Updates

Hello blog readers. I'm sorry I've been neglecting you. For anyone that is still tuning in, here's a quick rundown:
Grace: Loves 1st grade even though her class is "officially" overcrowded. She's rockin with reading and has no problem learning her sight words week to week. Writing and fine motor planning and execution cause her the most trouble. When she can't write or button her pants or pull on a shirt, for example, she reacts and takes it out on others. In the form of pulling Johnny's hair, pinching me, and telling David he makes her want to vomit. Every Friday when the class gets assessed on how well they can read and write that week's "high-frequency" words, Grace's resource teachers (aka special ed teachers) bring a laptop into the classroom and let Grace type out her words. It's been working great.


Johnny: Loves Kindergarten. It helps that his teacher looks a lot like me. Or I look a lot like her. I think she's a couple of years older. He loves learning and we love the kinds of things he's doing at school. He brought home a picture he did in Art class that showed bodies moving and it was an exercise done to introduce the kids to Keith Haring's work. Isn't that great? Johnny beamed when I went to our bookcase and pulled out a book on Keith Haring. It was like, "Wow, my parents are cool."

He's still my cuddly baby, though, who still hasn't gotten his "r's" yet (meaning, he still says, "My favorite centoe at school is the sand centoe.") And he still has dimples on his hands. My baby.

David: Hanging in, kicking ass at work, and really working through some tough things.

Me: I think I'm getting my second life. What I'm about to say deserves an entire blog post so you can understand the reasoning, the science, and the reality behind the fact that I've recently been diagnosed with ADD. In a nutshell, ADD came first. I was born with it and compensated for it for 31 years. In 2003, my body and mind couldn't compensate any more with the physical, emotional, and psychological stress that came with losing my mom and giving birth within a five month period. My adrenal, thyroid, and other systems were forced to take action and now they're depleted. It's all so very fascinating. I have a superb psychiatrist who is providing medication maintenance and I wanted to kiss his feet when he said to me last Thursday that what I've been experiencing is damn real, and that if I don't support my brain and physical systems, I could end up bed-ridden where no amount of my self-determination would do me a bit of good. I'm sticking with this guy.

Work, school, internship, being a mom, a wife, a friend, a sister, a daugther, I'm doing it all. And things are finally looking up.