Clearly, I have issues

Ok - so the plan to post every day sucks. I'm just not good with schedules - or at least not good with sticking to one.

Follow up on my last post: Al will not have to repeat the entire year, but maybe a course or 2. Not as bad as we originally thought, so I'm happy about that. He just finished a 2 day, overnight playdate with his best friend. What a delightful sentence that many of you with autistic children can appreciate much better than those with neurotypical children. He earned this priviledge by attending school on time, every day this week. Quite a feat for my Alexander.

My post today, along with being an apology for not posting more often, is about Kelsie. She is my other 'issue'. Due to the impending divorce, we are trying to sell our house. It's been 10 months now, and man has it been long. Our first house sold in 24 hours and our second one in 3 weeks. This just sucks. Kelsie, however, had a way to make it entertaining.......to everyone but her momma at least.

It started out innocent enough. Centralized Showing called for a 1-2:30 showing on Wednesday. I said 'sure'. Only to then discover the kids had a 1/2 day off from school, I had a 2pm conference for Audrey, and Kelsie was babysitting 3 kids from 1:15-3:15 (ages 5th and 3rd grade and 4yrs). I read Kelsie what I thought was the 'riot act' - emphasizing how this was a second showing and they were ready to put in a contract on the house and that she was to keep the littler kids in 1 room with the door open and be polite to the people touring the house. Somehow this got translated to........hide under the basement stairs (all 5 of them), keep the closet door open (how they got under the stairs) make giggling and other ghost noises, then be quiet when the realtor and potential buyers called out 'hello' and 'is anyone there'. How she got the 4 year old ADHD poster child to keep quiet is way, way beyond my understanding. I guess she's just a good babysitter. Anyway, the best is yet to come. Kelsie decided to call the home phone from her cell phone, knowing full well that by leaving a message the people in the house would hear it being left on the machine. She convinced the 5th grader to say something about is the house still haunted. Well, that was the piece de resistance, the creme de la creme. The buyer's realtor later called my realtor, absolutely convinced my house was haunted and asking if it were true. Urg.

Several damage-control phone calls later my realtor managed to convince the buyer's realtor of the hilarity of the situation and they put a contract in on my house anyway. Every adult I tell this story to pees themselves laughing over it. At some point I'll get there - but right now all I see is juvenile hall in Kelsie's future.

I used to see juvenile hall in Kelsie's future for other reasons. What a temper that child had! One particular incident had her picking up a kitchen chair and throwing it into the family room (nearly hitting the french doors, which were thankfully open). Another one involved a minor incident which she needed to sit in time out for 3 minutes (she was in 3rd grade). Following the rules of time out, every time she got up we started the clock over again. The 3 minute time out ended up being 4 hours long, and she still didn't sit for 3 minutes straight. I was so frustrated that I brought her out to the car for a ride to the police station, lecturing her the whole way about juvie hall and what was to become of her if she didn't learn to listen to adults in charge. Kinda over the top, but I was at my wits end. Then we went and did a neurospect scan only to discover her blood flow was way, way too much and she had what Dr. Amen called Ring of Fire ADD. Taking her off Prozac and putting her on Neurontin was the best thing we could have ever done for her. She's off the Neurontin now, but it made a huge difference in her life. While I can't say her temper is gone, she's more amenable to listening to adults. And when she chooses not to (like Wednesday) she takes her punishments much better. I couldn't decide how to make her punishment fit her disobeying this time, so I took the easy route (for me) and am having her do all my chores this weekend. Kinda fun not having to do them, and she's getting a greater appreciation of what I do around here, and the time it takes me.

The contract did come in and my chores are being done by Kelsie. I suppose I may be able to relax a little and chuckle over the creativity of her prank. And remember, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.......I can totally see myself doing something like that at her age - only she's way, way more creative. Hee!