Archive for May 15th, 2009

First and foremost, a huge and heartfelt thank you to everyone who commented on the post about A’s borked digestion. From the virtual hugs to the “I’m there with you ’cause my own kid is dealing with this” to “here, what about this,” I can’t express how grateful I am for the support, and I’m slowly replying to all the comments. I’m going to investigate all suggestions, but the plan for now is to take A to the homeopath who works with my acupuncturist. I spoke to her a few months ago about homeopathy and ADHD kids/funky digestion. At the time we were in the process of getting A checked out by the EE team at Children’s and didn’t pursue that path. Now we’re going down that path, right now the only path I see.

Today is a day for looking forward. It’s the last day of school. Yes, on May 15th, a week before the rest of the district and two weeks before the charter school he attended last year. I am less than pleased. A’s school gets out today because they are adding four new classrooms to the brand new building and they need the kids out. There’d damned well better be construction trucks beepbeepbeeping outside my window tomorrow at o’dark thirty or I’m gonna be pissed. Let ‘em out early? Then get out here and get your butts working, I don’t care if we’re supposed to get rain tomorrow.

Ahem. End rant. Back to looking forward. The summer begins today and I’m a wee bit terrified. Last summer was horrific, through piss poor planning on my part. Not enough for the boys to do. It was also when I began drinking copious amounts of wine.  And…looking on my calendar, nothing planned for Monday. There may very well be Kahlua in my coffee that morning. Once June starts, however, plenty planned: family vacation, summer camps, that sort of thing.

There will also be things like getting A retested at the Gifted Development Center. I met with the gifted/talented coordinator and the counselor at A’s school last week and it was less than ideal. His scores on their “to qualify for the GT program” tests were so abysmal that we should have been checking for a pulse, not giftedness. I could have told them that that would have been the case. And the only thing that kept them from treating me like a raving mad hatter was the results of the previous testing, with Gifted Development Center splashed across the top. I like and respect both of them, but I know their hands are tied by district policies, so if they have to play the district’s game, I’ll play it too and win. He’s getting retested and by the time school starts back up, we’ll have proof and a game plan for both home and school.

There will be things like the library’s reading program, where both boys will read until I have to surgically remove books from their hands. J did his reading test for kindergarten and the preschool teacher who administered it to him came out astonished. J is reading at beginning of 1st grade level right now, and I suspect he’ll be at end of 1st grade level by the time school starts. Again, thank GOD he got into full-day kinder, or he’d be bored to tears.

There will be lessons on dealing with little fucking children I want to send into orbit bullies. There were a few  incidents with A last week and I’m still holding myself back from tearing out the throats of the little fuckers calling the parents. I have tender-hearted children, and bullying could break them.

I will be holding summer school, admission one. I’ve been amassing quite the library on twice-exceptionalities and it’s time to read, understand, and regurgitate them back out. With A’s testing this summer and the subsequent back-and-forth with the school, informed will win. Plus it’s embarrassing as hell to have that many books that have never been cracked. I’m a sucker for Amazon.

There will be yoga, both just for me and with the boys. I love my teacher (through her I learned the techniques to get through childbirth when J decided to be born so fast I didn’t get so much as a Tylenol). Both the cherubs need to learn to focus and calm themselves, but let’s face it, this is for A…and for me. I desperately need this.

Rosie the Bagel Dog will be trained, so she doesn’t continue to pull on her leash like she did on Wednesday when I took her for a walk…and now have a badly strained right shoulder. Can’t lift it. Good thing she’s cute.

And, finally, there will be all the usual summer stuff: swimming, playing, hiding in the basement when the temperature hits 90+ for the umpteenth day, movies, growing vegetables, and running through the sprinkler. Through all that I’ll be learning how to use my camera, for I just don’t have enough pictures of my sons.

School is out in two hours and 21 minutes. For three months and four days.