Day: November 27, 2006

This evening I was sitting with Patches while he was eating a bedtime snack. I like to sit with him and have little conversations. It never ceases to amaze me what these conversations reveal about his understanding (or misunderstanding) of how the world works. Sometimes they aren’t so much conversations as monologues. Patches will sit there talking to himself, expressing each thought out loud as it is caused by the previous one. Tonight was a monologue night. He sat with his ice cream. He’d say something, then use the time when he was eating a spoonful to ponder on what he’d said and it’s implications on the world as a whole.

All this is very adorable and sweet, except for the fact that tonight’s topic for thought was exactly how it might be possible to put poop on a stick.

Today has been a day of trying to get back to normal around here. It was more or less successful. But because Mondays are early out days and also contain two gymnastics lessons, I always end Mondays feeling a little frazzled and tired of driving places in the car. Tuesdays are a little better, but it is usually Wednesday before I really feel settled into the week. I’m hoping to slow things down some in January by putting Gleek and Link into the same Art club rather than separate Gymnastics lessons. Conveniently this art club will sandwich right between Link’s pick up from School and Kiki’s pick up from School. So potentially Mondays will be much nicer in January. BUT even though Monday’s are always tiring, at least this Monday was tiring in the familiar way rather than in a new and different stressful way.

It has now been two weeks since Link’s first dose of ADD medication. The first couple of days were a little frightening with how focused he was. He has settled down quite a bit since then. He was off the medicine for a couple of days during our Thanksgiving holiday. He slept 12 hours straight both days that he was off. He also complained that I forgot to give him his medicine. He was complaining because he couldn’t think or talk the way he wanted to be able to do. So far the only real drawback I’ve seen to the medication is increased difficulty getting him to settle down to sleep. Last night I went to check on him about an hour after tucking him in and he was sitting up in bed carefully organizing his shelf. On one hand, he’s never been very good at organizing and there he was doing a marvelous job. On the other hand, he was supposed to be sleeping.

Link’s teacher is amazed at the difference she sees. He’s right on task and happy most of the days. This is a vivid contrast to how he used to be. I concur. I am continually amazed at the ways I don’t have to slow down or simplfy so that Link can process what is happening. So mostly medication has been a positive experience thus far. Obviously I intend to monitor things closely because he is still growing and changing. What works perfectly now may not work so well in a few months.

Now I’m eyeing Gleek and wondering if she has ADHD. It might explain why she is so frequently a handful. I’ve been mentally listing symptoms and I’ll bet she has 8 or 9 out of the hypothetical list of12. I’m not ready to begin pursuing diagnosis on her yet because I don’t know that a child as young as she is can be adequately diagnosed for ADD due to developmental immaturities. Also I’m concerned that I may just being seeing this because medication made life with Link so much easier and I’d like Gleek to be easier to deal with. The gripping hand is that I’m just not ready to introduce another large change into our lives before Christmas. When things settle after the holidays I’ll see where we’re at.