October is almost over!

October has been a very long month, both at work and at home. Elijah has been doing OK since we I last posted, but just OK. He has had some very good days and some other days that have not been so great. Overall, it is still better than last year, but we have seen a bit of aggression. I called the doctor this past week and we increased one of his medications by 0.5 mg. I am hoping that helps him a bit. I know a lot of this is his OCD and not being able to "let things go" once the thought is in his head. I have the same thing, but as and adult can deal with it a lot better!

Jacob is doing awesome right now. He is very aware of his grades and keeping them up. He earned money being a referee for soccer. He is participating in ROTC and enjoying that. He is taking more responsibility for his chores around the house and his manners have improved a great deal! Yesterday he earned $30 refereeing and after we picked him up we headed to Target. He usually puts all of the money he earns in his savings account, but today he asked if he could spend it. I told him he could and so he went off to look for what he wanted and we went and shopped. We met up at the front after we had all checked out. I asked him what he got and he said a belt. I was surprised he had not asked me to buy him a belt. He then said, "I also bought a small Lego kit for Elijah." He amazes me daily and he is growing into such a fine young man.

All of us are looking forward to having the week of Thanksgiving off. We do have a few doctor's appointments that week, but it shouldn't be too bad. We will most likely go to my mom's house for the day. We will then be on the count down to Christmas. I have already started with some shopping for the boys!

I think the switch was flipped back!

After a long weekend of grounding, it seems that Elijah is more his regular self. Thankfully, the switch was flipped back! I just wish I could find the darn thing and keep it flipped in the correct position! There was also no school yesterday, so this week is a short week, so maybe that will help too. He said he had a "green" day--Six greens and one red on his status sheet. Green means good and red means he had some issues....there is also a yellow! Of course, yellow is between green and red!

He gets to color in a block on our form at home for each green and one for two yellows. He gets one dollar for every seven blocks. Right now, he wants to buy a small stuffed animal at a local drug store, so he is also motivated! Let's just hope it stays that way. We continue to try something called "ON TASK". It is a magnesium and zinc supplement. The neurologist also prescribed some fish oil that I had to get at a pharmacy. He said some fish oils specifically go to the brain, and that is what we might want to try. It doesn't "fix" things really, but may help with impulsivity.  We shall see!

That is about all from our end of things. Hope everyone else is doing well!

Who Flipped the Switch?

I swear, Elijah has a switch somewhere on him and someone just FLIPS IT OFF or ON, not sure which one and he turns into a different child. I guess this is life with someone with a neurological condition. It is something that I try to understand on a daily basis. I can usually wrap my brain around it the majority of the time, but some days are harder than others.

Today was one of these days. Elijah had an iffy day at school and there was aggression involved. He grabbed something out of a teachers hand and also took off and left the classroom. He kicked a desk and stuck his finger in another student's face. ARGH! We just went to the psychiatrist back on September 24th and the neurologist on Oct. 3rd and all was good. We had his IEP meeting on the first of this month and talked about how good he was doing. I swear this happens every time we go to any doctor or have a meeting at school. This time it was both!

I took away his electronics(Wii, iPad and nintendo) for the weekend and also no TV. I may give the TV back on Sunday, if he is good tomorrow. Things could have been worse at school, and I know this. They also had a different schedule today and that may be why he was "off". All I can do is take it day by day! I am also hoping someone flips that switch back to where it should be.

IEP Meeting Today

We had Elijah's annual IEP meeting today! I have to say, it was not stressful and went very well. This was not always true in the past. Everyone agrees that he has made a great deal of progress in his behavior. There has been no aggression and when he does act up, it seems to be more vocal and less physical. We all agreed that we just have to take it day by day, plan what we can and tweak things when we have too. He matured a great deal over the summer and we hope that continues.

I found out his scores from last years state testing. He did not do well on the reading at all, but we think he just rushed. He did better on the math and science, much better, so we know he is smart! He just doesn't like taking tests, and it could have just been ONE OF THOSE DAYS on the day he took his reading test.

We will meet again in the Spring for another IEP meeting(called an ARD in Texas) to plan for his transition to Junior High(OMG, really??) and invite the teachers from that school over for the meeting.

He has a new deaf education teacher who has been getting to know him. He has given her a bit of a hard time, but she is learning him. He is in the complex sentence portion of the Cottage Acquisition of Speech, Language and Listening so I am quite pleased by that!! He still has a lot to accomplish, but he will get there.