Snow Business

This post is brought to you by the BLIZZARD OF 2006. We're having a white Christmas in Denver, y'all.

See, I wouldn't normally have time to write this post. My life has been a flurry of errands, driving The Kid to and fro, and work. But Blizzards? They prevent us from running errands. Both of The Kid's schools are closed today (both of them, that's right. I'll get to that later...). My friend Shannon wrote today in her blog that this must be proof that God hates Christmas, because now the last minute shoppers (okay, I'm so included in this category) will not have time to purchase all that they need before Sunday. I think an alternative theory on this is that God hates last minute shoppers.

I take it to mean, however, that God really loves me, because I really really really needed a day where I stayed at home in my pajamas all day. So, well, aw shucks, God, you must really like me. Thanks a lot.

So. On to what I would post about had I the time.

The Kid.

He's really doing remarkably well. Something happened shortly after Thanksgiving. He honestly had a completely crap Thanksgiving weekend, and it was right about then that I noticed how chunky the boy had become. Like not fitting into his jeans. Like I could see chins, in the multiple, where in past months, it was hard to find anything chubby about The Kid ever, on any part of his body.

We made some notable changes to his medications, as in dropped completely the evils of the atypical antipsychotic (which, while it is as scary as it sounds, is a very normal prescription med for pediatric bipolar disorder) and switched back to Abilify, which is ultimately an antipsychotic med as well, but seemingly without these scary side effects. A "new generation" med for crazy kiddos.

He's also not taking as MUCH medicine, which is always cause for joy.

And you know what? He's loads better. We're still seeing some troublesome stuff, however, so we're not done. He gets really sleepy in the late afternoon, which, funny enough, is when he has the least amount of medication in his body. The doctors are confused, but they are committed to figuring it out at least.

We've also found a school placement for him after the holidays. It is a special classroom, a special school, in fact, for kids that can't quite handle all of the 'inclusion' of a regular SIED program. It is very much a "self-contained" program, which a lot of SIED programs call themselves as well, but it is truly "self-contained." The SIED classroom The Kid was in back in October when all of the hospital talk began spent a great deal of effort to get the kids to be in the general education classroom settings. So, the most sensory overloading parts of these children's days would be spent with the rest of the school: Art, Music, PE, Recess, Lunch. I've always assumed that this choice for 'gen ed' time was more because of scheduling issues than for "concern" to get the kids included in a general ed program, but that's kind of beside the point right now. Basically, The Kid can't handle a classroom of more than 10 kids. All of the good things that have happened to him, all of the strides he's made, they go out the door in large settings.

We've visited this school twice. Once, I drove him there and we all met with the staff and it was just them, me and The Kid. The second time, I did not go. The Kid will be taking the bus (an hour long drive!), so he tried that out, and spent the day with them on Monday. He was supposed to go today, but oops! Snow day.

The best news ever? I told The Kid this morning that he didn't need to wake up early, that we had a snow day today. Know what he said, "No! I wanted to go to school!"

Music. My ears totally heard music there.