ipsy glam bag arrives in mail!!!

My mom and I got an ipsy Glam bag in the mail and I am not used to makeup! So we both tried the Glam bag contents which was, highlighter, eye shadow, lip balm with red algae, eye shadow with brush to apply it with and red sparkly lipgloss! Although we didn't get much in the bag we both liked it. I got the majority, I loved all of the contents in the bag and I would rate it 9/10.
My mom gave me some other makeup that she doesn't use and I experimented with different eyeshadows, eyeliner, the Glam lipgloss, and some mascara. The Glam bag contents alone did a good job by themselves.
Mom and I both agree that it is better using different makeups and experimenting. We are very happy that it arrived and we are very excited to get another one next month!!!

Park Play

We are fortunate enough to live next to a great park and on top of that, we happen to have a youth drop in program at our park during the summer.
Monday to Friday in the afternoon children of all ages from our community can stop by the "Green Shack" at the park to play.

Our green shack literally is a green shack next to the playground. The program is run by the city and has a youth leader there that gets the community children together playing games, building sand castles, having water fights and doing crafts. It is a really great program and most of the kids in our community look forward to it every year.
This year we are letting Krazy Caity go to the green shack program all by herself as part of her earning trust and learning to be responsible. I gave the program leader my phone number and explained Krazy Caitys disorders to him as a precaution before I let Caity go. So far things are going extremely well!

Getting along with other children and participating in group activities is not so easy for kids with ADHD so I have been expecting the worst. Fortunately things have been going much better than expected so far. Caity is participating in most of the activities and has been learning to remove herself from the group when she starts to feel overwhelmed. All in all great news, zero issues and lots of learning has been happening. Things were going great right up until yesterday... The day the community kids got to pain the Green Shack. The rules are simple, pain the shack and not each other. It seems as though some of the kids in the community, including our dear Krazy Caity, decided that painting Caity was more entertaining.

The aftermath of this event was something none of us will soon forget. 
The first thing we did upon seeing Krazy Caity was ask her why she let the other kids paint her. Then I took her straight to the shower, which was fine until we had to wash the sand and paint off of her face. It took well over ten minutes of spraying, washing, wiping and crying to get the paint off.

Krazy Caity explained to me that she didn't just come home on her own, she was sent home by the youth leader. It turns out that while she thought it was funny to begin with, after a while being painted by other children wasn't so fun. When Caity asked the kids to stop painting her they didn't listen and started painting her clothes as well.

As with most ADHD kids, becoming overwhelmed with a situation doesn't take much and Krazy Caity is no different. Things at the park went from fun to overwhelming to scary for Caity really fast. While being sent home is never fun for kids, it really was best for Caity and she was thankful to have the leader take charge and remove her from the situation.
When she got home her senses and emotions were overloaded. It took a long time to get her calm enough to explain what happened but once she started explaining the situation she realized that she could have avoided becoming overwhelmed. 
After a long discussion she explained that the reason she didn't remove herself was because she let herself become overwhelmed and felt out of control. She did point out how she can avoid those feelings and gave great examples of what she should have done.
This gives me hope that in the future, Krazy Caity will be able to recognize when she is becoming overwhelmed and will hopefully be able  to deal with these feelings. For now we are working on recognizing feelings and letting Caity explain to us how she feels and what she can do about it. One day at a time.

At The Dentist

Krazy Caity has to have some teeth pulled :( apparently she needs to have her bicuspids removed in order for some other teeth to have room to grow in properly. As most parents know, having teeth removed for any child can be difficult and scary but for children with ADHD and/or sensory issues dental work is a very traumatic experience. Some children like Krazy Caity have a difficult time telling the difference between pressure and pain, this makes for a very scary dental experience.

Even though she is frozen, Krazy Caity cries and stops the dentist multiple times due to "pain" what she really is feeling is pressure but she is unable to tell the difference and perceives them the same. This can be frustrating for any dentist but thankfully our dentist knows all about ADHD. He is gentle, kind and understanding, reassuring Caity that there is nothing to be afraid about and continuing to stop every time she panics. Even though we can only do one tooth at a time I am thankful that we have such a wonderful dentist to go to.

We would have all the teeth pulled at once if it wasn't for Krazy Caity stopping so many times during a single extraction but thankfully our dentist understands our situation. So far we have had two teeth pulled and need to have three more done.

Considering how scary going to the dentist can be, Krazy Caity was a champ and pushed through getting her teeth pulled despite being scared. In fact, she did so well the tooth fairy decided to pay her for her teeth in advance.

If you would like to share your own dentist experience with email your stories to us at GrowingUpADHD@outlook.com Share your stories in the comments or visit our facebook page.

A Day In The Life of Mom

Life with any child can be difficult, throw in ADHD, ODD and OCD then your life suddenly becomes a roller coaster ride going at top speed with no seatbelt. You are going to get thrown in every direction imaginable and deal with things you never though possible. Throughout this roller coaster ride you will find yourself saying things you would have never dreamed possible like, “please don’t eat money…. no, more will not come out” and “we don’t pee on the floor just because puppy does doesn’t mean it’s OK for you to do”. Sometimes you have to ask yourself if what you are experiencing is real because you feel like you are in a bad dream unable to wake from it. Then for some unknown reason you are suddenly given a day when nothing happens and everything seems perfect. You don’t have to get off the toilet early to break up a fight or search a bedroom for the missing hairspray. These days you don’t spend countless hours handing out reminders or searching for a shoe that was just at the door. These “perfect” days you spend anxiously waiting for something to happen, then when nothing does happen you spend your night restlessly going over the day trying to find that one thing that did go wrong that you missed. You go over everything, check on things you know you don’t have to and spend the rest of your night focusing on the ceiling, why? Because your mind and body just can not seem to comprehend what happened during the day, you are too used to having to run around all day. The next day, if you slept at all, you wake to the sound of something breaking or to someone yelling, as you sleepily look at the clock you realize it’s only 6am. Right then and there you envy yourself from the day before and swear the next good day you have you will not waste it. You drag yourself from bed and clean up whatever broke or break up the fight in an attempt to make coffee and get your kids breakfast. Its then that you learn, your darling child woke up minutes after you fell asleep and fixed their own breakfast, milk, cereal and sugar. You find this out of course because there is no milk left, because you little one poured a bowl of cereal, forgot about the milk then poured it down the drain because warm milk is icky. What is left of the sugar is now on the floor because your darling child tried filling the sugar bowl but was interrupted and frightened by the cat, which of course caused the sugar to all fall to the floor. After cleaning up the sugar you decide, like it or not, you have to get to the store to replace what needs replacing, so you round up the kids. Spend an hour finding shoes, then clothes, then shoes again then you struggle to get the kids out the door in one direction. You try to make this necessary trip as quick as possible, longing for that cup of coffee you desperately need but by the time you get home and start to pour your coffee you realize the coffee is cold and the kids are wanting lunch. Looking at the clock you are dumbfounded to see it is already after noon and as you leave the cold coffee to make lunch you wonder where the time went. Your day continues as usual, cleaning spills, breaking up fights, searching for lost items and reminding your ADHD child why jumping off the roof is not a good idea. By the time night hits, the family is full, the house is a disaster and all you want is for the kids to stay quietly in their own rooms but your day isn’t over just yet. You spend your evening cleaning up the mess and sending your child back to their room. Finally you get a chance to watch a t.v show of your choosing, struggling to keep your eyes open long enough to watch. As you doze off from sheer exhaustion you are awakened by the sound of your ADHD child out of their room again, you open your mouth to tell them to go to bed when they hug you, hand you a home made envelope, give you a kiss, say good night and run off to bed. It is at the very moment, upon opening the envelope that you remember not only why you love your kids no matter the chaos they cause, but also how sweet and innocent they really are. You remember why you run yourself ragged daily for them and you realize that without your children, life wouldn’t be worth living. Inside that envelope is something special, made just for you. You have had notes that say “I love you” a hundred times before but this one is special. Maybe it’s the effort put into coloring a misshaped butterfly, or the amount of hearts or maybe it’s the cute curls put onto every letter, it doesn’t matter because this is not just a note, it is love. You proudly display it on the refrigerator and as you turn out the light you take one last look at the love that is spilling out of every corner of the house and you can’t help but think that no matter how painful and stressful life is, you would, without question, go to the end of the earth and back again for your kids. You go to bed well after you should have with a smile on your face and you tell yourself that tomorrow will be a good day. You just manage to fall asleep when you are woken up by the crash of something falling to the floor and you cringe at the thought of not getting sleep as you pry yourself from bed. You walk out of your room, quickly glancing at the clock to see the time when you stop dead in your tracks, you rub your eyes and look again in disbelief, hoping that you read the time wrong but you didn’t. You have been asleep for hours not seconds and a new day has started weather you are ready for it or not. You are snapped back to reality by the voice of your child outside your door, asking if you can take them to the park. This is your life, frustration, exhaustion and stress built on a foundation of innocence and love. You know deep down that you wouldn’t trade it for anything, although you swear to yourself, the next calm day you get will be spent relaxing but we all know the truth, that day will be spent like all the others, wondering what you missed.

Our Puppy

If you follow our facebook or twitter you know by now that we recently got a new puppy. We have named her Rolo and she isn’t just any old puppy, we plan on having her certified as a Therapy Dog. If you don’t know what a therapy dog is, here is a bit of info stolen from the Wiki page: A therapy dog is a dog trained to provide affection and comfort to people in hospitals, retirement homes, nursing homes, schools, hospices, people with learning difficulties, and stressful situations, such as disaster areas. Therapy dogs come in all sizes and breeds. The most important characteristic of a therapy dog is its temperament. A good therapy dog must be friendly, patient, confident, gentle, and at ease in all situations. Therapy dogs must enjoy human contact and be content to be petted and handled, sometimes clumsily. A therapy dog’s primary job is to allow unfamiliar people to make physical contact with it and to enjoy that contact. Children in particular enjoy hugging animals; adults usually enjoy simply petting the dog. The dog might need to be lifted onto, or climb onto, an individual’s lap or bed and sit or lie comfortably there. Many dogs contribute to the visiting experience by performing small tricks for their audience or by playing carefully structured games. In hospice environments, therapy dogs can play a role in palliative care by reducing death anxiety. Although we have no intention of having our Rolo go visit hospitals for others outside of our immediate family we feel that having her certified as a therapy dog will be beneficial to our daughter as this will give Rolo the right to accompany our daughter places she may not be allowed in without certification. You might be asking yourself, how can someone who has an extreme ADHD, OCD, ODD daughter possibly have the time or patience to take on training a puppy to be a therapy dog? Well I will be the first to tell you, it isn’t easy. Life with an ADHD child is a balancing act to begin with and adding a puppy of any breed into the mix can make things for any family harder. Some things to take into consideration when adding a puppy into your ADHD family are: Dog Breed. All puppies are cute and loving but take some serious time to consider full grown size of the breed you choose, the general breeds temperament and the breeds intelligence. While smaller dogs may seem like a great option due to their size, some smaller breeds have a tenancy to bite. Intelligence is another thing you must consider when choosing a puppy for your ADHD family. Don’t just look for the worlds smartest dog breeds, consider what you want your puppy to be. Are you looking for a friendly companion or are you looking for a highly trainable guardian for your child? Lastly, once you have decided on what puppy you want, take the time to visit the puppy you would like to buy. Consider the puppies temperament during your visits, do they bite and chew on you? Are they able to relax and sit or lay next to you or your child? And most importantly, how does the puppy react to your ADHD child? These are all things you should consider before buying a puppy for your ADHD family. As easily as it is to instantly fall in love with a puppy seriously consider the compatibility of your family, ADHD children especially, and your chosen puppy. Nothing is more heart breaking for a child to have their excitement of getting a puppy crushed by the puppies incompatibility with them. We chose a Border Collie crossed with a German Shepherd due to both breeds intelligence levels, workmanship and general temperament. Our puppy especially likes to sit next to our children and just hand out. Although she is just a puppy and will chew or nip, she has a very calm temperament and can be hugged, kissed, pet and poked endlessly without becoming annoyed or upset. Even when my girl picks her up the wrong way and accidentally hurts Rolo, Rolo remains calm and shows her annoyance by whimpering. Once my girl puts Rolo down, Rolo immediately goes towards my girl and licks her showing she understands her being hurt was simply an accident. Rolo being highly trainable is picking up quickly on how our house works, she understands that she is one of the kids, she knows where her things are and she is already learning how to walk with the children to and from school, making a point to stop and sit before crossing the road even if the kids do not. Rolo also plays differently with my girl then she does with my son, understanding that my girl needs to play running games where as my son would much rather play tug of war. She even picks up on my girls emotions and makes a point to sit with her and give kisses when my girl is feeling down but unwilling to say so.

Lonely Road to Alternative Therapy

As any family dealing with ADHD we have seen doctors, specialists, psychologists and social workers in an attempt to 1: get a true definitive diagnosis of all medical conditions, learning disabilities and other disorders associated with ADHD. 2: find help for our family in seeking out treatment options and financial assistance to assist with costs associated with therapies, recreational activities and dietary needs. The answers we get are shockingly underwhelming! Not only does there seem to be no real testing that can be done, we seem to always get the same answer “yes your daughter does present as a candidate for ADHD and ODD” and “you can medicate her or not medicate her” then we are given the same basic info package with website links, helpful ‘tips’ and reasons why medication is the ‘top choice among medical professionals’. No information is given about recreational opportunities, alternative therapies, special needs assistance options for school or financial benefits although all of these opportunities and supports exist. If you don’t know what there is in forms of alternative therapy, recreation, school support or financial assistance yet you would like to avoid medicating your child don’t expect that sort of information to be handed to you. You have to spend your time seeking out the assistance and therapies on your own. Once you decide what you would like to do, you have to apply, get your doctor to make a recommendation and hope you get approved. We will be posting more information on alternate therapies, what they are and their benefits in a future post.

You're Not Taking my Teeth

The title says it all! Recently my girl had a spacer put in her mouth behind her teeth and for some reason she has this idea in her head that the dentist wants to take all of her teeth out. I have no idea where this idea came from and I am trying my best to explain that dentists do more then just pull teeth out but every time we get to the dentist this conversation begins. Dentist – “Time to get in the chair” My girl – “No! You are not taking my teeth out!” Dentist – ” I don’t want to take your teeth out” My girl – “well you can’t have my teeth because they belong to me” Dentist – “I really don’t want your teeth I have my own, see, now can you please get in the chair so I can look at your teeth? I promise I won’t take them out” My girl – “if I have to…… but you are not taking my teeth out…. mommy, make sure he doesn’t take my teeth out” I have to hand it to the dentist, he handles her very well, is calm and laughs at her wanting to keep her teeth. The dental assistant, on the other hand, gets annoyed with my girl fast and I can see the frustration growing on her face the longer we are in the room. I personally can not keep my amusement to myself during these conversations and I am sure I am of little help when I am laughing as I tell my girl that no one is taking her teeth. Now I have thought about this for a while and the only reason why I can think of that my girl would think the dentist wants to take her teeth is because my son has had a few teeth pulled. This is something that my girl has watched happen in the past but never brought up until the most recent tooth extraction my son had in which she was not allowed to watch. Maybe I made a mistake by letting my girl watch her brother have teeth pulled. But, then again this didn’t become a thing until she wasn’t allowed to watch so for now I am just going to go with the flow. Luckily our dentist has ADD himself and understands my girl, it helps that he is a patient man with a go with the flow attitude. Now if only his assistant could pull the stick out of her butt and chill out…

School Sucks

Anyone who has dealt with an ADHD child knows how hard getting through a day at school can be, there are so many things that can cause a distraction and get a child off task that I often wonder how these kids manage to pass their grade. My daughter is one of those children that make you question how exactly does she manage to get through a day. There is no doubt about it that ADHD children are smart, catch on quick and when they can focus their energy they can accomplish anything. You would think that a child as smart as she is would be able to blow through school work in minutes but the truth is simple homework like reading or a math sheet can take hours to complete. Because of how long school work takes and how defiant my little angel can be I end up talking with her teacher at least twice a day. First I check in with the office to see if she was in then I go to the class at lunch to see how the morning was, I get a basic run down of her behaviour and find out what she didn’t complete, then I take her home for lunch and discuss what needs improving or how proud I am of her then I take her back. At the end of the day we go through the same routine, check in at the office, talk with the teacher, collect incomplete work for the day, walk home, discuss how her day went then struggle for hours to get homework done. At the end of the day this routine, as intrusive and tiring as it may seem, really is the only reason my girl is not completely failing in school. Some days are worse then others of course and there have been a few times now that the teacher has asked me to take her home because she is being impossible, other bad days she ends up sitting in the office. Some days I can’t believe what I hear when the teacher tells me how well my girl did because those days tend to be the days when she refuses to listen to me at all. The worst days are when there is a substitute teacher because as hopefully most of you know, change does not go over well with ADHD kids once they have a routine. Some substitutes are great and can handle ADHD kids without issue while others have no clue as to what to do when a child doesn’t immediately do what they are told. The answer most have for ADHD kids is take away the fun stuff like gym or recess, unknowingly they are helping these kids become more active and defiant, other times the answer is having the kid sit in the office for the day. My daughter has now spent two days in the vice principals office and has had no recess, not exactly the best solution for a hyper kid. As much as I try to help out at the school I honestly want to give their heads a shake and ask why they think taking away the only chance an ADHD kid has to burn off energy will help. Personally when I’m full of energy and need to burn some off, sitting in a room doing work is the last thing I want to do. In all honesty, I don’t have an answer for the teachers questions about what to do, when my girl doesn’t want to listen nothing seems to help. The best answer I can give is take your day one step at a time, let her stand to do her work, let her color when she is waiting for the other children to finish and ignore her when she behaves badly, only acknowledge the good she does. At the end of it all, I know my girl is smart and I can’t blame her for getting bored in school. It may be hard for the teacher to get through the day but it isn’t easy for kids either.

I'm Outta Here

It has come to my attention that my 8 year old acts more like a teenager then I would like to admit. Now I know that with ADHD comes a slue of other issues and I have accepted that fact as a part of our lives but I can not and will not accept defiance as a part of life. I’m not talking about my little girl forgetting what I just said or not thinking before she acts, I’m talking about blatant disregard for anything I have to say or ask her to do. The fact of the matter is, my child is too smart for her own good and as such at the precious age of 8 she now finds that she would much rather do her own thing and to hell with anything I would like for her to do if she isn’t in the mood to do it. She has used the I don’t understand card enough to know that I don’t buy what she is selling, and she knows that I don’t always give in to her repetitive pleas so she has taken up a new strategy. I have to admit, it is clever but it won’t work. She now threatens to move out, which as funny as it is watching her pack her things, I do worry about if she will be in her room every morning. So far we have had some laughs out of her threats to move out, her reasons are quite amusing and we have hid her bags in various spots throughout the house in an attempt to get her distracted. I have had some success in convincing her to stay by telling her I will miss her but eventually something gets her upset and she starts packing once again. I have told her that it is illegal for someone her age to move out and I have tried telling her that her favourite stuffed bunny would miss her but my attempts seem to go in one ear and out the other stopping midway to reveal a smart comeback that I wish I had thought of when I was 16 threatening to move out. The last “I’m moving out” threat had me worried more then any other because nothing I said made a difference and every time I said I missed her or tried to stump her with “how will you do/pay for/get this” questions she immediately had what seemed like a well thought out plan followed by a “well I will come visit so you don’t have to miss me”. By that point I had run out of places to hide her luggage, reasons for her to not leave and questions for her to answer. My solution? I put on my shoes and followed her out the door! She got half way through the yard before getting annoyed with my being faster than she is before she picked up her bike, hooked the handle of her suitcase to the bike handle and tried rising off. Luckily she had to stop to open the gate and that is when I caught her by her pants. Not my proudest moment as a mom but an effective one none the less. I held her by the back of the pants and pleaded with her to stay, then threatened to call the police if she left then ultimately I dragged her back into the house with the neighbours watching and listening intently as she yelled at me to let her go so she can leave before it gets too dark. Her reason for leaving? I didn’t take her to the park. In my defence, she didn’t ask to go to the park so I didn’t know that is what she wanted and it took a good 3 hours of my nonstop asking why she was leaving to get it out of her. Finally long past bedtime she gave in, said she would stay then went to bed. While she was sleeping I couldn’t help but stay awake in my bed, watching the doorway for any sign that she was awake and leaving again. Eventually sleep took over and I passed out waking to the alarm in a panic running to her room to see if she was in her bed, thankfully she was so I quietly left the room and went about my morning. Her defiance doesn’t stop there, she has learned some choice words to call me when she is mad, she gives me the finger and likes to slap me when she doesn’t get her way. Another of her favourite things to do is stick her tongue out at me and say bla bla bla when I’m talking, among making a point to do the exact opposite of what I say and starting fights with her older brother. Its not just me she defies either, she refuses to listen in class, she ignores her father and snickers at her baba while doing what she knows will upset everyone. I do my best to tell people not to take her actions personally but I can tell that a lot of people do take it personally. For me the worst act of defiance is her talking back and saying no when I ask her to do something but as long as she isn’t moving out I can ignore her attempts to get under my skin. She may be 8 going on 9 but it seems like she is 8 going on 18! Let’s hope that this is just a phase.

Waiting

Waiting can be the hardest thing in the world to do, especially for a child with ADHD. Waiting in line at the grocery store is boring for an adult and for kids but waiting in boring lines for a kid with ADHD is an experience all on its own. There is so much to see, smell and touch that something as simple as waiting in line can become a sensory overload. Immediately after getting in line my daughter starts to wander away from me, looking at the impulse items next to the register, listening to everyone else have their conversations and grabbing things off the shelf pleading desperately for me to buy whatever it is that caught her eye because in her words “I need to have this and I will die if I don’t get it”. More often than not I say no, not because I don’t want her to have the item or because I don’t think she deserves it but because I rarely bring more money than what I need. The looks and comments we get from other shoppers ranges from “oh your daughter is so cute” to looks of judgment and comments about how children should be controlled instead of being able to run wild in stores. Now I am at a point in my life that I don’t let what others think of me bother me but my daughter is not and there is nothing more heartbreaking than watching the joy slowly fade from my little girls face when she hears what others say about us. It’s when my daughter slowly works her way over to the bench near the register and sits quietly making a real effort to not disturb the “grumpy people” that I give in and buy her a treat. There have been many shopping trips when my daughter complains on the way home that people said mean things about her or me, and there have been many times when she cries that she didn’t mean to upset the people in the store. She doesn’t understand why her looking at everything or touching the items near the register bothers other people because to her it shouldn’t. Waiting at a doctor’s appointment or at the dentist is hard too. There isn’t much there to do so her mind wanders and of course she starts touching things, wandering around the waiting room and asking questions while watching the receptionist work. As most adults know even when you have an appointment there is still a wait time and others that come in after you sometimes get in before you because they are seeing a different doctor or dentist. My daughter doesn’t understand that and after a little while of waiting or seeing other people go in right away when we have been waiting it bothers her and she has no fear when it comes to voicing her opinion about it. I try to explain to her that other people see other doctors or dentists and that’s why they sometimes get to go first even if we were there before them but she disagrees. She thinks that it’s not fair that she has been waiting “forever” but other people go in first and she will let everyone in the waiting room know. She has even gone right to the receptionist to complain about her having to wait when she was there first but other people go in before her. Thankfully, at the dentist at least, the girls know her and know she has ADHD so they explain that other dentists have been waiting for the other people, they tell her the other people were late and because the person seeing her dentist came in late now we have to wait. My daughter seems to be satisfied with the answers and usually makes some remark about how people need to buy watches so they can get there on time, then she goes back to flipping through magazines or watching the girls work. Some days though my daughter is annoyed by having to wait and when the people ahead of us come out of the dentists room she tells them they need to buy a watch or not be late and make other people wait. Now most people either ignore her or laugh off what she has said but there is always that one person who gets offended that either mutters something about ignorant kids under their breath or right out tells my daughter to mind her own damn business while shooting me a dirty look before complaining to the receptionist about how parents should keep their kids quiet. I try my best to get to the doctors or dentists exactly when our appointment is for in an attempt to reduce the amount of time we have to spend waiting but as you all know there is no way of controlling how busy those offices can be. Now I have a new tactic, I have started to bring a bag of entertainment and snacks for my daughter and so far it has helped reduce the boredom but it hasn’t eliminated it. The hardest part still is waiting in line while shopping and my only option is to try to shop without my daughter but that is not always possible and really not as much fun for me. As frustrating as shopping with an ADHD child is, I find that I really do enjoy taking my daughter with me because there is complete innocence in her questions and nothing beats watching her take the grocery list from me, skipping down the isles trying to find the next thing we need to buy. A message to the people who judge: The next time you see a kid wandering away from their parents, touching everything in sight and asking a million questions, stop what you’re doing and think about how free and innocent that child is before you give the parents dirty looks or make rude remarks about kids needing to be controlled because you never know if that child is being as calm as possible, or how hard it is for that child to be in such a stimulating environment. Your dirty looks and rude remarks hurt the children a lot more than the adults and you honestly don’t know the harm you can do to a child just by simply making remarks about them.

Welcome

Welcome to our blog! You will be reading about my daughters journey through growing up with ADHD. As of today my daughter is a couple months away from turning 9 and she suffers from ADHD. Most people think of hyper or aggressive boys when they hear the term adhd but I can tell you that girls can suffer from adhd in the same hyper way boys can. So in order to get everyone up to speed with our journey through ADHD I am going to provide you with a quick back story. Right from the womb my daughter has been extremely active, as a baby she needed constant attention from me and I could not put her down without suffering through hours of screaming and crying from her, eventually that led to her crying if I moved at all while holding her. Before she could sit up on her own she was trying to pull herself up off the floor, once she learned to crawl she could not be stopped and as soon as she could walk she started to run and climb on everything. She has not been able to slow down since day one and it doesn’t look like she will be slowing down any time soon! Every day it seems like she is getting bolder in her actions, more defiant of authority and thinking before she acts less and less. No we have not medicated her and we have no intention on doing so unless her behaviour becomes dangerous for her or for others. I hope that you enjoy yourselves while you follow along with us through this journey of ours as we will enjoy writing about it. Warning: we will write about the frustrations as well as the joys of ADHD and we will not tolerate hateful or abusive comments. This blog is meant to be a creative means to express both my daughters and my feelings about ADHD as well as an outlet for my daughter to focus her energy.