Going under the knife again

Well, next week Makinna is going to have her second surgery this year. Nothing major or life threatening. She is going to have her eye operated on again. Darn thing keeps drifting upward. Poor thing, every time it does it she squints her right eye closed. I call it her "pirate eye". Every time I see her squint I tell her "Arrrgg me hartys" Sometimes she does not find it funny.
But she has trouble with reading and the teacher says she is very well behaved but gets distracted easily. Well, if you were concentrating on a work sheet and all the sudden your vision just went blurry, wouldn't you have trouble concentrating?
I hope this surgery helps her out. I guess we'll find out.

Waiting For The Other Shoe.

Things have been so good lately. We seem to have a good balance with Gage's meds. He's been happy and cooperative for the most part. I've been hearing really good things from school about how good he's doing. Gage and Makinna have even been playing. Life is good. But for how long? I try to enjoy this but I'm afraid to get too comfortable with these changes because they can be gone with the wind at any moment.
My fears were realized last Saturday when Gage woke up in a mood. He was cranky, irritable, and whiny. My heart broke. "Here we go" I thought "back to the tantrums and the crying. I don't think I can handle it." I cried. I cried at the thought of losing my happy little boy to the whiny devil that gives me no rest. He did calm down for a party we went to and did well for trick or treat.
Sunday came and I woke up wondering what the day would bring. What little boy would come out of that room this morning? Turns out it was my sweet little boy. The regression had been just one day. Phew! I felt like I dodged a bullet. Maybe the tide is turning. Maybe God knew I just could not handle going backward. Maybe he was just having a bad day.

Deciding to get back in the Saddle

Well, I've been away from my blog for some time now. Truth be told I've been spending way too much time on Facebook. Many of my friends are there and I update life in a sentence or two daily, but it just isn't as cathartic as blogging. In my blog I can spell it all out, vent or celebrate. So I've decided to begin again. I've missed it. Plus it has spell check.

Crossroads

Gage is now 5 years old and kindergarten is looming on the horizon. All of his differences are staring me in the face. He has come so far in preschool, and lately his language has really taken off but its more and more obvious he is not a typical little boy. This was very apparent to me the other day when I took the kids to swimming lessons. All the preschoolers were lined up on the wall waiting their turn and listening to the teacher. I was holding Gage's hand and talking to a friend waiting for our class to start. Gage was jumping up and down, loudly saying "swimming lessons!" over and over and banging my forearm against his head. This behavior I am used to. Its really no big deal to me but up against all the other (younger) calmer, quieter, children, standing nicely he looked obviously....different.
I often wonder what other people think. Do they think "Oh obviously there is something wrong with that kid." or do they think "that lady must be a horrible parent, look how wild her son is, he just needs a good spanking" I wonder what they would do in my shoes. I wonder how many would just keep their son at home so they wouldn't have to deal with the looks and the exhausting behavior.
But my son deserves to learn to swim just as much as any other kid. He may even need to learn to swim more than other kids. I mean the boy has zero fear of the water and he is fast! Its nothing for him to jump into the deep end and when you get to him and bring him up, he's just laughing and wants to do it again.
I fear for elementary school. I wonder if he will have friends. I wonder if he'll be able to sit long enough to absorb what he needs to to learn.
Next week we will be making the long trek to Kennedy Kreiger Institutes Center For Autism and Related Disorders to meet with their psychiatrist. We are considering medication. Gage is consistently aggressive at home and at school. He has good and bad days but they are about equal. Its taken a lot for me to consider this. And now that we have the appointment he's having a "good" spell, and I wonder if we are doing the right thing. But is it fair to him not to try it? I mean can you really be happy always feeling like you have to jump around constantly, or not being able to control your urges to knock over your friends. How frustrating it must be for him to want to play with another kid and have no idea what to do so he grabs hold of the kids arm and squeezes hard only to be put in time out. He wants to play with other kids, he wants to talk to you and tell how he feels and what he wants. But it just seems that his body and brain are on overdrive and can't slow down long enough to figure it all out.
I guess we'll give meds a try if that's what the doctor recommends. All I know is that I am worn out, his dad is worn out, Makinna is half afraid of him and Gage doesn't act like hes happy. Something has to give.

Best Friends???

So Gage is not known for being gentle with animals,especially our cat Jack. In fact he is way too rough with him. He likes to carry him around and pull him out from under the bed by his tail...well you get the idea. So the other night Gage fell asleep in our bed and this is what I found when I came in to put him in his bed. I thought it was cute and took a picture. Then I showed the picture to Makinna, asking her if she thought it was cute. She says "Gee Mom thats the best I've ever seen those two get along!"
She cracks me up.

Makinna's surgery

So Makinna finally had her tonsils and adenoids out as well as tubes put in her ears. For years I have been after her doctor because the girl still drooled at 6 years old!!! Finally I said to him," I don't think she can breath through her nose." He finally gave me a referral to and ENT. The ENT found that she had fluid on both ears and some hearing loss because of this. He felt her adenoids and tonsils should come out.
Ok so last Friday she has the surgery. After the surgery was over the doctor came out to tell us how everything went. Well, evidently her adenoids were the worst he's ever seen, that had grown into her nasal passage, completely blocking her airway. He said there was no way she was breathing through her nose. She also had fluid on both ears.
Now here is my analysis...Makinna has been having trouble in school. She also is a very anxious and nervous kid. Well who the hell can blame her!!!?? She couldn't breath well, couldn't hear, and her glasses are always dirty! I did some research and found some studies that showed kids who were mouth breathers did worse on IQ tests. I also found a study that kids who had problems with their tonsils and adenoids improved in school after having them out.
And guess what!! Even with a very sore throat, she has hardly drooled since the surgery!
I wonder when her doctor will start listening to me.

Finally!!!

The kids love to play in the snow, especially Gage. Even if a flake is falling, Gage is at the door saying "snow snow!! Get jacket on!" So far this year we have had two ice storms, (yuck) and a few dustings. Just enough to tease the kids but not enough to have any fun in. So finally monday we got enough snow to have some fun. We got 4 inches at our house. The kids already had off school, and I had to take off work for the lack of a babysitter. I have to say we had a lot of fun. I even went sledding. Man I'm getting too old for this!

Potty tails

Whooo Hoo!!! We at last have some poopin on the potty success!!! Gage has peed on the potty with no help for almost a year now, but we have had no success with poopin'. New Years day Gage had the trots and he asked to go in the potty every time!! I was so excited. Now, its not been smooth sailing since then. It seems he would much rather poop in his pants, but after some screaming and fit throwing, promises of M&Ms (GFCF of course), and locking him in the bathroom with me for 30 min, we've had some more successes! Only one "accident" (I don't think "accident" is the proper term its more like "defiance") and that was on Daddy's watch. (Which made for a very grumpy Daddy)Well, this will be a process just like with every other kid. With perseverance and eagle eyes we should prevail. I am so done changing diapers.