THE SHADDOX BOYS

Jacob and Elijah Shaddox are brothers. Jacob is 21 years old and just moved into an apartment with his girlfriend. He graduated from a technical college with an Associate's degree in Computer Maintenance. He works for a school district as a computer technician. Elijah is almost 18 years old. He is hearing impaired, has Tourette Syndrome, OCD and ADHD. He is a junior in high school. Elijah lives with his mom Mary and her wife, his stepmom. Mary has a bachelor's in deaf education and a masters in special education, and is an educational diagnostician. Life is always changing and this blog has chronicled many of these changes and will continue to do so!






Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Snow Days!

Elijah, my hone and I have all been home for the last two days due to the ice. School was cancelled for both Elijah and I. My honey cancelled her classes, because she didn't want to drive out in the ice and I don't blame her! I just found out that my school district has a two hour delay tomorrow morning. Now, being home has been nice. We have slept in and made a nice dessert today. I even got a nap and also got ahead on several grad school assignments.

However, being stuck home with a child who has OCD and tics can be a challenge. Elijah was determined he was going to play outside yesterday. First of all, it was ICE not snow and secondly HE has a nasty cough. He got breathing treatments every three hours yesterday and today. He would NOT drop it yesterday and kept trying to sneak out. He just had it stuck in his head that HE HAD to go outside and play. The tics have not been too bad, but there were a few times I had to ask him to go to his room to watch TV. I could only take the noise for so long and my computer is in the den where I do my grad school work. This only happened once yesterday and once today, so overall it wasn't too bad. I also limit his time with electronics (iPad, Nintendo DS and Wii-U) so he was BORED quite a bit. I played with him some, but there is only so much we could do!

Of course, now Elijah is determined that there will be NO school tomorrow. He is even arguing with me about it. I have remained calm and reminded him that the decision has not been made and we will get up in the morning and see what the news has to say. The school district will call me if there is a late start or cancellation. I am hoping he just doesn't argue with me in the morning and then have his bad attitude carry over into school. At least there are only three days left this week.

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Turkey Bacon

When Elijah was very young, I worried the child would be TOO skinny. He just never seemed to gain any weight or to grow taller. I took him to an endocrinologist and he was behind the curve when it came to growth, but the doctor thought we should wait and see if he would catch up to his peers. He did and is finally growing TALLER.

 Unfortunately, many of the medications the takes for Tourette Syndrome, OCD and ADHD have cause him to EAT, and now that he is 14 he is really EATING. We got him walking over the summer and started counting calories, and he lost 10 pounds. Overall, he is doing well and we monitor what he eats. However, when he is very hungry he eats and eats whatever is around. He has been known to eat a whole package of luncheon meat or a package of pepperoni in the fridge. We recently bought a small box to lock up a few things in the refrigerator, for two reasons. He cannot just EAT all the time, or he will really gain weight and he has to learn some self control. We also keep the freezer in the garage locked.


Some of you may think I am a mean mom! Well, my honey found an empty package of TURKEY BACON in the fridge today. There had been about 3 slices left two days ago. He stated that he had eaten it. Upon further questioning, I learned that he ate it RAW. OH GROSS....that is all I have to say to that. Later tonight I was putting clean sheets on his bed when I reached down between the bed and the wall to grab a few stuffed animals. I found two bowls, several dried up orange peels and CHOPPED PECANS. We found the empty bag in the fridge when we went to look. Somehow he had grabbed the bag of pecans and spilled all of them between the wall and the fridge. We had not even noticed they were gone, because we use SO many pecans during the holidays for baking that we can't keep track of them between us. I found a LOT of pecans under his bed and we are going to flip the mattress off tomorrow to see what else we can find. Pecans are expensive, and he didn't even eat them, he wasted them. I also don't think he is hungry most of the time, but thinks he is hungry due to the meds. The doctor told me kids like him on these meds will eat trash out of a trash can. I didn't really believe him, until Elijah ate RAW TURKEY BACON! YUCK!