Back in Action

The trip was AWESOME! I had such a great time with my Aunt and Uncle. Uncle was home from the rehab hospital, though in a wheelchair. That was good. I got to spend a lot of time with him. He has had so many strokes over the past 15 years that he has trouble communicating. He speaks like we talk if we have a toothbrush in our mouths. Most words he can't pronounce. He gestures a lot. He still has a great sense of humor, though. Amazing after all he's been through. He had his first stroke at the age of 50. All of the men on my maternal grandmother's side of the family seem to have problems early. Heart attack or stroke by age 45 or 50. I warned my 2 brothers to eat right, exercise and take baby aspirin starting now. We are all in our mid 40s. My Aunt is a most selfless lady. She has stuck with my uncle where many spouses would have bailed. She has always been a great influence on me, like a second mother. And I got to see my cousin, her husband and their 3 kids, all of which are almost the exact ages of my youngest 3 kids. It will be great when I can go back there with all the little ones. They can do laps on tricycles with the others. As far as activities, we rode the train in from the northwestern suburbs to downtown Chicago, ate a nice lunch, went on the Wendella Cruise around the Chicago River and Lake Michigan for a 90-minute tour of the city. Then walked around and saw more sights before taking the train back. My 9-y-o LOVED the double-decker Metra train. And the next day we had a barbecue with my cousin and her family. Then we flew back here. All yesterday was spent reorganizing the house and putting away the last of the boxes from last week. Today I'm going to Home Depot to get ties for the tops of the bookcases for earthquake proofing. Also some doorstops, dishwasher cleaner and other sundries.

Below is a video I took last week and tried to post Thursday but the computer seemed to freeze up. Baby A is consistently rolling over when placed on his tummy, which severely curtails tummy time. ;-)

In other news, last Thursday I spent ALL DAY at a seminar given by TASK in Anaheim. This is an organization that helps people whose children have special needs to navigate through the testing and meetings with the school district. I found out that I am entitled to get a second opinion since I disagree with the outcome of the testing performed by the school district. I am now requesting an IEE, which is an Independent Educational Evaluation. I think there is more going on with my boy than simple attention problems. I mean, if someone is blind, they are not going to "pay attention" to the chalkboard, right? Or if they are deaf, they are not going to "pay attention" when the teacher gives verbal directions for handouts in class. My son is in no way hyper, which they admitted. But he has extensive avoidance strategies to get out of schoolwork that he finds overwhelming. I want to tighten his diagnosis so that he can get the help he needs as the years go on. Because if he has the problem I think he has, he will have more and more problems as he is expected to do more and more independent work. The blanket diagnosis of ADD is not good enough. Especially considering he had a right-sided skull fracture as a 4-month-old baby (I tripped and fell down steps with him in my arms, the worst day of my life) and his learning problems follow the pattern of nonverbal learning disorder, which is a form of right brain dysfunction. Sigh. More to come on this.