Boston: the new direction

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of appts for Boston and wrapping my head around the results. I haven't blogged much because I had all that going on, on top of all I talked about in my last post. It's been crazy. But today I realized that I cannot move forward and post anything else until I talk about it.

We have been going through testing for Boston because I was almost positive he had a severe case of ADHD. We tried everything all natural last school year (including gfcf) but nothing helped at all. I was convinced that he would need to go on medication in order to function and get anything done at school. He is a great boy and everyone loves him but the poor child just can't keep focused and keep still for the life of him. Someday he will be able to channel that into something and be uber successful....but until that time I needed to figure out how to help him be able to do the best he can in school.

My pediatrician wanted us to just put him on meds right away. No questions asked. But inside me, my motherly instinct said I needed to dig deeper to be sure that medication was the best route. The only thing I knew to do was to go to Dallas' neurologist because I knew she could get me in with the Neuropsychologist I loved so much that diagnosed Dallas. I also had the teachers and some staff hinting that there were some social issues going on with him. I knew when they mentioned it that it could mean Aspergers (especially with all his stemming- for him stemming is the typical jumping and flapping his arms that a lot of kids with Autistic Spectrum do.) But honestly I really didn't think he had Aspergers because to me Dallas and him are so different.

Making this long, long story shorter: after Neurologist visits, 3 visits with neuropsychologist (including an evaluation that took the whole day) he was diagnosed Aspergers. I was shocked in so many ways but then after it settled in and the psychologist was explaining things all the dots started to connect and I felt like I finally understood him better than ever.

It doesn't change him, it doesn't change his future, it just means that I can understand him better and we can help him to understand the world better.

From a mothers perspective it was the harder diagnosis. It's not like finding out your child has ADHD and you can use medication to help him. This one means your road down parenting isn't the rocky one that most people go on but one that includes a bolder, snow, ice, floods, and a mountain. It's still beautiful but you have to be prepared for anything. Things are always changing and you have to think outside the box. You can't do things like all the other parents do. You will be judged. You will feel like you are failing. But somewhere down the road there will be much reward. And I have to keep moving on knowing that.

Sickness hits the Whitman house again

The boys had tutoring Friday morning. We have been blessed to have Boston's assistant teacher from last year be able to tutor the boys for a few weeks to help keep things fresh and new. She is so awesome!



Boston complained about a stomach ache at the end of the session. The space shuttle was going up for the last time and we were rushing to get home to see it. I had wanted badly to drive over to let the kids see it up close and personal like I have so many times but the idea of spending many hours in traffic wasn't appealing. And I was sad that, just like the last launch, there were lots of clouds in the sky so they wouldn't be able to see it go up. But we rushed home to see it on the tv and run outside to see if we could see at least a little bit. No such luck. But they were super excited to witness it on tv like the rest of the country.



Right after the launch Boston got more sick. He was running a fever and a few hours later the throw up started. Poor guy. This 24 hour bug seems to be going around here so much and our poor family keeps getting it and spreading it amongst all of us.



Our sweet cat Memphis crawled up on Boston to comfort him.

On Saturday Boston was doing much better and by the later afternoon he was begging to go to Universal Studios. So we loaded everyone up and headed to the park. But once we were in the park at the fun ball playground I noticed that Sydney was pretty lethargic and warm. I headed back to the stroller when Dallas grabbed me and said he was really hot. So he went with me and then I noticed he felt really warm as well. I popped out the thermometer and sure enough they both had fevers. So we packed up the crew and headed back home.

At least this time they only had the fever and none of the throw up....other than a fun diarrhea mess Sydney left for us in the car seat. Don't you love this post....hope you aren't having a snack while reading this! I think it's time to up the vitamins that I have been lax on giving. It looks like we all need them!

Boston's 1st camp: Music Camp

This week Boston was at music camp during the day from 9-3. The first day he was not happy at all after I picked him up. They had just sat and learned songs all day and my active boy was not into that. But I knew once they learned all the motions he would have a good time. And after much deliberation we had decided to have him finish out the week since he was the one that had wanted to do the camp anyhow. It was at my church and on Friday they put on a performance that night for all of us parents.

I had picked Boston up at 12 on Friday to go see his cousin at Universal Studios for a few hours and then we raced home to get him to his performance. Dallas, Asher and Sydney were so tired from Universal that we decided to have Sean stay home with them and just have me go and video and take pictures.

I was so proud of my boy. He did such a great job!

Afterward Boston and I went to this awesome ice cream place here called Orange Leaf where you fill up your cup with soft serve ice cream of your choice and toppings. It was super yummy and some good time with my oldest son.

VBS

We have been at VBS all week long and the kids have had a blast! I'm a little tired because I am doing photography for them and had to have all the pictures done and back to them by tonight so I've been burning the midnight oil sorting and editing some of them. But they are done and now I can relax. Here's a few photos from my sweet kids having a fun time this week:

Dallas loves to sing his heart out!Asher finally was dancing and doing all the movements by the second dayI noticed the Boston wasn't sitting with his whole groups row but in a row by himself. When I asked him after the first day why he said, "Mom I needed more move to dance and do all the motions." By the second day he had recruited Grant back to his "dancing row"
Sydney loved her room and never once cried when I dropped her off. She is such a sweetie. And she had her first goldfish here at VBS and loved them so much she would steel from her neighbors

Dallas and his group at Rec Time


Boston in the sheet being pulled.
Asher at crafts with his fav volunteer

Dallas cool New York Attitude look

Class pet sleepover

Boston got to keep his class pet for the weekend. The class just got him and his name is Bolt. He's a beta fish. Boston was super excited that he was going to be the first classmate to get to keep him. He survived the weekend at our house full of kids and a dog that is usually overly interested in other animals, but could have cared less about the wet fish. Boston was very responsible feeding him each morning without me even asking him to. He's growing up so much!

Another Friday at the baseball fields.....

I'm starting to love Fridays and getting to hang out watching my boys play baseball. And it's even better that they both absolutely LOVE it.

Here is Dallas' team praying before they start

Another gorgious Florida Fall SunsetBoston ready to run homeRun Boston RunBoston catching a ball on First baseWay to go on first Boston!Dallas in the outfieldDallas up to bat. This kid has an amazing hit!Dallas, number 13

Boston field trip: Pippi Longstocking musical

Today Boston went on his first field trip of the year and I wasn't able to go with him. They went to see Pippi Longstocking at the Rep Theatre. Of course this would have been a most perfect field trip given my theatre background but I'm still nursing and it makes it hard to leave her all day. But I know there will be lots of other field trips this year and I will make the most of those. At least he had a great time and talked about it all day!

Boston's teacher home visit

Tonight we had the privledge of having Boston's teacher and assistant teacher over to our house for a little while. I can't express how much I love this part of our school. How great is it that the teacher has the opportunity to connect with each of their students and the parents on this level. Boston was very proud to show her around. I had a great talk with them and feel so good about this year. And even with the eye issues that are going on in regards to his visual processing problem I feel like he's in the absolute best hands. His teacher is more than willing to work with him and is so gentle and kind to build up his confidence and make things challenging, yet encouraging for him. It's the perfect learning environment for him to excel in. His teacher has 3 boys herself and homeschooled for several years so in so many ways I feel like she understands our family well. I'm looking forward to watching him grow this year and finding ways to help him overcome the visual challenges that have been plagueing him so that he can take off in his learning like I know he wants too.

Seeing the world threw Boston's eyes

Letters reversed. Horrible handwriting. Words reversed. A frustrated boy who wants so desperately to read and write like mom and dad. (So much so that he pretends just for fun.) But when it comes down to reading to me he gets so mad. Then he mentions the words keep moving on the page. They were floating. My brain jumped back years earlier to a seminar I sat in by Dianne Craft. And I remembered her talking about floating words. I quickly googled this and started searching and reading trying to find out if there's something I can do to help him. I spoke to his teacher and she mentioned that I should get him evaluated for visual processing disorder. I originally thought dyslexia. The specialist at the boys school referred us to a developmental optomologiest. After calling around and doing a little research on my own I soon realized that treatment for this kind of eye problem ranges in the thousands, like $5000.

Now I'm gonna jump on my soap box for a minute....I promise to come off in about 2.

What is a mom supposed to do that so desperately wants to help her son? Wants to help him so that he has the best learning environment. And if you know your son or daughter is having a problem and there is a solution wouldn't you want to do whatever you can to help them? But why oh why does it have to be SO EXPENSIVE!!! Really? I know it doesn't cost the doctor or therapist a lot of out of pocket expenses to offer this kind of therapy. And insurance doesn't cover it either. Which is another soap box I could skip over to. The testing alone costs $650 and that doesn't include anything but the diagnosis.

Lucky for us our vision insurance covers the first appointment (1 of 4 appts to diagnose him.) The doctor right away knew there was a problem. After several tests he said Boston has Convergence Insufficiency. Which means his eyes don't track together and have a hard time focusing. This is why the words float, and most likely he sees double a lot of times, which is why he does so many reversals. From here they want $650 to do the final 3 appts to figure out what therapy will work best for him.

Right now we are on hold. I'm trying to figure out if there is anything else we can do to help him before spending thousands. I'm working on getting him some colored overlays to put over what he's reading. This helps a lot of kids. We are starting to incorporate Brain Integration Therapy back into our daily life.

I'll keep you posted as to what helps over here and hopefully we can help other families facing similar problems.

First baseball game

Tonight the boys had their first baseball game. They were so excited and so were we! Only downside is that they play at the same time on two different fields so I was running back and forth. The head coach for Dallas team wasn't able to be there tonight so the assistant coach had Sean pitch. Both boys did awesome. They hit amazing and were able to catch a few balls in the field and throw to 1st base. I was a proud mama

Boston in the outfield

Dallas in the outfieldDallas waiting to hitDallas up to bat!Daddy's pitchingWhat a happy boy he is running home!Boston on the far right with his team getting ready to hitBoston with a pat on the head by his coachBoston up to bat

Running the bases

Dallas up againAnd scoring again This was the amazing sunset we got to watch as we cheered on our little ball players! What a great way to spend a Friday night!