Well, I tried.

Killian: "I'm Indiana Jones. Oh no! Where's my bag?"

Me: "I ate it."

Killian: "What?"

Me: "I ate it."

Killian: "You ate the bag?!"

Me: Haha, just kidding! Is that funny?"

Killian: "No."

Either he doesn't get jokes or my jokes really aren't that funny.

Parenting tip of the day: TRICK THEM

You read that right, I trick my son...and I do it proudly. (Let me explain and you just might think differently.)

Every night for my son is a sleepless struggle. I give him at least 1 to 1.5ml of liquid melatonin at night to help him sleep. This was a recommendation from his psychologist for the sleepless nights. It's either this, or I let him keep me up until 4am, get up at 6am, struggle with him until he misses his bus, then receive more truancy letters for my 5 YEAR OLD SON. So yeah... I do give my son a natural hormone that we already produce in our bodies, to sleep.

The "drops" as we call them, do not do all the work themselves. Yes, they help tremendously! However, I have to set the "tone" and right environment to for him to tire out. I turn off all the lights in the living room (sometimes he gets mad and turns at least one back on) then I head to my room. I tell him, "Okay, Killian, I'm gonna go lay down!" This kid doesn't really like being alone in a room by himself, so he soon follows. Sometimes I will pick out a show or movie for him to watch, sometimes I let him pick.

Here's where the "trick" comes in. I will pause and take a break from it. I'm not the type of person that really wants my kid to fall asleep to a TV or computer. So... I take it over. Meanwhile, I tell him, "I gotta do something, so you need to wait." Sometimes I add, "Just put your head down and we'll get back to it when I am done." Then I start doing things like checking my e-mail or research on the internet. Next thing I know, he's bored and fallen asleep.

SCORE!!

Honestly, he "falls" for it every time. If you have a kid that is as sleepless as mine, you know the victory of getting a kid to bed before 9pm... or midnight... or whatever.

It's not all a trick though. If he starts to get restless and I know that he needs a little more stimulation before he can commit to bed, I will turn the show or movie back on. So I am not lying to him. It's just a little trick I have learned along the way.

I hope this works for someone else too....if you don't think I'm a terrible parent for it. ;)

Millions of years ago...

Due to my son's complicated speech issues, he did not start really speaking until the age of 4. He is now 5.5 years old. (Well, he will be as of tomorrow.) Well, since he has found his voice (thank goodness he did), he has been cracking me up. He has such a unique perspective on the world. I want to share some of our conversations with you by posting them here. With that said, here is the first one....


Ok so the other day, I held up both my index fingers, then put them together and asked my son, "One, plus one, equals?" Then he slowly moved my fingers apart as if they were doors opening and said, "Welcome...to Jurassic Park." -__-



-G

New beginning....again?

Hi everyone!

This is probably my billionth blog site. There are many areas of my life that I intended to keep posting about. Unfortunately, not all of them really stuck as I wanted them to. This new blog will be about my general adventures as a parent and my quest to raise a happy kid. That kid is Killian.

Without releasing too much information, he's one of the quirkiest, funniest, literally THE coolest little 5 year old nerd you will ever (or never) meet.

He has been diagnosed with a number of things. For the sake of getting it over with and not dancing around it for months, I will disclose it for those interested enough to care.

• PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) which is an autism spectrum disorder
• Language Dyspraxia (I believe the diagnosis was more intended to be verbal dyspraxia) This is a neurological disorder that affect the brain's ability to communicate with the mouth for speech and motor planning .....or something.
• Receptive Expressive Language Disorder (this, I am told, basically means he can understand more than he can speak. He definitely has major issues with comprehension)
• Oppositional Defiant Disorder (Before you go jumping down my throat, understand that this is not some lame catch-all diagnosis. I'll admit, I chuckled when I first heard of it. When I began to realize my son actually had it, even before the official diagnosis, I wasn't smirking anymore. It's a real disorder and a real pain in the butt! Ahem....)
• ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) He can't sit still for too long, he wanders, runs everywhere, doesn't pay attention, yada yada yada, I'm sure you've heard of it.)
• Bipolar-NOS (Bipolar Not Otherwise Specified) This means that he has some of the major symptoms of Bipolar Disorder but not all. He's too young to be officially diagnosed with it, if that is in fact, what he has.)

Am I missing anything? Yes, I think so, but that's about the bulk of it. Now, I know what a lot of people are thinking. It's not any different than what people tell me to my face. How could I allow them to "LABEL" him in such a way? And in so many different ways?! Well, random reader, you don't understand this child. You never will. Every single doctor, professional, teacher, therapist, you name it... has told me that even in an industry (of helping children with special needs), my son really seems to stick out.

It is very possible for comorbity to occur between these disorders and it has. True, some disorders "blend" with others and he may lose a diagnosis. That's okay! For now, please understand and trust that I have consulted with our areas best and brightest professionals on how to parent this child.

So now that the I'm the Mom of a Special Needs Kid: Don't Judge Me spiel is done, I'll introduce myself. I'm Gianna, currently 26 years old. I love art, shopping, singing, relaxing and geeky stuff. I enjoy simple things in life. I don't smoke, drink, go partying or jump out of airplanes. I have absolutely no desire to do anything to risk bodily harm....other than enjoy a nice, big, fat, piece of cake. Oh yeah.

Some of my favorite things to do are to travel and laugh. I try to make lots of things fun and will do my best to keep this blog funny. If not, then let's pretend I didn't try, yeah?

Lots to talk about and looking forward to putting this out there... whether you read it or not.

-G