little bit of crazy leaking out

I am very excited, Bubba will be starting pre-school on the 20th.

Bubba has always been a handful. When he was an infant he wanted to nurse all the time. As he grew he became more and more active, when ever I would try to talk to others about my concerns I would just get the “oh, he’s just all boy”.

I get a lot of “he’s all boy, isn’t he” comments. I also get the “can’t you control your kid” looks and the “bad mother” glares. People don’t get it, they don’t spend time with him 24/7, I do.

When people talk about their kids bouncing off the walls they usually don’t mean it literally, I did. He would run down the hall, slam into, then bounce off of, the wall and start laughing. We had to put a lock on the refrigerator to keep him out of it. We had to put flip locks on the exterior doors so he wouldn’t run outside and into the street. No matter how many times we said no or tried to redirected his attention it didn’t work. He would run from room to room turning lights on and off. He would open and close drawers and cabinets repetitively.

A year and a half ago, at his 3yo check-up:

We were told he watched too much TV, so we cut out all TV/videos/etc. Did it make a difference?  Not sure, but the kids watch little TV anyway during the school week.

We were told that we weren’t disciplining him correctly: timeouts, don’t let him get up, if he does, restart the timer. Ok, but how long can you realistically keep a 3yo sitting on a timeout chair? You start with 3min, and by the time you finish that time out 20-30min has past and he walks right into the other room and does exactly the same thing he was put into the time out for in the first place (hitting sister, throwing things, whatever).

Things like “Autism Spectrum Disorder” and “ADD/ADHD” were bandied about, but with no real plan of action.

It was suggested that we get Bubba into the Headstart/ECEAP program. Well, I looked into it and he had to be 4 to qualify, no go.

By the time I walked out of the office I was crying and felt like a failure as a mother.

This past summer at his 4yo check up, he had made some improvements. He was able to sit still for longer than 30 second and he is talking more, but he was still showing some delays. Most noticeably in his speech/language, where he seems to be a year or so behind.

I contacted ECEAP and filled out all the paperwork to get him in. While talking to the coordinator she mentioned he might be better suited for the developmental pre-school. Developmental pre-school? What developmental pre-school? Turns out the school district has a pre-school program for special needs kids, apparently they all do, and my Dr. should have told me. Well, he did, sort of, he said Headstart and then I didn’t pursue it any further when I found out he wasn’t old enough for the Headstart/ECEAP program.

So, we ended up getting him evaluated and he qualifies for help. We also confirmed he is quite smart, and stubborn as all heck, but we knew that.

He has been showing a lot of improvement in his language since September, when Bug went back to school. Coincidence? I think not.

We have also started him on the Feingold Program. I look at it as a “it can’t actually hurt him, so we may as well give it a try” type of thing. So far I have seen improvement, actually it’s when he gets something he shouldn’t have, like apple juice, that it really shows. So, since it seems to be working, were going to stay with it.

So, anyway, back to the point. I got a call today, I’ll be meeting with the psychologist and speech therapist next Thursday and he starts pre-school on Monday the 20th; half days, five days a week.