Chiropractor

You might know that shortly after Ellie turned 5, she was diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder.  Several things can case ODD, but the therapists we've seen think, in Ellies case, it was most likely caused by the drug exposure in utero.  ODD defines most kids, but ODD kids take everything up a notch.  Common symptoms of ODD are:

• Throwing repeated temper tantrums
• Excessively arguing with adults, especially those with authority
• Actively refusing to comply with requests and rules
• Deliberately trying to annoy or upset others, or being easily annoyed by others
• Blaming others for your mistakes
• Having frequent outbursts of anger and resentment
• Being spiteful and seeking revenge
• Swearing or using obscene language
• Saying mean and hateful things when upset

ODD basically makes daily life significantly more difficult than it has to be.  Ellie was in therapy with two different therapists for a year.  We'd think we'd see small changes, but when we really thought about it, we just weren't seeing any real changes.  We kept going with therapy longer than we wanted to because we needed to feel like we were doing something.  ODD doesn't have a treatment plan or cure.  We'd already tried all the usual go to ideas: bribes, charts, time outs, time in, rewards, holding therapy, team work chores and more bribes, incentive programs and on and on.  Nothing worked.
We've been dealing with ODD since birth.  Even before it had a name, we knew she wasn't quite normal.  She got worse as she grew, but we started noticing it with food.  If she wasn't eating the second she thought she was hungry, baby Ellie would be screaming bloody murder and pounding on the floor.  You can imagine how behaviors have grown with age and three brothers.
Then one day we were talking to a neighbor who sees a chiropractor.  Dr Scott and I actually went to school together in 7th grade and reconnected on Facebook a few years ago.  I never told him about Ellies issues.  After treating an autistic kid while my neighbor was there, Dr Scott started telling her about how half their patients are under 18 and he treats a huge variety of neurological disorders including ODD.  I reached out to him, went to a seminar and had Ellie scanned.  They look at the temperature and energy in the spine and her heart rate. They put all this together and come up with an overall score.  Ideally, her score should be around 150.  Ellie scored a 413.
In very basic terms, any time you deal with a "trauma" stress and drug use from the birth mother, c sections, acid reflux, colic etc, it changes the way your brain interprets signals and activates the spinal cord which activates your adrenals which turns on the adrenaline and cortisol.  This puts you in a fight or flight state.  The more "traumas" you have, the more you're in fight or flight.  In Ellies case, she rarely left.  Her brain doesn't know how to respond in a normal situation.  It sees everything as a threat.  By having regular adjustments, her brain is getting rewired. The spinal cord sends better and more normal signals to the brain and it learns how to respond to life not as a threat.  Unfortunately, this takes time.  Her body has had a set pattern for 6+ yrs.  It sticks with what it knows for as long as possible until its trained to change.  Thats where we're at with Ellie.  3 times a week she gets adjusted and every day we keep a log of changes we see and look for improvement.  We're almost 6wks in to her treatment and while she still has a long way to go, we're seeing improvements.  The tantrums are less frequent and shorter.  We can see her making better decisions and talking things out, sometimes. We still have plenty of fight or flight responses, but this is the most improvement we've ever seen.  As I mentioned in a previous post, Dr Scott got Zach officially potty trained in less than 2 weeks. We'll stick this out and see where it takes us.

Don't rush him

For the last two summers we've been working with Sam to get him off his training wheels.  For the last two summers, he's tried it for about 30 seconds then asked to put the training wheels back on!  He came up to Jon this afternoon and said this is the day.  He wants the training wheels off. So on this 40 degree, very windy day, Jon took them off. Jon steadied him and Sam took off, all on his own.  It was awesome!
Zach wanted a video too.  He's very proud he can easily ride Sams old bike.

13 years

Jon and I are celebrating 13 years of marriage today.  We celebrated in style.  Gram came up yesterday to watch the kids while Jon and I went to dinner at an amazing steak house then headed to a hotel for the night.  It was amazing being able to relax, talk and watch some basketball without being interrupted every five minutes by screaming, crying, whining, fighting, etc.  

Gram and the kids stayed busy while we were gone.  We came home to balloons, flowers, a sign and shamrock cookies to remind us of our reception.  While we were out today we drove by our reception hall and our first apartment.  It was fun showing those places to the kids. Its amazing to think we've been married 13 years.  I wouldn't trade any of them!

Pinewood Derby

Saturday was the Rangers annual Pinewood Derby.  All four kids participated this year.  They all designed their cars and took charge of painting them.  They were in several races in their heats and they each won at least one race.  They didn't take an overall prize, but they all got a trophy.  This is Zach and Ellies first and they are extra excited about them.

Bed

We got our king size bed last week and its awesome!  The hardest part was finding bedding that we could agree on, was in stock and actually fit a king size bed.  It looks a lot more shiny than it is in person.  We still have to put the bed skirt on.  It needs to altered a bit to fit a metal bar at the end of the bed.

The kids love it.  Since Jon got a nasty cold, being able to raise the head has helped him out a bit. I can't believe we waited so long to get a bigger bed.  Next project will have to be a head board to replace the massive blank spot behind the bed!

Dr Ellie

Ellie is practicing to be a chiropractor one day.

Yellow

The boys had yellow belt testing yesterday.  They did awesome.  They started by reading an essay they had to write about their goals in Taekwondo.  They had to learn to count to 5 in Korean as well as learn 10 common martial arts terms.  They did basic blocking, kicking and forms 1-3.  They finished with breaking a board with their hands and feet.  

They finished with the belt change ceremony and got a certificate that they insisted on framing.  

They were very excited and we were very proud.  We took them out to lunch to celebrate and they chose McDonalds! The yellow belts come faster than every other belt.  They'll have about 3 months before they move to orange, but they're ready to put in the work.

This WILL NOT jinx it

Ellie started seeing a chiropractor a couple weeks ago.  I'll get to that in another post.  While we were talking to the doctor, I asked about Zach.  You probably aren't aware that even though we thought he was completely potty trained last year, turns out, he wasn't.  The doctor said that potty issues are the most common issues they deal with and they are the easiest to fix.
We had Zach evaluated and it turns out he was pretty messed up.  His hips and pelvis were completely rotated which cause him to stand and walk crooked.  (That explains why we had to buy him new shoes every 2 months last year).  Because of the rotation, his brain wasn't getting the signal that he had to "go."  With some tweaking, the doctor was confident that Zach would be going potty like a pro and walking more normally in less than 3 months.  Its been about 2 weeks and Zach has already made huge improvements.  We haven't had an accident in over a week.  He's also increased his "activity" just bit.  Even with all the improvement we're seeing, he still has a way to go on straightening out his pelvis.  He'll be a brand new, less crooked, Zach in no time!

Saturday pm

After spending way too long shopping, we headed out for some sledding.  We got 6-8 inches of snow last Thursday and this is probably the last time we'll be able to sled before next year.

Ellie went down the hill by herself for the first time ever.

It was already starting to melt and getting a bit muddy. They didn't seem to care.

Zach was pooped from all that walking.  Good thing he has a strong big sister to get him to the car.

Saturday am

Jon and I have been dreaming about a king size bed for years.  I'm not a great sleeper so more room to move around would be really nice.  Also, the kids still love to pile in our bed now and then and Zach still sneaks in most mornings.  We started talking more seriously about a bigger bed a few weeks ago. We did some shopping this weekend and went for it.  On Friday, we will be getting a king bed with an adjustable base.  That means we can raise our heads and feet with the click of a button. My insomnia doesn't stand a chance against this bed!
(We didn't get the bed pictured.  This is just the one the kids liked best)