November 11 - Day 11
Today I am thankful for Zane. He was born 8 years ago today. Zane really is a great kid. There are a lot of great characteristics about him that are coming to view more and more each day. He has been one that I've struggled with parenting for a long time. He was my spirited child, and my stubborn child. He had certain idiosyncrasies that I and many others didn't understand. He was recently diagnosed with ADHD, and he began medication about a month ago for it. I don't think I posted much about this on my blog yet, but if I did, sorry if I'm repeating information. I wasn't against medication, but I was willing to look at other options for him. But when we first discovered that it was likely that he had it, he wanted to know if it could be fixed. It broke my heart to know that he had been struggling so badly with it. I know that it caused a lot of frustration between us, because his inability to focus appeared to be a deliberate refusal to acknowledge us.
When we had his assessment and the Dr. said that we can put him on medication, she said that it was like a person with blurry eyesight. Glasses help things come into focus, and for a child with ADHD, the medication helps everything come into focus. We were given a prescription for about half the dosage that he would be taking, as the Dr. wanted him to ease into it. He took that for a week and then he started on the full dosage. He appeared to be doing very well on the medication, and we had told his teachers that he would be starting it. At Zane's conference, they said they noticed the difference right away, and that he was doing really well, and he was able to focus much better.
Zane has always had a very active imagination. He's very descriptive, very observant, and doesn't miss a thing. He would tell us stories and talk about different things before he was on the medication, but it would take a very long time for him to get things out. He would hesitate and pepper his sentences with a lot of pauses and ums and ahs. If someone else was talking in the background, he'd lose his train of thought and get upset that things weren't quiet enough for him to talk. Now that he's on the medication, he will tell us these grand stories with lots of detail, and I don't want to stop him, because it's just so exciting to be able to hear him talk without him getting distracted. It's so much easier to listen to him.
On Thursday at the Pizza Party Fundraiser for school, his teacher was there, and we went and talked to her briefly, and I told her that I was really excited about some of the writing assignments that he brings home, because they are just so detailed and well thought out. She said that it made a big difference now that he is able to concentrate better. (His teacher has ADHD and when I said something to her about it, she asked if I had talked to his Dr. about it, and she is the one that really encouraged me to look into it... I suspected that he possibly had it several months earlier, but since she has it, she was able to recognize it a lot better.) It makes me so happy that he's able to concentrate better, and I know he writing.
And it's good to get reassurance from his teachers that he is doing so well. Homework has gone from a 3 hour struggle to being 15-20 minutes of homework that is done and he can go out and play. It is wonderful!
Back in July, Target had a sale on Nintendo DS Lites. Zane had been playing with one of his friend's, and he had asked me several times if I could just not give him a birthday or Christmas present, and save up to give him a DSi. I decided to buy him a DS Lite. One day he saw that the DS Lites were $100, so he begged and pleaded with me to get him one. (The one I bought him was cheaper than that). I told him that I didn't know if we could manage it. It came up many times over the next few weeks. I really played it off like we weren't going to be able to get him one. I was also able to get him a few games. I picked up a baseball game on clearance at Target a couple months ago, and just last week, I had enough Amazon Gift Cards through Swagbucks, and I was able to get Super Scribblenauts and Plants vs. Zombies as well. I put some Legos in the box to confuse him and make him think he was getting Legos.
A couple days ago, he was asking again, and I told him that maybe next year things wouldn't be as tight, and we could spend a little extra money. So, he said, "Maybe I should just be thankful that I'm getting anything." And he said it in a way that showed he really didn't feel any entitlement. It really touched my heart that he was able to view it that way.
Today we made him wait until after school, and after homework, and after dinner, and after Andy and the kids went to the water park, and I went to Zumba, and after I took a shower and the kids got in their pajamas. And we gave him his presents. We only had three wrapped presents. I handed him the bottom one first, and he shook it, and said, "Legos." I told him to open that last. Then I handed him the other game, and told him to open that second. Then I gave him the last one, which he put second at first. I had to tell him to open it first. He said it was heavy. And then he opened it. He was so excited, he did this little quiet scream. I asked him about it later, and he said he did want to jump up and down and scream, but he thought we might get upset with him. I don't know why. But he was super excited.
When he opened the second present, he wasn't that excited. He had really wanted Super Scribblenauts, and since he thought the last present was Legos, he thought that was the only game he was getting. He didn't cry or get upset, but I could tell he was not thrilled. He set it aside and opened his last gift.
He got to the box, which was actually the Amazon shipping box, and he said, "What kind of Legos are these?" But when he got the box opened and peeked inside, he saw the game he wanted most in there, but then he saw Plants vs. Zombies, and he was super excited. He didn't expect that one at all, and it's a game he loves. So, he was extremely grateful, and excited. It made me feel really good to give it to him.
So, that's about it. It can be really cool and really fun to be Zane's mom. He's doing well in school, he's doing well in math, he just got bumped up in his reading level, so he has to take books that are between a 3.0 grade level and a 4.5 grade level. He's really impressing me with his reading. He has to take tests on the books he reads, and his teacher has him write a quick synopsis on the back of the slip that he uses to record his test scores, and I think that is the neatest idea. And when I read his comments, they are really intuitive.
Zane likes school, and this year is WAY better than last year, since he doesn't have to stay inside for recess or not participate for gym. He is doing really cool things with his drawings and he is very detailed when it comes ot coloring and drawing. He is pretty artistic. He loves to help me cook, he is very independent and uses the toaster oven and microwave (with permission) to make his own breakfast (bagels, toast, waffles, etc) and sometimes lunch (tostinos, chicken nuggeets, quesadillas). He will help me measure and pour, and he loves to try to mix things. Which is good, because I want to teach him how to make quite a few meals before he grows up and ends up on his own. Even though he dislikes doing chores, he understands that he is learning how to do things for when he grows up.
I'm really looking forward to the next 8 years as he gets to be a teenager and starts hopefully really showing his personality and talents and starts to discover what he wants to do with his life.
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