Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas!

It’s that time of year again, Christmas Eve.. The Kiddo and I are maintaining cheer even though a very important part of our family is missing. We are spending some time each day talking about the meaning of the day and focusing on the things that we do have, rather then the things we do not.

Before the Man left on his trip we went and saw some reindeer, the Kiddo read the ‘info’ signs to the Man.

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After that we went and saw Santa, The kiddo did the usual stuff getting a candy cane and telling him what he wanted (no idea what he said). He even had the opportunity to ask him questions (like why he uses Reindeer to pull his sleigh and not a different animal). Once that was done we had his Santa pictures taken in a very unique way.

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The experience is one of the best memories I have for this year. When the Man gets home from training we will be going back to the same studio to have family pictures taken, they were very creative and great at getting the kiddo to smile and laugh.

Can you figure out who the man in the beard is?

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My ending thought is this, from my heart to yours:

May you celebrate this beautiful season with joy in your home, peace in your world, and love in your heart!

May the New Year bring you everything you wish for....prosperity, happiness, joy and good health.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Oh Christmas tree

The other week we took the Kiddo to the Festival of Trees, it is pretty much a tradition to go every year now and he really enjoys it. I took a few pictures of his favorites.

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When we got home we spent some time decorating his cardboard tree for school..

12-4-2011 chances cardboard tree

A few days later we even got around to decorating our own Christmas tree…

12-10-2011 our tree

The Kiddo and I are both looking forward to Christmas. The Man wont be here but we are planning to set up Skype video chat so that he can still be part of the day.

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And for those of you checking your mail boxes... Christmas cards are going to be late this year. I haven't had the motivation and rather then stressing about it I've decided to do New Years cards instead.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Responsibility

I must admit I am a little surprised about the lack of responsibility shown by so many parents regarding their children and school. I hold the Kiddo home when he has a temperature, and occasionally he misses *part* of a day when he has doctors appointments. When his teacher gives me his missed classwork I sit him down and have him finish it that day to be turned in the next. I thought this was the way it was supposed to be done, you teach your kids that not going to school isn’t an option unless there’s a significant reason for it. More important you teach your kids that the work they do in school is their responsibility and that being sick doesn’t give them a free ride.

I have that mini rant going through my head this week because of the note the Kiddos teacher sent home on Monday. In the note Mrs. H pointed out that there are a lot of kids who are constantly tardy or absent and that when this happens it negatively impacts their learning. She reminded us (the parents) that if a child misses class work they are required to finish it during recesses until it is finished. Then she requested the parents of the kids who are missing the most school to ‘volunteer’ their time during recess to help the kids finish their work so that she has more time to finish the things she needs to get done during that time. I think it was a note full of awesomeness, this teacher is not afraid to call out the slacker parents! Nor is she afraid to remind them that they are teaching their kids bad habits and irresponsibility. I doubt it will actually help, it isn’t like she can force the parents to come in, but I think it’s a great try.

Speaking of responsibility… This past month the Kiddo has been taking his dog out for her first potty trip as well as her afternoon trips. I find myself only taking her out when it is far to cold for him, or it is dark. He is proud that he is taking care of her on his own and he runs back inside beaming with excitement when she actually goes for him. Once it finally snows it will be my full time job again, but until then I have a responsible and adorable little helper (even if he is crazy wearing shorts when it is so cold out!).

11-26-2011 taking his dog out (1)

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Brain Scan #2 (mine)

Several posts ago I shared the results of the Kiddos quantitative eeg. I thought it was an extremely interesting process and was fascinated by the results. Most insurance doesn’t cover the testing or the analysis so we were lucky to get it done and being able to ‘see’ how his brain is working still seems like a rather special treat.

So because our insurance does cover the scan and because most people that know me would tell you that the Kiddo gets his ADHD from me I thought about having it done myself… The thing is I am functional; I use alarms, calendars, notes and lists and I get everything done that needs doing. Very rarely does anything big fall through cracks. This being the case most people would question going through the diagnosis process. I have one brother who is as fascinated by the idea as I am, I have another that pretty much told me I was an idiot for being willing to let that ‘condition’ be officially diagnosed and put on my record.

Personally I do not see ADHD as a negative thing I believe that if it can be controlled then it can actually be beneficial. Being able to think and do multiple things at once means that you respond better under pressure. Crisis situations are easier to deal with because if one part of your brain locks down the other parts still work to solve the problem. If you can control the negatives (prioritizing and distractibility) then you can actually be a higher functioning individual then those without AHDH. It is all in how you view it, use it, and control it!

So I had my brain scanned. The QEEG itself was an interesting process, as I mentioned with the Kiddo they place a cap with electrodes onto your head. The electrodes measure your brain waves, you can see them jump when you blink or move. Once I was hooked up I had sit still with my eyes closed for 10 minutes (the tech ended up having to put cotton balls over my eyes to help them stay still). Once that was done I was supposed to sit as quietly as I could with my eyes OPEN for ten minutes (with as little blinking as possible). Having my eyes open was the hardest part but somehow I made it through.

Once the test was done I was sent home, I didn’t receive the analysis for two weeks. I wondered if my form of ADHD was the same as the Kiddos. I wondered if I even had ADHD, I mean I was fairly certain I did but what if I didn’t? Finally two weeks passed and it was time for the results…

The doc discussed the difference between beta waves, and theta waves; if I remember correctly theta waves are the ones that indicate daydreaming or random thought (v.s. focused thought). He pulled out a graph and showed it to me. It shows the ratio levels between theta and beta waves. There’s a dotted line there in the middle that indicates what the normal ratio would be, slightly above that line is another solid line which is where they “begin diagnosis of ADHD”, generally plus or minus a bit.

Theta graph

Then he went all the way to the top of the paper and wrote a number (circled here in yellow). I’ll admit I started laughing, no WAY doc!! He grinned at my reaction, yep my theta wave measurements were so high I’m not even on the chart. He told me that the level really doesn’t matter, it’s somewhat like being pregnant you either are or you aren’t… still I can’t help but chuckle, I mean good gosh off the chart?? yeesh!!

The most interesting part of the whole process was finding out that I am polar opposite from the Kiddo. He has a type of ADHD that only 5% of cases have (overactive brain). I have the type that 90% of cases have. Basically while he is sitting there trying to watch twelve tv channels at once, I’ve quickly flipping through them one at a time… I suppose the good news is that I do go back through the channels so I tend to finish my thoughts and tasks, it’s just done in a disjointed scattered fashion.

The two scan results next to each other are equally fascinating. Remember blue indicates under activity, green is average, and red is over activity. The first picture is the Kiddos results, I boxed in the important part that shows his high over activity in the Beta range. The second picture is my results, again I boxed in the important part to show the high activity in the Theta range.

Chance QEEG…………Gw qeeg

The lower pictures have something to do with neuron movement. I’m not perfectly clear on the meaning but I believe that since he is over active Beta his are fewer but mine are moving so fast because they are related to Theta. If I knew more about neurology I’d understand better, mostly it’s just fun to see the differences between the two types and how they show up.

I suppose the biggest thing I learned through this is why I am doing so much better in school now (online classes) vs when I was in a physical classroom. With online home schooling I can get up and wander, get distracted and refocus myself … without missing out on information or losing points. Even with the final exams, which are timed three hour multiple choice tests, I can wander out and come back (so long as I monitor the clock to ensure I have enough time left to finish). I have found that I do my best schooling when the Kiddo is home because I have that one extra thing to pay attention too. It really does explain a lot!

The doc DID prescribe medication for me to try if I wanted. It IS a stimulant and it could cause me to have mood swings, excessive fatigue, and lack of appetite. I did fill the script but I haven’t decided yet if I want to take them. The key thought is that using medication to control the ADHD for one month doesn’t mean I would have to continue to use it after that point. Mostly I filled the script because I think it would be interesting to see how it feels to have normal focus; knowing what I “can do” could drive me to try to do better without medication.

At the very least through all of this I was able to have an interesting experience. Think about it how many parents can say they’ve seen how their child's brain functions and been able to compare it to their own? It’s just one more tool for me to use to help my child learn and grow. Very cool!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

What’s new

It has been a busy past couple weeks and my motivation for blogging has been non existent. I’d like to fill you in on everything that has happened; this process will probably take a couple entries :)

The Kiddo’s sinus infection is back, this time with a friend (ear infection). Normally he is a pretty healthy kid so the amount of time he has spent sick this winter is astounding to me. I hope the antibiotics kick it all the way out this time and he manages to stay healthy for Christmas.

Last month we put the Kiddo into hapkido lessons at the community center. We thought he might enjoy learning and we have read a lot about martial arts helping develop focus (not to mention coordination and stamina).

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He does seem to enjoy the classes but he says they are too long. I think his ‘problem’ is that the class is a mix of all age and ability levels so there is a lot of standing around waiting while the instructor works with the older kids. Hopefully he will get better at waiting and learn more patience. I think we are going to skip having him go this month and start him again in January, by then hopefully he will be healthy again and we also should be able to buy him a uniform.

On the school front the Kiddos class had their Thanksgiving program. His float turned out super cute and I am very proud of him for how creative he was with putting it together. He drew a picture of what he wanted and then we figured out together how to do it, I was leery about gluing toys to a float but he demanded we do it so that it would ‘look right’.

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His floats title was “if I can read I can fly”. He says that being able to read well is what will give him the ability to do anything he wants to do, he can build robots (to be his friends) or airplanes (to fly to Arizona) or even rocket packs for his feet so he can fly (like Astro Boy has).

11-22-2011 float parade

11-22-2011 Thanksgiving program (1)11-22-2011 Thanksgiving program (2)

I wish I had gotten better quality pictures. The kids pulled their floats through the hallway at school and then put on the program in their classroom. The Kiddo read his intro (he was so nervous) and then the kids presented their floats and sang several songs. It was really a cute program and he loved getting to do it.

Thoughts...

Thoughts Become Things; Choose The Good Ones.