More change is in the air

So we are well into the school year now and getting into a pretty decent routine! The kids are getting to school *mostly* on time, everyone is adjusting well. Nathan is doing great, I love hearing him talk about preschool:). He is crazy inquisitive - I'm not sure Lynsey asked this many questions, but maybe I just don't remember. Sometimes I just have to ask him not to ask me any more questions, which I then feel bad about, but seriously! He seems to especially like asking them when I'm driving, which is the worst time for me to be answering a bunch of bizarre questions. Anyway, great to see that he is doing developmentally appropriate things in any case:). He still comes to lay down with me at night at least once a night. I asked him one morning why he still comes, and he says, "I just can't make it without you". Melt my heart! He can come lay down and snuggle with me for a while longer yet<3.

Lynsey has started doing gymnastics again, which I think is a good thing for her. She is a bit impatient to be doing the harder things, but I think she understands that she needs to master some of the more basic things first. She joined Girl Scouts which is kind of fun! She gets to be in a troop with her friend Ari which will hopefully be a good thing for her (they have a bit of a competitive relationship but they love each other!). She is doing great at school and I just love the situation she has at Horace Mann. She is making new friends and fitting in well - so thankful for that!

Now on to our precious Adam. Adam has been very challenging these last few weeks. That may be an understatement. I like to compare parenting Adam to high intensity interval training. It's either very easy or very hard. The hard parts are ridiculously hard, and you go until you can't breathe anymore. And then you get this recovery, which is easy and you get to rest and let your body recover, preparing you to go again. We are fully in the middle of a pretty intense session with that boy! He has been a stress case lately, it is getting so hard to manage! We can hardly say a word to each other, Brian and I, without him interrupting us with a rant of, "no we're not going to _________!" It.Is.Constant. He has done this before, but it wasn't as bad. He would pick out certain things that we were talking about and say that we weren't going there, and I just had to repeat it back to him, "no, we're not going to ______" and that was the end of it. I now have to repeat the phrase several times - like 4 or 5 or even more, and there is no guarantee that this will calm him down at all. He often just escalates it for 20 or 30 minutes more, and then eventually he does calm down. I actually *somewhat jokingly* said to Brian that we should just start texting each other when we're at home instead of talking. The only consolation we have at this time is that traditionally when he goes through these stressful times, it is only temporary and he does mellow out after 3 or 4 weeks usually. I don't know if this is the same thing, as I feel like he is still ramping up and we are a solid 3 weeks in now, but it just seems almost impossible that his little brain could keep this up (it will need some rest eventually from the high vigilance of having to keep track of every word we say!). I guess I should clarify that he does have mellow times throughout the day as well, thankfully we have had a beautiful fall so far and he's been able to be outside a lot. Sanity breaks, that is for sure!

On to what is changing! Well, in the midst of all this stress, we are going to be switching Adam to the public school that Lynsey is going to! We had planned on doing this sometime this year, and I've talked about it on this blog before, but the time frame has changed. Originally, we were thinking a really slow transition, maybe starting part time before Christmas and switching him full-time to the public school after Christmas. Well, we found out on Friday that his Program Manager is leaving - her last day is October 17th. A new Program Manager will be coming in, know next to nothing about Adam, and they will have to work with the school during the transition? That didn't seem like the best solution. So, his transition is being fast-tracked a bit - as in, he could start at the school as early as next week! The Principal of the school called me yesterday morning and I actually went into the school to tour the special needs classrooms and every other area of the school where Adam would be going. I sat down with her and the Psychologist and we talked a bit about where he would start, what kind of supports he would need right away, and how the assessments and writing of his IEP would work. It was a great meeting - I feel so much better about him going there! The classroom he will be in isn't that different than the classrooms as RSA, I think he will feel right at home in that environment. They have this awesome program called "Colt Companions" where students from General Ed classrooms volunteer with the special needs kids, and you can bet Lynsey has signed up for that! It's so scary, but I feel about as good as I think would be possible considering our situation. It's so funny, we weren't considering this area when we looked at houses, and kept trying to buy houses in other neighborhoods, but I guess God was working something else out for us that we were not aware of at that time:). I will keep you all posted about exactly when this is happening and how it goes, I still have to talk to the teacher of his classroom (she was out for the day yesterday). Prayers are appreciated! I know he can do this, he has managed a lot of changes in his young life, but he has been at the same school for 3 years. This would be a hard change for anybody, never mind a little guy that hates change as much as Adam:-/.