Growing Up

My husband was invited to give a message at a youth group this past Saturday. I thought we could make a date of it and we left the kids w/ my ILs. I took the time to shower, make-up, dress-up, etc... If i may say so... i looked pretty good :) I was excited to hear what Mathias had to share w/ the youth & to see all the "kids" from before we moved to km81. I have several things coming to me that evening.... (HAHA!)

1. It wasn't my church that was hosting the meeting. It was the other congregation. I had expected to see a bunch of people I knew and in the end there were very few familiar faces. Not a big deal at all! I got to meet amazing people who had amazing stories to tell of their lives, etc. Just unexpected.

2. "Muy bien, y Ud?" (*sigh*)... How to translate this.... The English language has no formal pronoun. There is I, you, he she, it, we, they... and what is considered formal You. But it's still not formal enough. Spanish & German have the Usted and the Sie. If you speak in the Usted/Sie form you mean serious respect for the person you're speaking to. I'd go up to the youth (feeling pretty young myself).. "Hey! Que tal?" and they'd reply (standing up straighter, looking me in the eyes and keeping their body to themselves) "Bien, y Usted?". At first i'd look at the speaker in the eye to gauge their seriousness... are they playing w/ me? Did she REALLY refer to me so formally? Indeed. I'm old and deserve respect (*double sigh*). My sarcastic mind looked around for an usher to respectfully "usher" me to my designated seat. HA!

3. After the pgm the kids came out of the building to mingle and chat. I looked around seeking a corner to wait for my husband to finish his obligatory chit-chat. Never did finish scoping out the territory... One by one young ladies approached me to share about themselves & their uncertain future. Well, there weren't so many... just 2... and then a couple who approached both of us together. But still! I was amazed by the comfort these young adults had to approach us... to seek us out to share their concerns. I have to admit that this was one of the most touching experiences that evening (although the age thing did cut a close second...). I never was the kind of person people would come to for advice or direction. Most of the time my comments are "walked around." Not interesting or not to the point. So you can understand how these honest questions threw me for a loop. God whispered to my heart... "You can do it! They'll listen." and i opened the floodgates and spoke my heart to the 2 girls. It felt great to feel God's guidance and follow his direction.

:)

Cindy

Home-Made Ritalin

 I ran across a piece of information on the internet last night that said that a regular cup of coffee contains the equivalent of 5mg of Ritalin. A starting pediatric dose of Ritalin is 20mg per day. This was fascinating to me! My 4 year old is a lovely little boy... but he's a little bit special. He has tons of energy, can be aggressive when he's all wound up and therefore has discipline issues. It's a challenge being the mommy that he needs me to be. It takes a lot of creativity and patience - and forgiveness! So when I read this article, I swallowed it hook, line & sinker.

Let me describe my day to you:

Tuesday's DIET....
6:00am - Milk w/ a 1/2t powdered chocolate milk
               =>Chocolate is actually a no-no, but i couldn't get him to quit cold turkey... i just decreased the    
                    amount of chocolate in his drink.
7:30am - Breakfast - Carrot & Cut of Coffee
9:30am - Mid-morning snack - PizzaRoll & Yes-Yes (Corn Puffs?)
12:00pm - Lunch - Beans & Rice
              => Protein is a BIG YES for Hyperactive kids.
3:00pm - After Siesta Snack - Yogurt & Banana
5:00pm - Cup of Coffee
6:00pm - Supper - Rice & Beans
8:30pm - Bedtime

Now for the BEHAVIORAL SIDE....

It actually wasn't a good day to start today... I had my Womens' Book Group this morning. Two women come w/ their small kids (ages 1, 5, & 5). I made sure to have an extra prayer session because of this. The morning before the women arrived went pretty normal as usual. He played nicely w/ his toys & watched a morning cartoon. When the group arrived he got a bit wired, but surprisingly it wasn't too bad. Under "normal" circumstances, my 4yo will become a bit aggressive when he's hyper-stimulated. It's never mal-intended, but it happens. Today he was upset bc the other kids were in his room messing it up, but he didn't ever throw anything at them or push them around, kick or spit. I still had to interrupt the reading group to go talk to him, but it was never bc he was hurting himself or others. Personally, I consider this progress.

And so was the rest of my day. He still has lots of energy & would impulsively do things that he typically does... but the aggressive edge was toned down a bit in circumstances I predicted he'd normally react w/ aggression.

IMPRESSIONS

I (and other educational and behavioral professionals) agree that my 4yo has strong tendencies towards being ADHD. Diagnosis is traditionally done once children start school. This is still nxt year for him. For now I can pull ideas off the internet and other non-prescriptive means to try to manage him. I haven't really tried anything til today. For a long time i just figured he'd "grow out of it." This coffee idea has helped me confirm my suspicions that he's ADHD. I truly believe that there was a slight improvement in his conduct today. It wasn't an Earth-Shattering change... but then again the cup of coffee only has 1/4th of a regular Ritalin dose.

Still need to make substantial progress w/ proper diet.

Do any of you (my faithful readers...) have any personal experience w/ energetic children? Do you have special coping mechanism for yourself? Management skills for the kid? Support is always a positive endeavor!! :)

Cheers!

Potty Training

Have you ever Potty-Trained a toddler? If you're a mom, you probably have already (or you will pretty soon). It's not easy. It's not fun. It proves that the theory of relativity is true because time certainly seems to go on forever while trying to keep those undies dry.

My oldest (age 3) has been day-time potty-trained for about a year and a half. I've heard this is pretty good. At the time, he was in daycare & the teachers at school did a great job at supplementing my training. They probably are the main reason he is diaper-free.

But now we've moved away & i don't have this great daycare program anymore. I'm trying to train him to be dry during naps & nights. We've got approximately a 70% probability that he'll wake up dry. This percentage sometimes goes down. It's so discouraging to train a little boy who sleeps like a rock. I'm tempted to just let him use a diaper, but then i think, "We could be THIS close to being dry... if i give up now, i'll have to start all over again!" So i get up every 3 hours at night, change wet undies, wet pj bottoms & wet sheets.

I'm calling out to all my friends out there who've already had potty-training experience. Here are some of my questions: Should I just relax & let him use a diaper until he consistently wakes up dry each morning? Should I make a reward system? How do i get him to wake up enough to feel the urge to pee?

Well, that's all for now. I gotta go take a nap bc last night i had to get up twice to change wet stuff =(

Grace & Peace ~ (cd)