What a day! And it's only half way through. Woke up this morning at 4:45 and went in to wake Rachie for the River Heights route. She pretty much refused to go, saying she'd been falling asleep in school. I asked Josh if he would do both. No. And he didn't want to start his until 5:45. I went back to bed for an hour and then woke Josh up. By the time we got out there we were only able to do about half the route before we needed to get him back home for the bus. I asked DJ if he would come help me finish. He was dragging his feet and not really wanting to. Truly, I didn't really want to do it with him, because he is pretty slow lately. It was a little after 7:00 by this point, and Ryan needed to be to work by 8:00. I needed to leave Dan with the babies so Ry could go on time. So, good mom that I am, I pulled on a beanie and went out to finish the Prov route and do R.H. by myself. Holy Cow! It was so cold out! 1 degree. There should be a law against that. It took me one hour to do it and I had a new appreciation for what my poor kids are doing every morning while I sit in the warm van and read. Of course, Rachel will be doing one of my jobs when she gets home.
After the route I came home and got Spencer breakfast, read my Book of Mormon and showered. Then it was attacking the boys room. Daniel and Spencer started sharing a room last year in September, I think. Spencer doesn't actually sleep it so much. He's in with us most nights, because I am a sucker. Even if I let him start off with me, and then move him, he always comes back in in the middle of the night anyway. Well, Dan's kinda known for being messy and that room was looking SCARY. I spent a good portion of the day cleaning, organizing, dusting, etc. I moved his weight bench out, as that was just an eye sore that took up space. His dumbbell fits under the bed now. I made two new pillowcases, and moved Spencer's book basket and reading chair. It looks so cute! Why can't it stay this way? I painted some darling chocolate squares on the wall in the fall, and I've started on a quilt for the bed. The room is sky blue, chocolate, and apple green. Too cute!
I started baby-sitting Ridge Al-Imari again on Monday. His mom, Jen, is the senior court clerk for Ryan. She is way cute and we have become friends with her, as well as the rest of his staff. This can be good, but bad at the same time. They know A LOT about our personal life. (Strange, huh?) So there is the worry that if he gets on their nerves at work, they could use it against us. But I digress. Anyway, I started watching Ridge again on Monday. I had been watching him last year, but stopped right before Thailand. He is 2 1/2, and a cute kid. He has the cutest smile, and long dark lashes that frame big brown eyes. He is a sweet heart, but his speech is quite behind and he only says a few words that I recognize. So that can be frustrating for both of us. Probably more for him. He'll cry when he needs something because he isn't able to say what he needs. Poor kid. Today was rough because Spencer wasn't being super nice to him. Spency goes back and forth...he's either really nice and playing with Ridge and laughing and having a good time. Or he goes in his room and locks the door and won't play with him at all. So, Spencer was being ornery, Ridge was crying when his cartoon ended, and Milly was struggling with her hand. Thank goodness for my happy pills. I told Jen that he had cried a lot today when she picked him up, and I hope I didn't offend her. Right now I'm just watching Ridge from about 9-12. That works really nice. We'll see how my nerves do with three kidlets when the hours get longer.
When they left Spencer and Milly and I ran to Dr. Duke's and Macey's. I had called Dr. Duke earlier to ask about getting some ADD meds for DJ. Dan was diagnosed with ADD back in May. I filled out a little test in Dr. Duke's office that had me rate him in various areas on a scale of 1-5. Dr. Duke said a score of 39-45 was a high indicator of ADD. Dan scored a 63!! We started on a pill called methylin that he took twice a day. It was 5 mg. each time. We just didn't notice any difference. And we were told that you can see a difference the first day. So after a few weeks we switched to Concerta once a day at 27 mg. Again, I didn't see any change, and Daniel complained of headaches. So we stopped. Then we tried again when school started back up. Headaches. We stopped. Well, I just couldn't take it anymore, especially after Monday's adventure. For my sanity, I need the poor kid medicated. He struggles so much with staying on task, impulse control, school, homework, reading, listening, etc. Those affect me as much as him. It's tough, because part of me does not want to medicate my little boy. But the other part knows how much of a difference medicine has made in my life. I take Effexor for what I lovingly refer to as my "Brain Fog." I have been diagnosed with depression, but I think it is more of a cocktail of all chemical imbalances. I read up and can't find one thing that fits. Instead I find symptoms from everything; depression, anxiety, OCD, ADD, bi-polar, sex addiction. (Just Kidding!) (Not Really) Anyway, Dr. Duke gave us another prescription for methylin. This time at 10mg. I really hope this works. Daniel needs this to work, and I need this to work.
He has been in his room since Monday. I decided that 6 days was a little much for a 10 year old and told him since I didn't know where he was for 2 1/2 hours, he could stay in his room for 2 1/2 days. When he got home from school today I played cheerleader as I showed him the pills. He was actually excited because his teacher had suggested he go back on them today. I guess they saw a difference. Then we had a talk about the music he listens to. I call it Devil Music. He calls it Cool. It's Metallica and the like. I talked to him about how important it was for him to be able to hear and feel the spirit so that he could get the help he needs with ADD and homework. I talked to him about classical music and the studies on it being really good for you. Then I put in my favorite...Rachmaninoff and a Theme From Paganini. He laughed at me as I directed the orchestra with his recorder. Then we said a prayer. I went first, asking Heavenly Father to please help this little boy with his ADD and his school work, and his choices. He has such a sweet heart and good soul and wants so bad to do the right thing. Then Daniel prayed. I was expecting him to ask for help...but instead he just thanked Heavenly Father for all the blessings in his life. Especially his mom. Who he said he didn't think was a dope. :) These are the kind of moments when I know I am doing things right. When I know I am treating these children in the way God wants me to, and parenting with the love and patience that He would. Why can't all moments be like this?
At Macey's we dropped off some film and picked up wraps for Milly's hand. After having Spencer throw one to many things in the cart, I put him in the basket. He was not amused, and was whining to get out. So I told him that we should play Animal Rescue. He could be Diego and the cart could be his boat. I'd be Alicia and Milly could be Baby Jaguar. We needed to rescue some dolphins. He got very into that! We went down the isle's with him shouting at me "Alicia! There's a dolphin! Save him!" When I slipped and called Milly by her name he would correct me, "NO! She's jaguar!" Very cute.
It's 5:30 right now. At 6:00 Ryan and I have to go to a health screening. At 7:30 I'm supposed to meet Dom at the gym. And at 8:00 Ryan has a dental appointment. He was in so much pain from a toothache last night that we had to skip watching the American Idol premiere with Carol. Sad.