I Sent my Kid to School Today on Speed

Okay, so that is what they give a kid on ADHD. But it still does not change the fact that he is on speed. I suppose two negatives make a positive.  I felt like there should be drum rolls but instead there were only butterflies in my stomach.
• Did we do the right thing? Will this help him?
• Will this allow him to focus in school? He definitely is getting behind every day.
• Will he have an adverse reaction? He had to take an EKG to make sure his heart was healthy.
• Will he be different and lose that forever smile? Don't want his personality to change only the annoying bits.
• And will I have any new material for my blog? It's been fun writing this blog.
• And on, and on and on. I usually don't worry about things but today was different. I had a whole 7 years worth of worrying about Timmy and his extreme behavior - and now in this one day it could change forever.

So this morning he cooked himself eggs and had an egg sandwich and a 5 mg tablet of Dexamphetamine. We drove to school and before dropping him off I looked into his eyes and asked him how he felt. He told me he had a headache, and then he said his stomach ached. Not making me feel any better, but I told him it was probably the big egg sandwich in his belly. I went into the classroom to observe a bit prior to the school bell. I then heard the famous "TIMMY" coming from one of his classmates. Timmy had picked up two koalas that were under the classroom gum tree and was attempting to put them in the tree. I guess the "TIMMY" caller was the owner of the koalas. Timmy very nicely said you can put one in the tree and I'll put the other one in the tree. The kid just grabbed the two stuffed animals, with no dramas from Timmy.

• Hopefully the standard "TIMMY" yell will be less.
• Maybe his lone desk with the masked tape boundary will migrate to one of the desk groups.
• He definitely needs to catch up on his school work.
• Can do without those monthly school meeting on Timmy’s behavior.
I kept thinking about him all day long, wondering whether the blinking message light on my phone was the school calling. I picked him up from his classroom and he was running out with the rest of the kids - seemed normal.

I looked into his eyes and asked him how his day went.
He said; "Great"
I asked him if he got put into the thinking chair.
He said; "No"
Then he paused and was thinking hard by the look on his face and said well.....I did get into a fight at lunch, but he was fighting ME! Then out comes the teacher with a big grin on her face - must have been a good day. She said he did great, sat when he was supposed to sit, and raised his hand. She said it was if Timmy wasn't even there. I think she meant that the elephant in the room wasn't there. She said she noticed the drug wore off a bit towards the middle of the day and Timmy became bit louder. I was even pulled aside from the vice principal who told me how wonderful Timmy was in music and art class.

I can't wait to observe him this weekend.


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Do You Want To Be My Friend?

You learn a lot from a kid who knows no boundaries.  Imposing on others is norm and opens up a world of opportunities that might not ever have surfaced.  We went camping this weekend to Ormiston Gorge in the Northern Territory of Australia.  With camping come close neighbors and with close neighbors come direct access to friends, at least in the eyes of a 7 year old.  It was a bit painful as parents as it might be construed as imposing.  I don't think people impose on others like they did in the past, which has built a world of segregated families. 

We did the customary greetings as camp site neighbors.  But for a kid it goes like this; "Do you want to be my friend?".  That's all that was needed for Timmy to gain entry into the campsite next to us.

Timmy was drawn like a magnet to their campsite.  He had a new found friend, Jordan.  I would hear him every once in a while say; "what was my friends name?" and then explain; "it take a couple of days for me to remember a friends name"

Not wanting him to be a nuisance we were constantly calling him back over to our site, which ended up a being a battle between Timmy and Craig, me and Craig.  Then we sent in Zach, his 11 year old brother, to make sure he wasn't being annoying.  Then they brought out the marshmallows and a gas burner and we lost both Timmy and Zach to the camp neighbors. We came prepared to make smores on a open fire but Ormiston did not allow wood fires.  After awhile I wandered over and started talking to Jordans parents, which eventually brought Craig over, not wanting to be camping by himself.  We found out a lot about our camp neighbors like; they live in Alice Springs, that there are hidden treasures all over the world and there were 30 treasures in Alice Springs and you can find these treasures via gps and geocaching http://www.geocaching.com/.  We had a good time talking and eating smores.

The rest of the weekend we spent hiking, rock hole swimming and camp clean up.

On the two hour ride home Timmy had his feet on the back of Craigs seat.  Craig said; 
Your feet stink"
Timmy replied; "Well.... you just have to get use to it."

That night while putting Timmy to bed I asked him what was the best thing of the weekend?
He replied; "My friend!"


Zach and Timmy at the waterhole

Grasshopper friends

The rains brought heaps of grasshoppers to the desert.

I got off work early one day and decided to pick up the boys from school.  After entering Timmys room I has pulled aside - I was getting that dreaded look. The look where I wish I was very very small and not there.  The teacher informed me that Timmy was being cruel to the grasshoppers and his classmates were getting upset. Okay no one should be cruel to Gods creatures. 

So when I asked him why he was being cruel to the grasshoppers he told me if you take the legs off the grasshoppers they will not hop away - they can be your friend.

I wasn't sure how to react to that one - so I just gave him a hug.

Keeping with the grasshopper theme - on their last day of term 1 all the kids got to experience the taste of a cooked grasshopper.  My husband is calling foul  - how can you not ask parents for permission with all those food allergies.  I just thought it was cool.

Timmy ate 5 grasshoppers, but took off the legs because they were spiky.
Zach ate 1 and all his friends followed.

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I created a Facebook Monster

A natural progression from having a email address (since age of 5) would be a Facebook account? 
Wrong.
I kind of knew that,  but hey I thought maybe it will help Timmy, my soon to be on ADHD medication nearly 8 year old son, with his reading and writing.  Okay the constant nagging and trying to get an account on his own and almost succeeding didn't help.  So I laid down the law.  I HAD TO BE THERE WHEN HE WAS USING FACEBOOK.

Wednesday - Timmy became an official underage Facebook fan.  Timmy acquired 2 friends (1 family member and 1 friend of the family). Timmy became a FARMVILLE farmer.

Thursday - Timmy acquired 1 more family friend.  Timmys FARMVILLE crops withered and died, 0 coins left.  But he recovered by selling the pigeon feeder. 

Friday during work -  It was a holiday so Timmy was home with his dad.  He calls me during the middle of the day and ask if I could get on Facebook so he could have a friend online. But I inform him we can't do that at work. About an hour before quiting time I get another couple of phone calls.  He was still probing for me to get on Facebook.

Timmy;  "Are you finished working" 
Mom; "Yeah, but I have another hour at work"
Timmy; "Okay ask your boss very, very, very nicely if you can go on Facebook"
Mom; "We don't have Facebook on our computers"
Timmy;  "Then ask your boss if you can download it - then delete it"
Mom: well I couldn't talk as was laughing too hard.  I put him on hold while I pulled myself together.  He was serious.

Friday after work - Timmy acquired 1 more family friend, 6 friend requests- didn't know any of them, and he was an official member of 3 fan clubs. Typed 1 comment on his older brothers page "I hat you. You are as hoo."

Timmy banned from Facebook by his mom.

Not the words I was expecting from him. More books - less Simpsons.
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