Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my mother's house this past Thursday. My sister came into town with my nephew. They stayed with my mom. My brother, his wife and two kids came out on Thursday and then all four of us went out. Jacob drove out on his own so he could leave when he wanted too, but he stayed out for quite a while. Of course, we ate too much, but we do that every  year.


The younger kids, ages 10-14, played on electronics and had fun. My nephew, who is 4, entertained us with some of his funny sayings! We looked through all of the Black Friday sales. My honey and I ended up ordering several things through Amazon. I am not sure if any one else in the family got anything on that day. We drove home around 6:45 and were in bed by 9:30! It was a long day.


Yesterday, several of us went to the movies and then some of us went back to my mom's house. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant and then came home. Elijah went with me on some of my mystery shops today and we have had a nice lazy afternoon. I'll have to start getting ready to go back to work on Monday! Three weeks and counting until Christmas Break.

We All Have a Cold!

I have been dealing with cold symptoms for a week now. It started with sneezing and then congestion. I bought some daytime/nighttime cold relief tablets and those have helped a lot. Now my honey has my cold and so she is on the same meds. Last night, I heard Elijah coughing in his sleep so I went in and he was half asleep. I gave him a breathing treatment and some Mucinex DM. I also gave him a cough drop and he slept through the night.




CVS had a really good sale today, so I went in and bought some more Mucinex (I had a $5 coupon, woohoo) that was on sale. I also got some Zicam tablets and Zicam nasal spray that was on sale. There were SEVERAL things that I needed that had Extra Care bucks attached to them and so I ended up with $16 in extra care bucks. I also had several coupons. I purchased everything with extra care bucks first and then bought the cold stuff with a second order so I could apply the extra care bucks. I also had $8 in coupons for the first order. Overall, I saved about $24 between the two orders and got some things we needed!




I will continue breathing treatments for Elijah today. I also gave him the Zicam tablet and Zicam nasal spray. I used both too! Hopefully, we can knock out these colds soon.

Everything is Awesome!

I don't know that I would say EVERYTHING is AWESOME, but things are going pretty well. I selected this title because Elijah has been walking around singing this song from the LEGO movie for the last hour. Elijah has always enjoyed music, but he never really gotten into music. This changed about two months ago, when he realized he could find songs that I had on my iTunes account. He has several songs that he likes, but this is his favorite song right now. In fact, he just stood up to go to the kitchen and started singing it AGAIN. After another few days, I may be sick of it, but right now I think it is cute. It also amazes me still how well he does hearing with his cochlear implants. They are amazing devices.


He is acting like a typical teen more and more everyday! However, he still likes to sit with me on the couch and watch TV and holds my hand when we go for a walk. In fact, I am going to go and sit with him right now and watch the LEGO movie! I guess it is better than another episode of Myth Busters or Scooby Doo!

The Middle and Quirky Kids

The Middle is one of my favorite TV shows to watch, but I haven't had a chance to catch up on some of the episodes. Today I watched an episode about the youngest son Brick who wants to be like everyone else and have friends. Brick has always been a little different than everyone else. He is very solitary, has vocal tics and repeats the last word he says in a whisper sometimes. He is even in a class to teach social skills. I am not sure what grade he is in, but in this episode he wants to go to a school dance. The parents are hesitant because they know he doesn't really fit in. Brick asks for advice on how to make friends. The parents suggest looking people in the eye, actually talking to people and to maybe put down the books more. As they are talking, he stands up and walks away with as he states an idea he has. Of course, there he is not behaving in a social way.

Brick actually makes it into the dance, and the parents sit outside in the car worrying about how it will go. They aren't even sure if they should leave. The dad even says he is a quirky kid. The parents arrive home only to receive a text to come and pick him up. The parents arrive and Brick texts he is fine, but then he soon comes out and doesn't want to talk about the experience. Brick has also lost a shoe in the process. The show ends with a girl coming over to bring Brick back his shoe. She looks like she has some social issues too, but she invites him to go get ice cream. Brick thanks her, declines and then slams the door. Of course, mom intervenes and tells him that she just asked him out. Brick grabs his jacket and runs to the door to get her. The show ends with the parents sitting outside the ice cream parlor receiving texts from Brick and wondering how he is doing.

As a parent of a quirky kid, I so appreciated this episode. Elijah is the quirky kid. He doesn't always say "HI" back when another student or adult says "HI" to him. He doesn't always fit in and I am not sure if he really has any friends at school. He doesn't care what other people think of him, at least other kids anyway. He is just out there doing his own thing. As a parent I just want to fix this for him, but I can't. All I can do is try to find ways for him to be around other kids and see what happens. We went to the library yesterday and he hung out in the Teen Room while I worked on grad school stuff. He played some Wii games with some other teens. I am going to start taking him every week so he has a chance to work on his social skills. It just isn't easy knowing he is the quirky kid and knowing all I can do is provide him with opportunities and practice with him as much as I can so he knows what to do when around others.

ARD Meeting

We had an ARD meeting for Elijah yesterday afternoon. I feel blessed to have such a great group of people working with and advocating for Elijah. The behavior specialist is going to come in and observe him to give the teachers some ideas on how to handle him. The LSSP is going to complete an evaluation on Elijah to determine if he is eligible for counseling. We discussed his medications and changes we have made in dosages and in the times he takes the medicine. We also discussed the STAAR test! We have a new test this year....the STAAR Accommodated, which will be on the computer. Elijah will take this test, but we are still waiting on guidance from the state on how it will really work. The staff at the school all agree that Elijah is a great kid, but that he is having a rough time right now. Hopefully we will figure out a way to support him better.

We will meet again after January! The school gets 45 school days to complete the assessment and then so many days to have the next ARD meeting. We can also discuss the STAAR-A some more and discuss plans for high school. OH MY DID I JUST TYPE HIGH SCHOOL. Oh what does the future hold for Elijah. I really don't know. He is such a smart kid, he just has to mature more and learn to think before he acts. Hopefully we will get a good plan for him and also a good plan for his future!