Late night last night. We put Chance down about 7:00 and he was fine, and by 9:00 he had woken
up screaming with a 103.5 fever, saying his head hurt. We got the fever down but for the most part I
sat with him in front of the TV for a few hours. (I think we are officially in the phase of
childhood where every illness will come through the house.) Around 1:30 he finally sits up, looks at me,
and says, “I feel better, mom.” 

Can I tell you how nice it is to finally be able to communicate,
meaningfully and at important times, with my child?! “Does your tummy hurt?” “No.”  “Does
your head hurt?”  “Yes.” It sounds like it should be easy… but breaking
through that communication barrier is major!

I get him to the doctor this morning; he’s got green snot
shooting out of his eyes, nose, you name it, but he’s still crashing around
just like normal. Turns out he has ear
infections in both ears. I made a
comment about how it’s hard to know when to bring him in and his doctor smiled
and said, “Yeah, he’s got a high pain threshold.  The criteria I’d tell most parents to watch
for… well, he doesn’t really fit it.”

On a similar note (and speaking of germ fests!), I’m very
pleased to say that Chance is officially moving up to the next classroom at
preschool this week. He has been
“visiting” a couple of the older classrooms for the last month, and what a
difference the change
in environment has made! He’s still a
very active kid and his focus can be all over the place, but the aggression issues
have gotten way better!  Both of the
preschool directors suspected that Chance was getting over stimulated and
overwhelmed, and therefore lashing out, in the two-year-old room because it can
be really chaotic in there.  (And I think
his teachers were struggling because Chance wasn’t acting within predictable
parameters for most toddlers.)  The older
classrooms are calmer than the two-year-old room, the kids play in different
ways, there are no group trips to the bathroom.  I think there are probably more challenging
toys and activities for him, too.  So I
am very excited about this move.  Best of
all, one of my best friends and Chance’s godmother is one of the teachers in
his new room!  yay!

Of course, I am continuing to work with him and I’m still
keeping an eye on his development (because he IS very active and I am not ruling out ADHD, regardless of what
behavior modification work we do or what environment he’s in). The school district won’t do an assessment
for him unless/until he is enrolled in one of their schools, AND they don’t
necessarily cover the criteria we’re watching for so I need to pursue some
other private routes. Again, I am super
happy Chance’s godmother is with him as she has an ADHD child herself and she’s
so unbelievable good with kids it
blows my mind.  (Like, I seriously could
not do that job.)

But it feels good to know that we are making progress.  And at some point (and I know this will sound
crazy but it’s true) I could see Chance
making some decisions to act in certain, better ways… more listening, less
tantrums, etc… and for that I am very very proud of him.      

   – the
weirdgirl