Splat Goes Life.

HAMILTON, Ohio (AP) — A southwest Ohio couple accused of abandoning the adopted 9-year-old son they raised from infancy by giving him to child welfare officials have pleaded not guilty. The parents, who were indicted on misdemeanor counts of nonsupport, allegedly left the boy with children's services after saying he was displaying aggressive behavior and earlier threatened the family with a knife. They were due in a Butler County court on Wednesday. Cleveland Cox, 49, his 52-year-old wife, Lisa, and their attorney, Anthony Vannoy, did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Ugh . This story brings a lot of emotion to the surface. On the one hand, I think "how dare they?!" On the other, I think that I know what they're going through, and feel for them. It's hard enough when you have given birth to a child displaying such aggression, but for them, knowing this child was adopted, they probably felt it was the best thing they could do. They felt like t...

Our first appointment with the Neurodevelopmental Psychiatry clinic has just been scheduled! 2 weeks away. (Yesterday, Jack's service coordinator with the County bcc'd me on an email to them, where she asked when they might be contacting me to schedule.. it has been quite a wait for this, so it's a relief to at least get on their schedule). I feel bad for my husband- he will have to set foot on the college campus he hates most in this world. (Those football rivalries. You can't fully appreciate them til you see them in action!) One step closer to the silver lining, I hope!

We're still waiting for the stupid clinic to contact us. Of course in the meantime we have to deal with a grouchy kid who still continues to hit, blow in people's faces, and yell in their ears. (At school, mind you). The week before last was pretty great, after a week of switching Jack's Abilify back to the morning. This meant he was taking naps at school, but a sleeping kid is much better behaved! (*rolls eyes*) Then Monday and Tuesday I noticed a shift back into grouch mode. Either this was his "off" week, or who knows what. He still has a weekly goal in place- currently it's "Game Day", where he gets 15 minutes of time with a chosen peer, to play electronics or whatever. He really did look forward to the time he would get Friday, but because of his behavior on Thursday, it just wasn't in the cards. (Actually, I probably would have taken it away after Tuesday morning, but the Intervention Specialist gave him another shot). On Tuesday,...

On Tuesday, Jack had a well visit/ med check with the pediatrician. Poor kid- after a full year off of the stimulant meds, this kid went from being about 65 lbs to 95lbs. He's in the 90th+ percentile for weight for his age, as well as BMI. (He isn't obese, but he's definitely thickened up.. got some belly fat, for sure). Discussing medication, well, it seems I may have inadvertently screwed things up. The Dr. had prescribed 2mg of Abilify per day.. to go up to 4mg a week later, if we didn't notice any changes. A week after that, we could go up to 6mg if necessary. So we got through the first week with more or less flying colors. There was a very good report from school, and minimal physical aggression towards staff. The second week was not so hot, with several incidents- the one resulting in multiple days out of the regular classroom (among other consequences), and the other with me having to pick him up a bit earlier after school from now on. Honestly I wasn...

Sometimes advice, or even a bit of clarity, comes from unexpected places. We know that Jack has frustration/anger/aggression issues, and we know they are predominantly at school. This doesn't mean they don't happen at home, but the place where they occur most frequently is in the school setting. WHY? is the question of the day.. month.. year. Well, I think it has to do with the fact that expectations are higher in the school setting. He has to learn what is required to know with each grade. Not only does he have to process this information, but he also has to process rules- school rules, social rules, etc. He is getting a LOT of information. Not just getting a lot, but needing to process more than his brain can necessarily handle. It doesn't mean he isn't intelligent- which he is. It doesn't mean he's incapable of learning or processing- he is. There are just minds out there in this world who need longer to take it all in, so that they can process in the...

Last night I was feeling irritated.. I guess in one of those moods where I feel like people don't care or don't understand about Jack. I mean, I'm sure they do care, but honestly I don't even understand about Jack sometimes! As I was at the kitchen table trying to talk to my husband about it, an email came in on my tablet about an incident that happened yesterday at school. (The principal emailed me- apologetically, because she was unable to call me about it after the fact, but that something else came up that she needed to attend to): As Jack was walking outside to the parent pick up line, he was asked by a teacher to go around the muddy area instead of walking through the mud. He got upset and blew in her face. He then called her a moron and hit her multiple times. Um, so obviously that didn't go over too well with any of us. My husband spent some time yelling, I spent some time crying, Jack was on the verge of emotional breakdown... beer was purchased,...

One week of the Abilify, and all is not so well. This last Monday, I emailed the teacher and the IS about Jack's behavior over the last week. He had a field trip on that previous Friday, and he was irritated (by me) a lot- wanting to know if he'd seen or heard something neat that the tour guide had said, for example. He was supposed to dress nicely, but ended up wearing a Pokemon shirt with cut-off sleeves, that was really not appropriate for where we were.. thus upsetting him that I was "forcing" him to wear the nicer shirt over it. (Really, it wasn't nicer.. but it was long-sleeved and had a collar, and he wore a tie. That was at least something). When I got emails back from both the teacher and the IS, I got both positives and negatives (which is just bound to be the case- and totally expected these days). So on Tuesday, the IS told me that Jack had come in tired but happy on Monday morning. He put down all of his friends chairs when he arrived, to do som...

Great report from the Intervention Specialist for this week.. "Hi, Overall, great week! We have noticed that Jack is taking more time in between a reminder and his reaction, ultimately leading to a much more positive reaction. He has been complimenting students and his outburst have been very mild, with minimal verbal outbursts and no physical aggression, usually Jack will take a walk or leave the classroom for about 5 minutes then return ready to work. I look forward to seeing what next week brings!" Certainly very positive! His weekly behavior chart did make mention of an incident on Wednesday where he blew in the teacher's face when he disagreed with her, but it's not hitting, so I guess that's something. He was a bit frustrated today on his field trip to the State House, but I think he was tired. He also didn't appreciate having to wear something nice. When the other kids were taking off their jackets, he decided to take off his button-down shirt...