A Week, Briefly (5-10-21)

We had a better week than last.

Our psychiatrist authorized an increase in Brother's med, and that is working so far.  He's coming back into his own mind and body, and he's happier in general.  We had long conferences with his ABA therapists, and we all agree that he's learning and applying what he's been taught in ABA as long as his meds are working. 

 

And he's moving to the next level of fading.  His hours don't drop again yet, but the therapists will begin distancing themselves from him.  During his school work, they will sit farther away.  During play time,  they will be a little bit distracted from him.

This is not going to be an easy transition!

Beowulf is having to endure a series of med trials with his current med:  dilute the med in juice; double the dose; try just increasing the dose by half.  Take notes about everything.  He clearly responds very well to stimulant meds at the start, but the violence that follows as they either build up in his system or he develops a tolerance/intolerance to them is devastating.  

 

This series of trials is not only hard on him, it's hard on the whole family.  We only dare do a trial dosing when Sir Walter Scott is home to help with violent outbursts.  That means Beowulf gets no meds on days Sir Walter Scott is at work, and he cries for help, because when the meds work, they really work, and he knows it.  I've rediscovered a magnesium supplement that has helped me with restless leg syndrome in the past, and I've been giving some to Beowulf in the hopes that calmer muscles will result in a calmer body in general.  It seems to work for a few hours a day, at least.

 

We're still awaiting genetic testing results which will help us know more about what his body does with meds.

Kids keep making progress in schooling.

We finished our second round of The Book of Mormon Family Reader.  I'll be looking for another reader or pulling out one of our old ones to take its place in Morning Meeting.  In the meantime, we're enjoying the Book of Mormon videos released by our church over the past few years.

Nature Angel finished her science book!

 

 

She's working extra hard on Greek and Language Arts now.

Ladybug is very happy to put Rod and Staff Arithmetic 3 away for a season.  We're doing all of the activities in MLFLE Level 2.  She's increasing in confidence because the activities aren't too hard for her, and she's filling in gaps and learning new ways to think about skills that it looked like she'd mastered but actually only had a rudimentary understanding (this week it's been telling time and place value).  

She needs me to be present to lead and demonstrate these lessons every day, so Baymax and Lola have their lessons a little bit later in the morning than before.  Honestly, it's not a bad thing to give them some free time between Morning Meeting and lessons at the table.  And they're very helpful entertaining babies and toddlers for the first hour of the day.

Lola is rocking 100 Easy Lessons.

There's been a great deal of interest in robots as Mister Man pulled out a Christmas gift that must have been pushed to the back of his shelf.

Baymax likes math lessons better than reading lessons.  He's asked to put away The Reading Game and his Primary Phonics readers and just read books with me.  I've been game, and we take turns reading every other page.  Once we read a book together, he's been pulling it off the shelf and rereading it himself.  It's terribly endearing to watch my "baby" reading.

During creek explorations, the kids keep finding animal bones.  I keep failing to get pics . . . until this one!  Looks like a jay skull. 

We're kind of bouncing around between Morocco, Australia, and Egypt as library books arrive.  We're still reading about various nature subjects.

An impromptu art lesson for Ladybug.

Nature Angel only needs to wear her boot for maybe 2 more weeks!  Her foot is healing well.  

 We went to the park on Wednesday, and I have not a single picture.  We met friends there, and I had my hands full with Sugar Bear, so we just lived in the moment.  It was a glorious day, and I look forward to next Wednesday.

I realized that Belle's transcript is trapped in our old computer because I failed to back it up in the cloud.  We're researching scholarship opportunities, and we're going to need that transcript!  I spent a good long time trying to get the old computer to cooperate just enough to email the document to myself to no avail.  I'm going to have to find a repair service that can help me get that document . . . or I'm going to have to go through old assessment blog posts and re-create one.

We are thrilled that mask mandates are easing up, but we are stuck home from church this week because Super Star is awaiting results of yet another covid-19 test (her 10th, we think).  We are sure we are clear, but we are staying home out of respect for others.

 

I hope her results come today . . . we're going to have to cancel therapies and having our babies if we don't get results or if she comes back positive!