan. (Yes, it's illegal in the USA, but their car is legal. They have insurance, tags, and it's registered. LONG STORY)
Finally, that brings us to today. Atticus decided that he was going to bring me "coffee" in bed. He showed up with his little plastic measuring cup, with a plastic apple in it, and said that it was coffee for me. Then he crawled up into bed with me and gave me a hug. I'd say that's a great way to start the day out. :)

Easter 2012

Happy Easter and happy birthday to my Dad! It was quite the day today for Atticus and I. Atticus spent last night at my parent's house so I could go out with a few of my girl friends. This morning, however, was pretty fun. I put together Atticus's Easter bucket, slapped some blue bunny ears on my head and showed up at my parents door. Atticus screamed with joy, stole my ears, and started hopping around the house.

Atticus unloaded his bucket from me and was highly excited about it's contents. He received two Angry Birds t-shirts, a hot chocolate t-shirt, an Angry Birds flashlight, A Scooby Doo DVD with episodes where Scooby meets Batman, a Thomas the Train puzzle, some hopping bunnies, and a few other various things. I was totally the cool mom this year. I even got an "I love this" from Atticus about his bucket. :) SCORE! After he dove through my bucket, he showed me the one that Grandma and Grandpa gave him. Man, did that child score on the candy department! It'll last me all year! :P

A little later in the morning Grandma hid a bunch of eggs and Atticus had a little egg hunt in their house. (He had to miss the egg hunt at school and the big Kincade Park one due to evaluations.) After the egg hunt he went into melt down mode and we came home.

Once we were home, Atticus had another mini egg hunt in our house. He was pretty excited that he got two egg hunts in one. Atticus also had some visitation time with his father, Chris. Atticus was excited to unload his entire Easter bucket in front of the video to show it off. He also met Chris's mother, Leigh, over the video chat. That lasted for about 20-30 minutes, then Atticus was spent. I think, with the amount of sugar already in his system, that it went fairly well. :)

The rest of the day wasn't so well, lots of melt downs, but that's ok. :) He had some pretty funny moments. For starters, he decided he was going to sit on the rim of the bucket... and ended up getting his butt stuck in the bucket. Then he decided that he was going to put it on his head, scream, and run around. Yeah.. that worked well. He ran into the couch, bounced off it, and landed flat on his back. Quite comical, I was laughing so hard I was crying. LOL!

He's in bed now and I always think he looks like such an angle when he sleeps. Tomorrow's a new day, so we'll have to wait and see if he remembers the eggs that he dyed with Grandma in the fridge. He was saying that he wanted to take them to school to eat.