The boy and other things
Yesterday was Iain’s first mainstreamed (for lack of a better term) gymnastics class and he seems to like it so far. I think he’s just so damned proud of himself moving up a level like his sisters do. Jeff said the coach remarked that he was great because he wasn’t being chatty and was following directions unlike the girls in the class. Too funny. I wish I could’ve been there but I will next week hopefully. Go Iain!
Gracie hasn’t started violin yet this year and it’s unusually late. I heard the teacher’s mom passed away so I’m assuming that’s what’s going on and I’m not going to push the issue. I do wish it would start soon though. With everything going on, Gracie and I haven’t been practicing at all and I shudder to think what we must sound like now. Once things get settled at the new house I’m going to do my best to set aside some time for practice. It’s a nice stress reliever and I’ve always wanted to play an instrument. My relatives back in Hungary would be proud. The violin is highly regarded there obviously.
I can’t believe Jeff and I will be celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary this year (in a couple weeks). Hell, I still can’t believe I have an eight year-old but there you go. I hate the cliche “where did the time go” stuff but you have to wonder. I will say we’ve been through a lot and I’ve seen people break up over basically nothing so go us! 
Iain’s three-year IEP evaluation is due and it’s one of those things I don’t enjoy but thankfully don’t dread as much anymore. Now that I get tangible evidence from his real school progress, it puts my mind to ease somewhat. His verbal IQ score will probably be low but, if it’s anything like last time, his non-verbal won’t be too crushing. The last psychologist to test him commented on the large difference between the two scores that led him to believe his outlook was much more positive than things on paper might suggest. We’ll see. That’s all I can ever really say about most of it — we’ll see.
One issue that we’re seeing resurface is his inability to focus. Sigh. I saw the signs when he was an infant and it has only gotten worse as he has aged. We did explore this when he was about four but the side effects from the medication were too much in proportion to the problem so we let it drop and decided to revisit it if we needed to if it continued to affect him in later years. Well, hello later years. He’s doing very well academically but not without a very heavy dose of redirection. The work is only going to get harder and this is something I’m going to have to address soon. I was hoping it wouldn’t work out this way but it is what it is.
While I think behavioral modification is useful, I’m not against the use of meds to get him to a place where he can gather his resources and allow said modifications to become effective. I view it much like I do taking meds for depression; you can’t fully make use of cognitive therapies when you aren’t in a place chemically to be able to handle it in the first place. Regain chemical equilibrium first and then run from there. I know many disagree and liken medicating to giving our kids tranquilizers to get them to fall in line but I don’t pay much attention to the nonsense. I’ve seen the effects on people’s lives and functioning dealing with children and adults who suffer and aren’t properly medicated. Yes, we have to be very careful as to what we use with our children and I don’t dispute that. However, the use of medication itself isn’t a grand ploy to drug every child to make them docile and compliant. While typical children show some degree of fidgety or inattentive behavior that’s age-appropriate, the cases that require medication aren’t in that typical range at all and either some people assume all children aren’t capable of acting anything short of a free for all in school or they are in denial (or ignorant but that’s a given). Maybe they are the same people who say things like “boys will be boys”? Don’t get me started on that.
Oh, and a shout out to Audrey. See you Monday!
