What a tiring day

Today I took Addison to see a developmental pediatrician at the
Kennedy-Krieger Institute in Baltimore. It was a long drive and I got
a little lost (Baltimore is more confusing than DC!), but the overall
experience was good. I learned that the issues our "little guys" have
are uncommon but not entirely unusual. It was nice to hear that I'm
not crazy! I still have a ton of questions (ASD vs. NLD vs. ADHD?) but
I'll be taking both boys in together in three weeks, so hopefully I'll
get more answers then. In the meantime I'm learning all I can about
autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and non-verbal learning disabilities
(NLD) to see if I can arm myself with knowledge when I go to battle
the school over special education issues. Wish me luck!

Don't forget to vote!

Tomorrow is a very important day for our country. For me, it's exciting to see the possibility of real change on the horizon. It's no secret that our family supports Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and will move out of the country if they lose (kidding!). Seriously, though, please take the time to vote, regardless of your political leanings. It may be the most important ballot you cast in your entire life!

BTW, in case any of you missed it, I was interviewed by the Washington Post's Loudoun Extra. We were at Sarah Palin rally (seriously!), which was a short walk from our house.  In fact, her motorcade was parked approximately two blocks from our house.  I'm not a big fan of her, but it was still pretty cool. You can read the blog post here: Living In Loudoun County Blog

 

The longest weekend

Loudoun County schools do this odd thing where the teachers get two "teacher work days" at the end of the first marking period. Somehow, every year, they make these work days coincide with election day. That's right, the kids won't go back to school until Wednesday. For many families long weekends are perfect times for little getaways or just general family togetherness. Our family just tries hard not to go insane.

If you read the post above this one and followed the link, you may notice that Sebastian was with us at the Sarah Palin rally last Monday. Contrary to what many of my friends thought, he didn't earn that day off from school as a reward. He was actually suspended from school for destruction of school property. We figured that a morning spent somewhat cold and VERY bored would be a good way to make a day home from school not FEEL like a reward. I'm not sure if it worked... read on.

I pointed that incident out to give an example of how the kids have been in rare form lately. Just today, I spoke with Addison's teacher and she's INSISTING that I come along on their upcoming field trip. It seems that the boys aren't trusted to keep out of trouble and I'm sure that the school, especially the teachers, don't like the liability implications of something going wrong away from school grounds. Last year, Addison didn't do so well on the National Zoo trip and no one wants to see a repeat performance. In light of Sebastian's recent activities at school, they certainly don't trust him either.

So, that brings me back to this LONG weekend. Just the other day (Saturday?), Addison and Sebastian wandered off to a neighbor's back yard. Said neighbor has a lovely decorative koi pond in it. The boys thought it might be fun to make the fish move (they don't move much, since they're getting ready to hibernate) by throwing very large landscaping rocks at them. Thank goodness these are amazingly tolerant neighbors and, although Sebastian did manage to fall in, no one was hurt. Well, we're not sure about the fish yet, but at least the boys are okay.

This is ultimately why the weekend is seeming to last forever. I mean, no sooner did we drag them home from the pond fiasco, than Sebastian gave Addison a bloody nose, while Addison gave Sebastian a bloody nose AND a good knock on the head by pushing him into their dresser. It is exceedingly difficult to a) keep the boys from "forgetting" that they're supposed to be grounded, b) get anything done while still keeping them under constant surveillance, and c) keep them from getting into MORE mischief out of boredom.

In short, don't expect to hear much from me until Wednesday. Right now, keeping my boys from killing themselves and/or each other and keeping myself sane are top priorities. Wednesday, the school can take over for a few hours and I might finally get some rest!

You found us!

Welcome to the new companion blog for CooperativeMayhem.com.  I'm just getting started, but there will be more coming soon!