Aug 2 in 2021

Made it back for day 2! Woot woot! Tate has been home from daycare the whole last week because of her taking a (well deserved) vacation and so we have been able to not nap him which means he’s been going to bed at like 7/7:30 and it is so glorious to have a second in the evening not battling him or being exhausted or rushing to bed.

This age when they still nap at daycare but really shouldn’t is so tough. Also he will be 3 in less than 3 weeks. These last 3 years have gone by faster than any kids years ever.

• We decided to move Luke back to mainstream school this year. He had kind of hit a plateau at his private dyslexia school, still can’t really read at 10 years old and was having some social issues because of how limited his friend choices were there. It was a rough last few months of school for him and after a talk with his friend’s mom (about moving him to the other private dyslexia school that’s 45 minutes from our house that she moved her kid to, one of the head people at the original school left and started her own program. I couldn’t get over the idea of the 45 minute commute downtown. ) I randomly decided we should try mainstreaming him. This also happened after I’d talked with a woman in the district about how I’d go about getting him re-evaluated and set up with a new IEP and it all just kind of pushed me over the edge. I asked Luke if he wanted to and the idea of making more normal friends is so appealing to him and he was game to give it a try. After more hemming and hawing about the assessment request process I requested before the end of the school year so that they are forced to evaluate him in the first month of school and get an IEP set up quickly.

-I am hoping this is a good choice and if not he can go to one of the other two schools and we’ll figure things out. The BEST part is he and Ryne will be at the same school and can walk to and from school together without a parent and that idea is AMAZING to me. They both are excited about that. We’re going to buy luke one of the Timex T mobile watches where you can track them on the GPS and he can call like 4 people just to be safe, but I do trust him to walk his brother safely home, I used to let him walk and pick him up from kinder alone already. There’s one big street to cross but an easy to use crosswalk and people aren’t sketchy there so I really don’t worry. I feel like it’s great life skills. And Derrick will be home the whole time they’re coming and going so it’s not like they’ll be latch-key kids.

-Keeping this entry focused on Luke we’ve been struggling so much with him in the last year and his outbursts and when he really digs his heels in to fight us over things. We started having him virtually see a psychologist probably 6 months ago and she’s been helpful. Portions of the sessions we sit in with him and there’s been some good dialogue that’s helped me learn some skills for managing him and she’s continuously working with him to teach him new ways to cope. She has identified that she’s pretty sure he’s ADD and possibly OCD too, and has encouraged us to seek more testing. That’s how I had first gotten in touch with the district lady, but quickly realized we needed a medical evaluation. The health system their Pedi is in is so annoying and just had us fill out one survey about him, and because his reading teacher did his evaluation and he’s usually in a class of 2-3 kids with them they scored him very normally vs how we did and so the neuropsych department refused to do further assessment on him. I was going to work on fighting them when things got REALLY bad over the 4th of July and I said screw it and we’ll pay out of pocket or I’ll see if I can submit the claim to Tricare and get them to cover it later. I called two places and once couldn’t see him until November, the other could see him this week so I made the earlier appt. We go on Wednesday, I have to miss a few hours of work to go to the beginning part where they talk with Derrick and I and then I’ll leave the two of them there while Luke speaks with the psychiatrist. I don’t know where this will lead but I know there is stuff going on that is so out of his control and Derrick struggles with ADD and I for sure have some legit OCD tendencies so I wouldn’t be surprised if he were both. Luke is somehow like so many of Derrick and I’s struggles rolled into one kid, it’s sometimes just so painful and hard for both us. Well all of us really.

OK that was 10 minutes plus one and I need to get ready for early bedtime.

MSR