Summer

On June 8th, I thought summer would last forever.  But here we are at the end of July and we have about 1 month left of summer vacation.  And the best part is that we will be gone for a while on our family vacation.  Very much looking forward to that.

There has been a lot of bickering in the house this summer.  It seems as though it is always two of the boys that hang together and then there is one man out.  The arguments are ridiculous.  I get a lot of Mom he touched me with his pinky or Mom he is looking at me cross eyed.  It has been a bit frustrating to me.  Typically, if the boys are having a hard time, I get them out in the pool. But at times even that does not settle the arguing. 

We only had a few camps lined up for the summer.  Yes, I made a mental note to have more camps for next summer.  It helps for the boys to have an activity in the morning.  The boys recently did vacation bible school at our church.  They really had a good time.  Tee went to a Wee chefs camp and had a good time making and eating the food.  The older boys did a baseball camp last week.  They were taught by professional baseball players and learned a lot.

The boys have been working on their summer homework.  I ended up finding a package for Kindergarten for Tee.  So he has been working on that as the older two work on theirs.  Summer is just so long and it is good to keep their math skills sharp.  In fact, the boys have a tutor who is reviewing some of the math concepts they learned last year.  She will only come once a week for 4 weeks but I think this will help for when school starts.  I really noticed that the tutor helped last summer.

We decided we were going to ban all technology (itouches, computers, xbox, wii) for three days during a week.  The boys will go from one thing to another and I just get so frustrated.  We sat down with the boys and made a list of all the things that they could instead.  It was so nice.  They found other things to do.  I am getting ready to pull another round, maybe even do 4 days this time.

Garden was a bust this year.  I ended up planting it late and have had very small yield.  I usually have more cucumbers than I know what to do with.  This year, I have not had a one.  Zucchini, same thing.  I have had a nice helping of green beans and the boys just picked another round today.  I am fairly certain a family of bunnies have nested in my garden and are having an easy time getting their meals.  So mad at these creatures.  At this point, I will probably pull it all up.

I have made progress on some of my home projects.  It has felt good to clean up and clear out.  I still have a ways to go but progress is progress.  It makes me want to keep on going.  Of course, I always get sad when I have to clear out the stuff Tee has outgrown.

But now my focus is changing to get ready for vacation.  And that makes me happy.

2 Wheels

The husband has worked hard on teaching Tee to ride his bike without training wheels.  He did not have a lot of motivation to learn.  He was forced a bit.  But has picked it up pretty well.  Dad has tried to teach him at home but we have a few hills.  We have taken him to a flat parking lot and he worked on turning.  He definitely likes turning left and not right. 

Let's get started.

It is a family affair!



Every once in a while he goes off track!

He has fallen a bit but always gets up and right back on.  He took a big spill the other day and scraped up his hand really bad.  He did not cry. 

We had hoped that he would be ready to have his own bike on our vacation but he is just not there.  He tends to look down at his feet and crashes.  But is will work out with a tandem bike.

How did we get here?

I am not sure how we got here but I know for sure this is not where we can stay. At first it appeared to come on very suddenly. Then we realized it has been a problem for a while and we got little bits of it here and there. Now it just seems really big but we are hoping to be on track to get it under control. 

Our first born is having so many issues. We really took note of it probably about a year ago. He would have these crying fits. He would typically say that he hated his life during these periods. We, the husband and I, knew this wasn’t normal but at the same time thought he would grow out of this stage. It was hard for us to understand and we were not really sure where it all was coming from. These fits eventually became less and less but the problem didn’t go away.

The problem is a little more evident during sports. He strives to be the best and is disappointed when he is not. It was a little problem during basketball in the winter but really came to a head during the baseball season. They practice throughout the winter and start tournaments in March prior to the season starting in April. They played many more games this season.


He was giving the coaches (including Dad) a hard time during practices. He did not like being corrected and at times he would end up crying. Prior to every practice a talk was usually had but it really didn’t help much.


The end of the season was worse than it had been all year. He had started to struggle a bit with hitting which would spark this terrible attitude. He did get taken out of a few games and he only played in a few innings in the last tournament they played in.

Summer and non-routine days has not been a good thing for my child. He struggles with what to do minute by minute. Any suggestions given are shrugged off. He has really been so angry much of the time. If you correct him for anything, he will usually stomp off and get really mad.


I can’t describe how frustrating/upsetting this has been for both the husband and I. It hurts so badly to not be able to do anything to help your child. It is hard to see your child suffering. It just sucks all around.


You would never know any of this if you just met my child or were around him for a little bit. He is such a sweet caring child.


I am not sure why I didn’t do something prior to now and why I let it get this bad. But that is no longer the case. I have a friend who referred me to this great psychologist. She works just with children.


The husband and I met with the psychologist a few weeks ago. We were able to share all of the experiences we have had. She is certain she can help us. What a relief.


E’s first appointment was last week and boy did he throw a fit. I literally had to drag him to the car and into the office. But I felt so much better when he walked out with a smile on his face. I asked him after the appointment if he liked her and he said yes. I also asked him if he thought she would be able to help him and he says yes. He is getting help, now, while he is young and before we get too deep into whatever we are dealing with.


Today was his second appointment. There was no fight to have to go. He came out with a smile on his face. He told me a little about what they talked about. So I guess I don’t really care how we got here anymore…..and I know we have a long way to go but I am just focusing on getting better.

Summer

It is July already.  June seemed to drag a bit but that may have been due to baseball season extending to the end of the month. 

The boys had their end of season tournament.  The team played so well.  They ended up winning the tournament.  Out of the 6 games they played, they won all but one. 

Happy boys with Coach Dad!

I have not enrolled the boys in many camps this summer.  I did put them in a track and field camp.  I wasn't sure how they would like it.  They did it with a couple of friends.  They had such a good time.  The camp is held one week by a local small church.   

All week the boys did different activities leading up to the meet on Friday evening.  All of the running races would be held Friday evening.  In order to get all events in they have 2 kids qualify for each of the other events.  E and Jay wanted to do the Discus and long jump.  E qualified to compete in both events. 

E threw it beyond where the tape measure ended.  He got first place.



E was struggling a bit with this one, he ended up taking 2nd place.

 The boys decided to participate in the 100, 200 and 400 meter runs.  The 100 meter was first.  They placed second and third.



2nd place



3rd place

The event also did a fun run for the younger siblings.  I had Tee do the run.  He was pretty excited about it. 


Loved his ribbon.

 I took this photo and was texting it to Dad.  Dad was in SC with his Dad who had surgery earlier in the morning.  He was bummed he didn't make the meet.  So as I was texting I motioned to Tee to come around the fence.  I looked up thinking I would see Tee right next to me or walking towards me.  I didn't see him anywhere.  I couldn't imagine where he had gone.  I started to panic a little bit.  I then looked around and noticed he was running around the entire track.  Then my laughing started.  He thought my motioning was to tell him to go around the track not to come to me. 

Unfortunately, the meet was stopped early because of lightning in the area.  We were bummed!  This camp will be on the top of my list for next summer.  All the boys will be able to participate. 

When I am able, I take the boys to Speed and Agility training.  It is a really good work out for them. 

Tee took swimming lessons.  He really improved from the first lesson. 

In our free time, we have been working on a puzzle.  We are at the point where we only get puzzles that have 1,000 pieces.  We have had a puzzle sitting around a while but we finally got to working on it.  It was a hard puzzle.  But we managed to get it all done.  The big bummer was that when we got to the end we realized we were missing a piece.

It has been so hot here lately.  We have been spending a lot of time in the pool.  It is the only way to stay cool but be outside for a little exercise. 

We are on the countdown to our vacation in August.