The Daredevil I Can't Control (and neither could you)

Today Leo is a ninja!

Leo is 3 1/2 and a daredevil.  Of all my kids, he is most likely to end up in the emergency room.  I'm grateful for the trips to the ER and urgent care, because the alternative would be my worst fear.  We can't keep Leo from being a daredevil and getting hurt but we do our best.  Leo has ADHD but is too young to be medicated for it, but he also has sensory issues.  He is "sensory seeking"  here is a list of symptoms found on Brain Balance Center's website: 

Hyposensitivities to sensory input may include:

• A constant need to touch people or textures, even when it’s inappropriate to do so

• Doesn’t understand personal space even when same-age peers are old enough to understand it

This is Leo right now telling me, "watch, watch, watch, watch mom!"  He's totally in my face.

• Clumsy and uncoordinated movements

• An extremely high tolerance for or indifference to pain

• Often harms other children and/or pets when playing, i.e. doesn’t understand his or her own strength

• May be very fidgety and unable to sit still, enjoys movement-based play like spinning, jumping, etc.

• Seems to be a “thrill seeker” and can be dangerous at times

I don't think Leo is more clumsy than other 3 year old children, but he definitely exhibits all of the rest of the symptoms.  Leo has gotten staples in the top of his head after falling off the arm of our Lazyboy recliner and hitting his head on the heat register, had surgery for getting an infection where he had his hand smashed in our car door, and we are watching him now to see if we need to take him to the ER for a possible broken foot.  Last night he was standing on one of our kitchen chairs (the tall kind) facing backwards with his feet pointing down through the bottom rung.  He leaned over too far and tipped the chair over.  It looked like he landed directly on the tops of his feet which were smashed under the weight of both him and the chair.

This is the chair

I really expected to see bones coming out of the tops of his feet from the looks of the fall.  He was screaming very loudly and rolling round.  I could tell his feet were in extreme pain.  We live 40 minutes from urgent care and it was snowing and the roads were 100% covered in our area.  I watched his feet for a while.  There was light swelling on one of his feet but no bruising and he was able to bear weight on the other foot.  I decided not to risk the roads to take him to a doctor last night.  This morning, I'm wondering again if I should take him.  He needed ibuprofen for the pain last night as he could not sleep.  This morning he is telling us that it hurts, but it isn't slowing him down much.  He is limping, but is definitely a ninja.  After a quick Facebook poll, I have wrapped his foot in an Ace bandage and given him more pain reliever.  He is happy to be a ninja right now and I'm happy to not expose him to dangerous flu germs at the doctor's office.  I hope I'm making the right decision.  

Leo waiting for emergency surgery after the cut on his hand got infected.  Daddy was TIRED (and scared)!

Leo getting help from a wonderful big sister after surgery.  

Leo is such a danger to himself that as I typed this, his daddy removed both a knife and an extremely sharp cheese grater from Leo.  Tripp already experienced a cut from the same grater.  It was suggested to us by a psychologist (a wonderful one that I love) that Leo should be medicated as soon as possible for his own safety.  Unfortunately, we have to wait 4 more months until he is old enough to take the medications.  Pray for us to help him stay alive until then.  Our biggest problem now is that he gets overwhelmed at stores and will jump out of moving carts and run in to the parking lots.  He is fast and has outrun 4 adults trying to catch him in a busy parking lot once.  He runs unpredictably darting here and there.  I imagine his head exploding like one of Gallagher's watermelons when he is eventually hit by a car and it terrifies me so much, I have decided to not take him to stores until he can be medicated.  After watching a video about sensory overload and stores, I understand why he runs from them.  Here is the video I saw.  It affects at least 1/2 my family including my husband who breaks out in a cold sweat seeing just seconds of it.  

Tip of the day - we learned the hard way from Leo's older brother Tripp, that you should not name a child Tripp if they have ADHD and tend to run from you in public.  Imagine the looks I got from strangers and other parents as I spent 2 years running after my son in public places yelling, "Tripp, Tripp, Tripp!"  They all thought I was cheering for him to fall.

Second tip of the day - never judge a mom who puts a leash on her kids and never say, "can't you control your child" to a mom.  Sometimes they can't and as much as you think that you could, you wouldn't be able to either.

Exercising the (demons) Wiggles

We are in love with Achilles!  Even Max is getting kisses (or Achilles likes the taste of baby snot.  If so, he should be in heaven because it is pouring out of Max's nose like the chocolate in one of those fancy party fountains......I have a story about one of those too - another time)

I was educating myself on husky dog ownership on youtube (and getting sidetracked by videos of people popping gross zits and finding bot flies in their head) and there were several videos of huskies getting bored and eating their owners' couches.  All the videos highly recommended walking and walking and walking huskies - for the safety of furniture everywhere.  They also recommended brushing your dog.  One owner brushed out so much hair that he could me a dog hair angel (like a snow angel) in it afterward.  After seeing this guy brush that much hair off of his dog in his kitchen, I decided to do daily brushing outside after the walks.  I don't really want that much hair in my kitchen.

So, even though it was bitterly cold today, we walked.  This guy has a lot of pulling power and the 2 miles I walk don't make a dent in his energy levels.  I think I need to attach a sled to him and have him pull the kids around.  Seriously - I will be looking into this.

 After contemplating the inversely proportional relationship with husky walking to house destroying, I realized the same relationship exists between Leo walking and mommy destroying.  So I walked my Leo too.  It occurred to me on this walk that Leo doesn't have ADHD.  Leo is just a husky.  But - less brushing, more wiping.

Meals They Will Eat

I am often working hard in the kitchen to make something delicious and new, but am disappointed each night when the kids won't eat what I've made and we end up throwing a lot of food away.  It breaks my back, my heart, and my wallet.  Plus, at least 3 of our kids are very sensitive to hunger.  They don't really recognize and verbalize that they are hungry, but they really act out if they haven't eaten properly.  Also, with the kids being on ADHD medication that makes them not have an appetite, I have to get them to eat whenever I can so they don't lose too much weight.  Otherwise they will have to take a "pill holiday" until they gain weight and a "pill holiday" for them would be a nightmare for the rest of the house.  This week I am trying to keep it simple with my meals and I'm going for having 7 days of successful eating.

Day 1:  Hamburgers and Fries (all homemade) - total success!  All kids ate it and it was easy, and it was inexpensive.

Even Achilles wanted some.  

                                                   Ahhh....He found someone to share with!

Day 2:  Chicken Strips (homemade), carrots, oranges, and mashed potatoes.  All loved it.  All ate it!  Even better - I found out you can freeze mashed potatoes so they were made in advance and all I had to do was thaw them, heat them, and add a bit of instant to them to thicken them up.  I skipped eating  the potatoes and just had strips on a salad

Max was "helping" me cook

I have plans for the next 4 days so far.  The only problem I forsee is Abby not liking taco night, but everyone else loves the next four meals.

Day 3:  Tacos

Day 4:  Polynesian Pork in the crockpot

Day 5:  Homemade Pizzas (pepperoni and Canadian bacon)

Day 6:  Bacon, Eggs, and Rice  (Abby will tell me that she prefers there to be no eggs, but leaving out the eggs would make it be more expensive because I would have to add more bacon and she will eat it either way sooooooo - too bad, Abby.)

If I could get to 10 meals and eventually 30 meals that the whole family likes, I feel like I would be set.  It does seem that they really like me making traditional fast food items.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  I'll let you know how it goes!

New Addition

We got our newest family addition last night - Achilles the dog.  He is a 7 year old red/white Siberian Husky.  So far all has been going well.  He has been wandering around trying to get acclimated.  He would like to play with the cats or the dogs down the street and I think he has been contemplating jumping our fence to do so.  As of right now he is not allowed outside without supervision so he doesn't get to adventurous.  The main purpose of us getting a dog was for Sarah.  She can't sleep at night and it is our hope that Achilles sleeping next to her will help.  She did sleep better last night, but there were complaints of Achilles sleeping in Abby's bed too much.  Sarah is working on training Achilles right now which includes a 2-mile walk every morning.  Today they did well practicing stepping off the path and sitting and holding on to the harness as runners go by.  Both Achilles and Sarah did very well and I was so happy to see Sarah take a walk.  I also used the time to walk my Leo and run off some of his energy.  I think the walkers/joggers might enjoy if I had a harness on him as well as he has been known to jog after a couple for a quarter mile.  Luckily Abby was a long as well and she kept Leo busy playing "eye spy" and learning how to skip.  Unfortunately, Achilles is not worn out from the walk and seems a bit bored.  I know eventually "bored" can turn into "destructive" so I'm trying to keep him busy.  He is not too interested in his toys right now.  He did bring a giant braided chew bone with him, but isn't wanting to chew it.  I've been shoving things in the grooves of it hoping to get him started, but so far he just licks them out.  I tried bacon grease and peanut butter.  I need to find a chew toy he likes.  Hmmmm.........  I wonder if a chew toy would keep Leo busy as well.  Or maybe I could get Achilles into Minecraft.  That seems to keep my other ADHD children busy.

Excuse the messy floors.  We've had lots of toys out for everyone this morning!

Blog Name and our Favorite Games

Our blog is named, "Why is it wet?", but only because "What did I just step in?" was already taken.  These are the two names of our family's most played surprise games around the house.  In fact, I bet either Fred or myself gets to play one of these two games at least once a week.  It used to result in the other spouse running to the playing spouse's rescue and both of us would work to solve the mystery.  Now it happens so often, if one of us finds ourselves as unwitting participants in this game, the other just laughs and hums the theme song we have made up for this game while saying, "It's time to play What Did I Just Step In?!" in our best announcer's voice.  Yes, we actually have a theme song for it.  No, we don't feel sorry for each other anymore.  We are just happy to not be the participant.  No one wants the prize - an all expenses paid trip to cleaning up a mysterious substance.  I wish I could tell you what we step in.  There was a mashed banana in the boys room once.  That was slimy and cold, but most of the times it is slimy and cold.  The baby leaves us spit up puddles quite a bit.  We also play, "Why is it Wet?!" on other surfaces such as tabletops, couches, and seats in the car.  Most of the time, the mystery substance goes unidentified.  We have no idea what is going on.  Maybe we are just getting slimed by a poltergeist and we just need to call in some ghostbusters.  While these two games are annoying, neither compare to the other game we play, but not as often - "Is is chocolate or poop?"  aka "You taste it!"

Spider Venom and Secret Agent Cars

So.....Tripp has been into our hall closet this morning.  He "loaded" his toy shotgun with the rest of the baby powder so it will smoke.  As I was cleaning that mess up, I see him run by with a latex glove.  Playing doctor at a new level?  Get ready for your rectal exams brothers!  No, it is more likely that he is going to fill it with water in the bathroom sink as he has done countless other times (whenever the gloves fall of the top shelf and he can reach them).  So, I go screaming to the bathroom, which now has the door locked and Tripp is yelling, "I need privacy to use the bathroom."  Yeah - right.  So I get him to open the door and I rescue the glove from the sink.  I go on and on telling him that he is not to touch the gloves.  Daddy likes to use them when he is cooking and they cost big money and he is not allowed to used them unless he is de-boning a chicken.  His response?  "Or if there is spider venom."  What the?!?!?  How can I argue with that?  Obviously if we run into a giant spider in the basement and it is spitting venom, we will be allowed to use the gloves.  Mental reminder - maybe have Tripp take a break from watching Eight Legged Freaks.  Then in the next breath he says, "Wouldn't it be great to have a secret agent car?"  Again - I'm not going to argue that.  I think I would like a secret agent car.  Maybe with its own glove dispenser.

*Side note:  The gloves are not diamond studded and cost "big money".  We actually spend very little on gloves, but I always tell the kids that they are wasting my money.  I'm not sure why.  Kind of a parenting remark I got from my parents I guess.  Like, "don't make me turn this car around!" or "I'm going to spank you until your butt bleeds!"  My dad never did spank me until my butt bled, but more on that later.......

Love the Medicine!

Well, now that I am used to my son being medicated for ADD, I have to admit that I love it.  Most of my fears are gone although sometimes it still doesn't feel right to have to medicate him and if there is ever another way, I will be interested in learning about it.  My son has gone from being super active to being quiet and thoughtful.  Now, there is nothing wrong with active at all, but the type of activity that he was demonstrating had something wrong with it.  You could tell that it just wasn't right.  He still gets like this late at night when his medication has worn off.  He eyes dart around the room and with a big smile on his face, he races around doing anything and everything he has ever had the impulse to do.  He doesn't focus on one activity, instead racing from one thing to another knocking things over and throwing things.  When he does something naughty like knock over a sibling or break something, he is immediately upset by it and apologizes profusely and you can tell that he is frustrated with himself.  He can no longer tell me what he is thinking or have much of a conversation at all.  Even if I get on his level and look him in the eyes, his eyes can't look back at me, instead darting around the room.

Most days, my son never gets in trouble anymore.  He is 6, so he makes mistakes here and there, but I've never seen a little guy try so hard to be good all day long.  When he does make a mistake, he is distraught about it often breaking down in tears and curling up in a little ball to have a little cry.  I don't have to raise my voice, I just tell him what he did wrong (this week was running his finger around the plasma screen TV to see the colors change) and when he finds out he did something wrong it just breaks his little heart.  He tells me that he likes his pills because they help him be a "good boy".  He is proud of the way he behaves when he is medicated and he should be.  He has gone from a little boy that I can barely control so I didn't take him to public places much, to a little boy that I can count on to sit quietly for an hour or more if need be (especially if I hand him the right toy - usually my iPod ;-)).

He can also communicate with me now!  I get to hear everything that is going on in his head now.  Sometimes he is still a little slow to get it out, but he loves telling me all sorts of things and will talk all day long about anything that is in his head.  It can be exhausting!  I sure love it though!

Lastly, his test scores at school jumped, doubling and tripling in a matter of weeks.   He was so stalled out on his sight words and then after medication, passed four months worth of words in one week.  Because we didn't medicate him until the last couple of months of Kindergarten, he has a May birthday, and he isn't too big for his age, we have decided to have him repeat Kindergarten.  He could go on to 1st grade, but I know he wants to feel smart and like he is at the head of his class so I'm hoping to boost his self esteem and let him feel that success he craves by letting him try Kindergarten again.

All-in-all, medicating Tripp has been a wonderful decision.  The school, his teachers, and his principal have been supportive, even saying to me that they didn't want to see his personality change (he has always been super friendly and caring - even when not medicated) and they expressed concerns about his lack of appetite (one of the side effects of the medication).  They worked one-on-one with him several times per day to help catch him up.  At one point before trying medication, I considered homeschooling him to help him out, but when I went to the elementary and saw what they were doing with him, I realized that I couldn't have done any better at home.  He goes to a very caring school and I am lucky to have such support for my child.  I also feel lucky that we have a medication that is working and that he likes for the time being.  I understand it may not always go so well as he grows and changes, but at this point, the medication has made it possible for Tripp to be who he wants to be, and that is all a mother could every hope for.