We had a great Halloween. Oksana was with us until it was time to go to her respite center and then she had a fantastic time trick or treating with them. I'm so thankful that she loves going there so much! Anya was HILARIOUS! Her first Halloween she had only been home 11 days. She was horrified by the whole thing and wanted nothing to do with it. Her second Halloween she refused to wear a costume and then screamed "NO!" at everyone when they opened their door to give her candy. After a good handful of houses she figured out it wasn't so bad. This year she was ALL IN. She literally RAN to each house. If they didn't open their door fast enough for her she opened it for them! We got good exercise that night! It was cold here so we took Anya to 15-20 houses and then asked her if she wanted to go home and eat some candy. She was thrilled with that idea so it was a short lived evening! The boys walked around with us but they didn't trick or treat. They did dress up though as the 11th Doctor and The Master. Doctor Who fans will know what I mean :)! Their pumpkins were a castle (Oksana), Olaf (Anya), the crack in time (Clayton), and a Dalek (Evan).
So now an Oksana update. A few weeks ago we had to increase Oksana's meds again. She had significant aggressive episodes 5 out of 7 days and was requiring restraint in almost all of those. The med increase might have helped slightly but she's still having a pretty hard time. We are meeting with our IEP team on Monday and again in December. On Monday we are discussing how she is doing currently. We all want to be on the same page with the best approaches for her and make sure we are all on the right track still. In December we will be meeting with the principal of the new school for kids with significant behavior issues in our district. That school will be opening for the next school year. I'm anxious to learn more about it. As of right now there are no firm plans to move here there next year, but it is definitely not out of the question either. Everyone seems pretty excited about this program and it might be a great fit for Oksana. Next year would be a transition year for her anyway since she would have a new sped teacher. I'm sort of feeling like if we are going to have to transition her anyway, and we all feel like this new school would be a good fit for her, then why not make the move. Who knows. I have a lot of questions to ask before we would decide something like that. We had someone through our Regional Center come out today and train us in some basic methods to keep us and Oksana safe when she gets aggressive. It was really good. The last couple of days have been good for her. I'm hoping it's a trend, but I know better than to hold my breath.
Right now I'm trying to take care of myself. I'm feeling the weight of parenting Oksana lately and that usually means I'm not doing what I need to in order to stay emotionally healthy. I think it's time for a date night and a massage!
2 comments:
I just LOVE your Halloween photos! I noticed the Olaf pumpkin right away - Olaf is my favorite! And of course the Doctor Who costumes (and the Dalek pumpkin) were awesome! I just went to a Doctor Who con in Long Island last week and didn't bother with a costume (I did last year) but I saw some really fantastic cosplayers there! Next year I think I might do a female fourth Doctor or I'll dress up as my favorite classic companion. Tell the boys I loved their costumes! And I'm curious, do they like Capaldi as the 12th Doctor?
Oh Sabrina, my boys would be so jealous! I think Capaldi has grown on us, but he definitely doesn't rank with Smith and Tennant. My boys have recently grown to love the 4th doctor but I haven't watched any of the older episodes. I should have been a TARDIS :).
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