Thank You

I think five is a good age to start having the kiddo write his own thank you letters (vs two word notes). It's a great way to work on his letters, and it is as good a time as any to teach him that thank you's aren't something we just say in person, we also send notes when needed.

Two pieces of paper long, it took him 30+ minutes to do, and he is extremely proud of himself for writing it. I am going to let him put the stamp on the envelope, and put it in the mailbox. Thank you G.G. for giving us another first in his life - his first actual thank you letter.

Sitting Pretty

Cupcake is learning quickly. She turned 10 weeks old this past Tuesday (28th), and she is about 95% potty trained. I say that because she has not had a single accident since last Friday, and she's consistent in asking to go out when she needs to poop... still she IS only 10 weeks so I expect a few more weeks of extra positive reinforcement are in order before I can count her 100% trained.

Usually she gets her food and water picked up at 7pm, and she gets a last potty break/walk at 8:30. She goes to bed as soon as she's in from that trip. Then she sleeps through the night in her crate with no accidents, waking around 7:30am for her morning walk/potty trip.

The most exciting thing is that she's finally gone from the baby mental state to that of a toddler. What I mean by that is that she's now teachable! She has begun learning come, and sit, and is doing great with them. She is also learning "out" (as in get out of my kitchen) and of course the big one "no bite".

The big problem with our little girl is that she is a dominant dog. More then that she is hyper alert and gets distracted very easily. The commands we are working on she does very well with indoors but does awful outdoors where any little sound can cause her to flip around to figure out what it is. I think patience and consistancy will be key with it all, she IS still very young and with a little luck we can train her to focus. I'm hopeful that doing so will not be too difficult, but unfortunatly it's a personality trait vs a learned behavior so it will take a lot of work.

The other day the Kiddo received a card in the mail from his Great Grandma C. It was a pleasant surprise. In it she wrote how proud she was of him for how he's grown and how brave he is for taking his shots every day to help with it. His grin was ear to ear as I read that to him. She also sent a check and said that he could spend it on himself or his puppy. He said to me "mommy, can we buy Cupcake a shirt?"

Not a bad idea kiddo!! She IS permitted by law to go places most dogs aren't (service dog privilages) and the more places we take her the calmer she'll be with new situations. Last week we took her with us to our nephews football game. Normally posted as a "no dogs" area, Cupcake is aloud to be there. She did amazing. She curled up between our chairs and calmly laid there playing with her chew toy regardless of the cheering and noise. Still, to avoid getting harassed about it (and to save us having to explain) it would be a good idea to get a "working dog in training please ask to pet) vest for her (a "shirt"). I did some research, found a relatively inexpensive place to buy one and let the Kiddo pick the color. He is very excited that we are getting her exactly what he wanted, and I am happy that it will have the information written on it that we need displayed. Not to mention an attached medic alert tag with his information.

Two birds, one stone... and one very cute dog who is learning fast.

Medical Plans

We ended up having our medical plan meeting with the Kiddos school this morning and I think it went very well. We had the teacher, principal and nurse all in the same room and they seemed to really listen to everything we had to say, they also asked a lot of questions. We took in a folder with a sheet listing all of his medical conditions (with a brief explanation), plus a short form explaining secondary AI and the signs and symptoms of low cortisol. I asked his teacher to keep a notebook so that if she noticed any change in behavior she can note the time and day... that way we can have figure out if there are any patterns and alter his medication to compensate if needed.

His teacher, the new one, hadn't had anybody mention his conditions yet (aside from a quick, that child is the Kiddo, keep an eye on him we're having a meeting to explain things soon) but she'd listened to what she HAD been told and had been watching him. She said the information we gave her today explained a LOT and she was really glad to have it and understand him more. Knowing what his "limitations" are (vision) and understanding "why" he gets the way he does (with his focus etc) makes it a lot easier for her to teach him.

All in all I honestly think it's almost a good thing that I hadn't been extra dosing him as much as I should have been... she was able to experience him at his "worst" and that helps her understand every thing far better then just having us explain it could have.

(big truck? small kid?)

doctors and dogs

The Kiddo took Cupcake to her first vet visit yesterday. As usual she was an instant hit with everybody. I gather a Beagle/Shih-tzu mix is not a common thing, and she has a very unique look because of it. The doctor said she is extremely healthy, he did an entire check eye, nose, mouth, teeth, heart, ribs, knees, etc etc etc and it was almost like he was surprised at how well everything checked out. Maybe he was just trying to impress us with how happy he was with her but he really did go on and on about her good health and behavior.

(9 weeks old, 5lbs 7oz)

At any rate I do like the place, it was clean and the staff was nice. The people coming in and out with their dogs seemed happy, and the animals didn't appear to be too freaked out by being there. It doesn't hurt that they are 5 minutes from our apartment either.

I should add that as proud as the Kiddo is of his recent growth and the things he can do with it (he tells complete strangers about how he can now reach the potty to pee without using his stepstool)... he is equally proud of the pound that Cupcake has gained in the last three weeks, and brags about her to anybody who will listen. I think he has definitely made the connection with her that we were hoping he'd make. Score one for the parents!

learning

A few videos to show how school is going this week

(the days of the week song)

(crank of the volume, he sings this one extremely quietly)

(Kiddo's teacher sent this home yesterday)

trying...

It's been a difficult month, and I think all the stress is effecting the Kiddo a little. The Man was gone for several weeks, we got the new puppy, and he started school.
Every day we sit down before school and practice writing his name. I've noticed his focus is very poor and seems to be worse then it was a few months ago. As it is he gets a couple letters and starts messing around.

I had a thought though, this afternoon. I wonder if it's time for his hydrocortizone dose to be increased. One of the symptoms of adrenal insufficiency, when it is not medicated properly, is difficulty concentrating. Of course, as far as I understand it, all kids his age have problems focusing to some degree or other. But his seems to be extreme. He was prescribed his current dose last August and since then (well since May when we started his growth hormone shots) he's grown quite a bit. The dose level is determined by height and weight... to me it seems like it could be possible that his dose is to low and contributing to his problems with school work.

At any rate we have to wait until the middle of next month to be able to ask his doctor about it. But I WILL be asking, he's had far more "oops I forgot my pants" instances then I like to admit. I don't think they are all him just trying to be funny... and I hate the idea of putting him in time out every five minutes for the rest of his life (which is one of my ways of trying to help him refocus)... it really really makes homework time drag on.

20 minutes a day

It's time for a test on how bored you are. I mentioned in an earlier post that the Kiddo reads every day for 20 minutes. He's getting so that he can finish an entire book within that time. So I video taped it today for you, in three parts... that way if you want to watch just one section you can, but if you want to watch them all, and you have the time to spare, you can watch em all.

[[okay so I can't get part one to load, I'm working on it but I'm going to go ahead and publish this post with the other videos while I continue to try, sorry bout that]]
The Kiddo Reading (part 1)



The Kiddo reading (part 2)

The Kiddo reading (part 3)

a conversation

Since we taught him to pee standing up the Kiddo has used a little stepstool in front of the toilet to make sure he was high enough to aim IN vs hitting the edge. The other day I walked into his bathroom just as he finished and I noticed that the stepstool was pushed in front of the sink vs in front of the toilet where it usually is.

me: um Kiddo... did you just pee without standing on the stepstool??!!

Kiddo: yep! it wasn't there and I didn't have to move it, I can reach.

me: holy smokes, I didn't realize you'd grown that much. That's so cool!!

Kiddo: yeah, I'm so proud of myself because I grew *happy grin*

*yeah yeah I know, the picture doesn't really relate to the story, but I don't have any new "growth" pictures and this one is pretty cute. The socks are supposed to make his hands look more like bumblebee hands.

home ... work

The Kiddo's new teacher sent home the weekly class letter on Monday. In it she wrote that this week they are starting their reading program, the goal is 20 minutes a night. She says it doesn't have to be the kids reading to themselves, but that they can work on letters, play games (that have letters in them) or have their parents read to them. I thought that was a little silly, if the goal is to work on the kids reading then shouldn't the KID be reading? Of course it's just possible I'm biased (since the Kiddo can read fairly well). At any rate every afternoon he does his own reading, out loud, sitting next to me, for 20 minutes. It's a good feeling and one of my favorite parts of the day.

In addition his teacher said that this week they are working on writing their names. The Kiddo is great at writing when it's the upper case letters, but he struggles a little with lower case. That's my fault, I didn't make him work on them before. At any rate every day this week we've done home made name worksheets. I printed out some lined paper (kindergarten spacing helps) and wrote his name on the top line. He writes his name four times to finish filling out the paper.

Tuesday as we began this exercise I reminded him that the first letter of his name is a mommy letter (capital) but that the rest are all baby letters (lower case). His response: "that's right, the first letter is the mommy, and the rest have to be babies so she can carry them"

Yep, he definitely has an imagination. But if it helps him then it's a good thing, and it does help... it reminds him that the baby letters have to be smaller as well as lower case or they'll be too heavy for the the mommy letter to lug around.