Khalif's behavior

Well, it was a rough summer as far as behavior goes and after we went to Lummi, Ryan was adamant about getting him some help through medication.  My quest to get neurofeedback approved was denied, but through that process it was clear we should be seeing a psychiatrist for medication, instead of his pediatrician.  There is only one in the area that takes his insurance, so that is where we had to go.  It was a disaster from the get go.  She was an hour late to our first appointment and then went on leave.  I was in a bit of a rush because I didn't want his teacher to have the same struggles as the one from last year, but it was not meant to be.  She wanted us to start the IEP process to see if that might make it clear if it was anxiety or ADHD driving the behaviors.  She also recommended getting a genetic test for psych drugs which could guide us in how his body metabolized certain medications.  It took forever, but I finally met with her to discuss the results and she was higher than a kite. It was pretty clear at that point why she went on leave and now that I look back, I think she was altered at one of our other appointments, but I have never been around someone whose mind was so disfunctional.  I can't tell you how many times I sat there wondering how to respond to her without offending her, but then I realized she wouldn't likely remember anything.  Part of me thought the Candid cameras were going to come out because it was so CRAZY.  Once I accepted that there was no hope in her helping me, I made up and excuse to get out of there and told the front desk that she was extremely confused and probably should not see any other patients.  I think they saw it coming because they had already hired someone, but he is relocating from the east coast, so won't be seeing patients for a couple weeks.  So, it was a total bust, but the good news is he is holding it together in class.  The IEP meeting happened and his teacher checked every box within the normal category.  The written report made it sound like everything was great, but then we got in the meeting and they admitted his ADHD behaviors, so it was a bit confusing.  The bottom line is that his behavior right now is not inhibiting his learning, so we settled on a 504.  There were a couple concerning things that came out of the meeting....his pencil lifts (totally weird, but indicative of a problem).  He was so advanced in the academic part, but was in the 2nd percentile for executive functioning.  That is the ability to organize and follow a set of instructions and when asked what we could do to help him, the school psychologist said we'd just have to work around the issues that result from low executive functioning.  We have a lot of tricks already, but he will have to find others to manage as school gets more challenging. 
We went to a foster care training and they were talking about the connection between being born drug positive and low executive function and she said that part of the brain could never repair itself.  But, we had a trial session with the neurofeedback therapist and she said that is not true.  We are on the waitlist for treatment and I'm hopeful she can get him regulated.  There was a lot of "white" on his color scan and that means his brain is functioning in the fight or flight mode and all he was doing was watching a fun movie, comfy in a chair with a blanket on.  It was a little eye opening to say the least and we will keep trying to find ways to help his brain rewire, so that he has the best shot at life.

Respite Foster Babies

We had a couple foster babies this fall.  The first one we had was 10 months old and she looked just like a doll.  We had her a couple times and she was very quiet and easy, peasy.  The kids loved her!  I shouldn't really post all the adorable pictures we have because of privacy :(.  Its fun to see the kids interested in something other than gaming or their phones.  Even Reggie offered to go get her after her nap!

The other one was much younger (3 months) and a bit of a stretch for me...she was medically fragile.  The foster mom is a good friend of mine, so I agreed to take her for a long weekend.  She was also very easy during the day, but the nights were a little rough.  She ate like a champ and thankfully, we had no medical emergencies.  Since she left, she moved in with an aunt and has had her open heart surgery and everything went perfectly!

Mom/Dad visit

Ryan traveled overseas to Taiwan for over a week and thankfully, mom and dad came for part of it.  I'm severely outnumbered when Ryan isn't here and it definitely has its challenges!  I made a list for my dad this time because when he doesn't have something to do, he can get in trouble.  He pressure washed and scraped the driveway cracks from all the years of him trying to repair the cracks.  Then he came up with his own concoction for putting in the cracks and for whatever reason it doesn't appear to be water proof, so lesson learned, use products the way they were intended!  Mom and I also came home from meals on wheels to find dad in the tree.  It was very scary watching him try to get down.  I asked him to trim it but didn't think he would cut the whole thing in a 2 hour span.  It was quite a mess but with the use of ALL the neighbors green bins, we were able to get it cleaned up in one weekend.  Next year there will be clear communication!  The other thing we worked on was the attic.  I got an attic ladder installed and dad and I put in the plywood, so there was a nice base and moved all the Christmas decorations out of the garage.  It just happened to be the hottest of days, so we were dripping with sweat, but I wanted to surprise Ryan so we had a deadline.

The old timer car show was in town, so that was a fun walk through history.

 Lunch at a new restaurant, Monica's.  It was o.k. but not likely a place we will go back to.

 Reggie had a swim meet....grandma looks so little

 One must take a snooze in the sun :).  Lots of closet Trumpees came out of the woodwork to chat with dad.

 Ryan and Ainsley went to the Eric Church concert and we had movie night...dads pick, Aladdin, hmmm.

Summer Fun

We were gone from Livermore for almost 8 weeks this year!  The kids flew to with grandma and grandpa to Washington straight from New York and Ryan and I drove up a few days later.  The weather was not quite summer for a few weeks but it finally came around and we were able to enjoy the lake in all its glory!  We did tons of tubing, bonaire riding (looks like a big banana in the water), kneeboarding, Reggie did a little wakeboarding and Ainsley got up on a single ski this year, but didn't find it to be much fun.  We did lots of paddleboarding, jetskiing and beaver hunting (Khalif and I saw him down the outlet at a very close range and I was stalking him as he swam by several times a week, but somehow never was able to capture him on video, but my mom did after we left).  We also did a little hiking, exploring the log jam and further down the outlet (thank you mom for coming to guide us out of the forest by honking her car!  We would have eventually made it, but we were getting eaten by deer fly and happy to get out as quick as possible...thankfully I had my cell phone and good it was waterproof because we got very wet and dirty and lost a couple inner tubes!).  The girls did a volleyball camp at Sedro-Woolley high school, we horseback rode at Lang's pony farm, we jumped at Altitude in Marysville a couple times and went to Wild Waves and had a blast.  The boys had a sleepover at Grandma Peggy's, Easton came to the lake to visit a few times, we got to see Anthony and Emily's new house and Ryan tracked down his dad and visited him for the first time in years!  We celebrated Dad's, Khalif's, Ryan's and Ainsley's birthdays, had a couple family BBQ's, hosted Ryan's work party (and had a painting place come!).  We had an afternoon of flyboarding thanks to Mike Renstrom and everyone enjoyed that :).  We had our annual trip to Lummi Island, but Ryan and Dad joined us this year and that was fun to mix it up a little.  It was a good summer!!!!

Crossing the log jam

 Dad's 75th!

 Getting tricky on the kneeboard.  Reggie did it too and lots of 360's!

 Ryan won the height contest by far, but Reggie won for picking it up the easiest.  He even did a dive and came out and kept going!  Ainsley probably had the hardest time and was disappointed that she wasn't successful but thankfully, we had a very patient teacher who took her again and she left feeling much better about her efforts :).

I almost forgot....Ryan's brother went to Livermore for a boys weekend and they went to the comedy club, golfed, ate and drank a lot!

Ryan's work crew

 Mom and Ainsley dancing away....

 Interesting experience Khalif had on the horse...That night at prayer time, he told me his mind was so still on while riding.

 Adults drinking a little too much!

 And everyone started playing Donkey Kong.  Amazing how terrible these kids are at old fashioned video games!  I made it farther than I ever have and its been years since I played consistently.  I win!

Lummi

 Rock target game-this kept them busy for way too long

 We found a treehouse at the rock beach

Our special friend Ethan got my phone and took quite a lovely picture.

 Oh the laughing we did :)

The day before we drove home, I was getting a glass out of the cabinet and the top glass fell on the bottom one, broke and sliced the crack of my hand.  It was deep and painful and in a place where there's lots of movement, but I really didn't want to go and get stiches.  The kids were a bit freaked out, but hopefully, they learned if you remain calm and use logic it'll be o.k.  We ended up calling the local EMT and he stopped by and said I needed a couple stiches.  Ugh, we decided to go with superglue and a butterfly bandage surrounded by waterproof tape.  Thankfully, I had already done most of the packing, but it really made it difficult to do anything and it was pretty sore on the drive.  But, it healed up nicely several days later thanks to my mom's handy butterfly skills.  Never a dull moment!

First day of school

Reggie 10th, Ainsley 8th and Khalif 4th