Day 50 Unmedicated, Unquestionable Smiles

As with most days, today had its ups and downs... Actually, there really weren’t many downs at all. More like ups and evens. Nothing to really complain about and that’s pretty noteworthy. Ohhh, don’t get me wrong... There was plenty of that typical bickering amongst siblings, but it wasn’t all that bad today. In fact, I have been pleasantly surprised at how well my son has been controlling himself the last couple of days.

Our decision to have my son begin medication was not taken lightly. We waited a few years, trying out different strategies and hoping with all that we could muster that maybe, just maybe he would outgrow his ADHD symptoms. Well, that never really happened and we weren’t finding enough success with other strategies so we had the talk with my son about medication. 

It was important to us that he would be on board with this because if he doesn’t want to do it, it would be so much more difficult to follow through on. For example-- My son hates anything gummy. It’s just a sensory thing I guess. Well, we heard of specific vitamin supplement that claimed to help with focus. The problem was that they were gummies. 

It would take him forever to eat them! 

One night, I was awakened by him. telling me that he had something stuck to his face. Yep, he wasn’t kidding! He had gobbly gook mixed with drool plastered to his face from lip to ear and beyond! It was clear he had fallen asleep with vitamins in his mouth! This child somehow managed to eat dinner and brush his teeth while these vitamins stayed untouched tucked away in his cheek! What?! I did think that the vitamins were really helping, but as you see, it was too difficult to get the five year old to actually eat them! So, as you see, we needed him on our side. 

When he was 8 years old (told you waited a few years), we talked it over with him. At first, he was concerned about the medicine changing him (that’s a mature thought). I explained that the medicine was only in his body for 24 hours and if he didn’t like how he felt on it, he could simply not take it again. We had to try different medications to find the right one, but through it all, he liked being able to focus and control himself better so he’s stuck with it. 

But the last 2 days, he was amazingly in control, despite being off medication. I took the kids out to eat last night and he was great! I took them swimming today, and again... great! He had a blast at the pool, diving under the water to retrieve hidden goggles and playing underwater tag. I’m not sure why there’s a difference, but I’m happy to see it.  We'll certainly be contemplating this... 

I’d love to see him off medication again, and this gives me hope. We’ll just have to see... I don’t expect drastic change, but any improvement is not only noteworthy but smile worthy as well! I’m so glad he had a good day! I love that kid so much...

Day 43 Underwater Laughing

Can you do it? Can you laugh underwater? I, personally, have never attempted this! I have a bit of an anxiety (gee, wonder where my kids get their anxiety issues from) about swimming that I really try to hide from my kids. I happen to like having my feet on the bottom of the pool and I don’t go more than knee deep in the ocean or lakes (okay, the ocean/lake thing I don’t hide quite so well).  My nervousness prevents me from trying many things like handstands, underwater tea parties, and apparently, underwater laughing! 

At the pool today, I wanted to work on getting my kids more comfortable swimming with their faces in the water. Neither of my kids are strong swimmers. With my own anxiety aside, I wouldn’t trust either of them in to swim more than five feet, and my daughter seems to think that she’s forgotten how to swim entirely, despite the months of swimming lessons she’s received from trained professionals (for which we paid a lot of money, I might add). 

So after the kids had practiced swimming comfortably with their life jacket or boogie board, I was able to get my little not-so mermaid to shed the life jacket and give swimming a try. Oh, she was nervous! But she was trusting of me (that makes me smile) and found a comfortable step for footing. She checked her oh so important goggles for water tightness, she steadied her footing, she grabbed ahold of the railing with one, she eyed my distance from her and debated how far she thought she could manage. As she pushed away from the step, I could see the fear in her eyes, but you know what? She was smiling! She dove forward, kicked her legs and reached with her arms... she made it to me! Yay!! All smiles!

She was ready to try again! With steady footing, she prepared for the lunge. This time, she submerged her face and swam under water to me! Whoa! Where’d this come from? She began swimming back to the step and allowed me to go further and further out. She was definitely getting comfortable. 

During one of her dives, as she was swimming towards me, being a fish in her words, she apparently spied my son’s hiney (covered) through her goggles underwater. Having the typical sense of humor of a young child, she found this funny! And so she began to laugh! Underwater! I had no idea what was going on so I immediately pulled her up (water anxiety, remember?), but she was actually laughing! Not kidding! Laughing and smiling, even as I was pulling her from what I thought was a watery demise. Once I realized she was perfectly fine, I was smiling too, but reminded her that maybe underwater isn’t the place to start LOL’ing! 

Her progress, good humoredness and bravery (I'm still not about to try laughing underwater) was definitely smile worthy! 

Before anyone decides to pass judgement on me being afraid to go in the ocean, have you watched Shark Week yet? Um, case closed. I'll come up with an excuse for the lake later!