December 2010
December was an eventful month......with the upcoming holidays and and Nicholas scheduled to have his tonsils and adenoids removed on Tuesday the 21st. In between we had a few Holiday gatherings and Nicholas had a blast. Here we are at Dennis' Christmas party having a great time listening to Santa
Not so much fun for the little Man with his surgery - although he was a trooper considering he did suffer quite a bit afterwards and we did manage to go to Grandmas for Christmas day and have fun Nicholas was feeling the pain.
Outside of our house
A super gift basket
Our neighbors asked if Dennis could play Santa for them on Christmas eve and they would do the same for Nicholas....We opted out for Nicholas only because I felt it would be too much but Dennis played Santa for the first time and we took some photos at our house to show Nicholas Christmas morning
Christmas morning with my family
Nick is so into Spiderman and I just had to get this hat & glove set for him
And here he is at Grandmas house Christmas Day
Nick and daycare............I had noticed since October that Nicholas seemed to be having more and more incident reports written about his behavior....I knew something was up but had no idea what it was...........then on the Friday before he was to have his surgery - the day of his Holiday party at school I was called up at work and told I needed to pick Nicholas up.....Nick had a terrible tantrum & they did not want him to return for the rest of the day....that was Friday so on the way to pick him up I really wasn't feeling good about what was happening and told Dennis that I didn't think we should have him go in on Monday as planned since Tuesday was his surgery and I didn't want him to have yet another bad day right before surgery. We agreed and in the meantime were trying to speak with the Director to find out what exactly was happening since we couldn't understand how they would not allow him to participate with the festivities with one of us in attendance.....once we did speak to her we found out they really felt that Nicholas was having some type of issue and that they wanted us to take him out of the school. Dennis & I were shocked. Remember this is the school I love and after some discussions we agreed that maybe Nick was having such a hard time with this particular teacher who he had been with since July and since then he had regressed with having accidents almost every day (so not him) and then the bad behavior....terrible terrible tantrums that only seemed to be directed at the teacher. So after lengthy discussions we got them to change his class..that lasted 2 weeks.....they advised us he could no longer go that school. Dennis & I needed to find another daycare and also figure out what the heck was going on with our son who was exhibiting extremely terrible tantrums - again only with his teachers. We decided to have him evaluated again but needed to go through our school district. We had a meeting set for March 1st but once he was kicked out of daycare the agreed we needed to have it moved up. In the meantime we looked at several day cares and I was not very excited about our final choice but went with it. Nick started his new school & three days later we our board meeting and the new daycare offered to come with us - albeit they did not know exactly why we were having the meeting and learned pretty quickly that our son was prone to extreme tantrums. After hearing what was happening as they sat at the meeting with us they agreed to work with us with Nick. The school board gave us a SEIT for Nick for 1 & 1/2 hours a day every day to work with Nick and also to teach the teachers how to work with Nick. We learned through his many evaluations that Nick is extremely intelligent - actually he is considered gifted but yet nothing was found on why he was exhibiting these tantrums & again always towards his teachers - never ever with me or Dennis or anyone else so it was baffling. Funny - well not funny is it seemed most people did not believe or or could not believe how he didn't show these behaviors at home - we could tell that not everyone was convinced. His SEIT was great and his tantrums were becoming less and he was doing great or so we thought. 6 weeks into it we were asked to take Nicholas out of the school after one particularly terrible tantrum. This one we didn't see coming and either did his SEIT. They basically said that they didn't have the staff to cover Nicholas and that unless we could get him a SEIT full time he could not stay in the school...................We had an emergency school board meeting and although they felt the daycare didn't give Nicholas enough time - that he was doing so good and we needed an alternative. Basically the school boards goal is to try an correct the issues before they get into kindergarten - earlier is better so they wanted to help us. His SEIT actually felt that Nicholas is suffering from PTSD, anxiety and panic attacks all which she thought could be from him being in an institutionalized setting - the baby house................WOW. She felt strongly that Nicholas' was experiencing was not a "behavior" issue and that his tantrums are not something he could really control. They were working on how to self regulate. While waiting to have our emergency meeting I went into high gear and found a school and program that had one spot for the program and one spot for daycare - which was huge since this was March and in the middle of a school year - I had everyone on board before our meeting and just needed the school district to approve the program.....they finally agreed and stressed that since Nicholas is so so smart they were concerned about his academics - he might not be challenged enough which of course could create problems but they agreed on a plan of action. Right now Nicholas goes to the program from 9 - 11:30 and then daycare program for the rest of the day. It is amazing how different both the program and daycare are so different from the daycare centers he in was attending before. This is a school environment - and run like a school so we just needed to pray that he would be OK. We are now four weeks into it and Nicholas has not had one, not even a single issue or situation- nothing so we are extremely hopeful that whatever was happening has been worked out - he will continue in the program through the summer and into September and then in October we meet again to see how all things are going. The school board secured a spot for him in both the Preschool and the program so either way we will have what we need for him going forward. He is also meeting with a therapist once a week. This was a very difficult time for all of us and it continues to be a learning experience but we are happy our son is getting all of the help to get him through the difficulties he was going through. We think we have truly turned the corner but know that whatever comes our way we will do whatever it is that Nicholas needs.
Nicholas 4th Birthday party.
In between all the other stuff we had planned a party for Nicholas with his friends from school, his Kaz cousins, friends & family all came and everyone had a great time
His party was Pirate theme and here he is getting ready for the treasure hunt
Reading his treasure map
Kaz cousins
End of the day
My wonderful husband won another trip and this time it was a cruise out of Florida we had a great time.
One stop was in Cozamel and Nick & Dennis played with the dolphins
Being silly
After the Captains dinner...so handsome
We planned to stay a few days in in Miami
Seeing the sights at Jungle World
Playing in the hotel pool
Childrens Museaum
That's all for now.
