The good AND the bad

     J is a beautiful, caring, smiley child. There isn't a soul alive she wouldn't give a hug to. She is very attuned to my emotions as well, which can make things difficult at times particularly when I reach "mommy melt down" point. I don't reach that point too often, but when I do it's because both of them have pushed me over the brink. R is three. He's The Husband's son, so the possibility of him being diagnosed with ADHD pretty substantial. At three, and being a boy, he's incredibly active, and to be blunt; pretty much hair pulling CRAZY anyway. Now you get why my URL is ADHD surrounded? Yep, I'm literally SURROUNDED!
     But anyway, apparently I just had an ADD moment myself (haha). As I was saying, J is a very emotionally sensitive child. This can be a good trait, because she is incredibly empathetic towards others, and I could totally see her as a special needs provider of some sort one day. But on the flip side, it can be somewhat trying at times because giving consequences to a child who is so emotionally charged can be like trying to sooth a pissed off crocodile.
     There are other good traits J possesses that (in my experience, AND research) most people with ADHD seem to have. Creativity. J is quite the artist, and can color in the lines better than I (with my emerging tremor, this is not a difficult task). In general, she is really quite good at ANYTHING that involves abstract thinking. At three, she was the only kid in either of her preschool classes who could complete a 24 piece puzzle. She does 100 piece puzzles with ease these days. It's tasks like these that puts her in "hyperfocus" mode, and it's difficult to pull her away from such tasks before she's done. This has a downside though, because in school these things have time constraints and when it's time to clean up, it's time to clean up... but J will NOT clean up because she is not finished with what she is doing, and therefore will seem to be disobeying. Of course this is exactly what she IS doing, but she's not doing it to be deviant, she's doing it because in this hyperfocus moment, her mind will not allow her to pull away from her task.
     J still cannot complete two step directions. Half the time she cannot even complete a one step direction without several prompts (reminders as to what she's supposed to be doing), particularly when there is a lot of distractions. We have been able to eliminate this problem in the mornings by having R watch cartoons in our bedroom in the mornings until J is out the door and on the bus. Unfortunately there is little that can be done to help her in the classroom setting where distractions are as common as nightly glasses of wine I consume to decompress from my days filled with the chaotic madness that is my ADHD surrounded life. Her teacher has her sitting front and center in the classroom, with charts covering her desk to help keep her "organized," as well as a little "shield" like cover that she can put around herself while she does her schoolwork. The shield actually seems to help a bit, and J seems to know it because she's even asked her teacher for it when it hasn't been offered to her. This of course tells us that she desperately WANTS to learn, and listen, and be able to do all the things she "should" be able to do, but her mind will just not allow her to a lot of the time. Things are in the works to hopefully help her to be able to do this. More on that another day....