Ugly.

It's been an ugly day. Challenge after challenge.
It started with getting on the bus this morning. I have been working with Mallory on walking to the bus from our deck each morning. This morning she decided to throw her bookbag in the yard and sit on the sidewalk. When I finally managed to get her to stand up, she spit at me and walked defiantly to the bus. What a way to start the day.
For lunch, I met Mallory and her case manager at La Fiesta. Mallory had earned 7 stars for staying dry in her pull-up at school (1 star for each day). Her reward was lunch with mom. When I arrived, Mallory came a running. She smiled big and gave me a big hug. (Melted my heart!) We had a seat and ordered our food. The wait was unbearable for Mallory. The more she anticipated her food coming the more agitated she became. She kept wanting to drink her 16oz chocolate milk (that's the smallest that they come) in nervous anticipation. When our food arrived she practically inhaled it. But anyway the rest of the meal was pretty uneventful.
After work, I picked up Matt and Mallory, then headed to pick up Hannah at dance class. Mallory did wonderfully waiting the 5 minutes for Hannah to finish. I was so proud of her. But, when we left dance class to head to the van, Mallory start in with another tantrum. She smacked the lady that we walked by (thankfully, she knew Mallory from school). Mallory then proceeded to throw herself on the sidewalk, kicking her feet, and screaming. I scooped her up and rushed to the van as quickly as I could. I wanted to save all the other mother's from the sight. I was mortified. We went from such a nice moment inside the dance studio to a very ugly moment when we stepped out the door. No precursor. No warning. What fun!
On Monday nights, Mallory's personal attendant does not arrive till 6. Once she arrived, Mallory became defiant. We have been working on transitioning Mallory better when both of us (me and the PA) are in the house. We've not had very good luck.
Needless to say, it's been a crazy day!

Undescribable.

The last few weeks have been rough. Trying to make some adjustments. However, nothing happens as quickly as I want. Mallory does see a specialist at the end of October to adjust her meds. I find it somewhat humorous that we waited 6 weeks for the results of her Holter Monitor and now we will wait another 5 weeks to make some changes (hopefully).

Therapeutic Riding

Mallory's horse. They moved her to this one for a couple reasons:

1. He doesn't get the shakes.

2. With a smaller frame, Mallory has to work a lot harder on balance.

3. He's not cranky.

Mallory graduated to leading her horse this year!

Every session starts with putting on our helmet.

Getting ready to ride. Notice that Mallory's horse does not have a saddle!

Mallory also does various activities while riding her horse. She has a favorite baby that she feeds, diapers, and dresses.

Working on leading.

The volunteers work so hard to make every session successful.

We even ride backwards. This helps to improve balance.

The weather has been so nice that Mallory has been able to ride her horse outside.

If you want to know more about therapeutic riding check out the Independence Farms website at www.independencefarms.org

Off to a GREAT start!

We chose to hold Mallory back a year, so she is repeating 3rd grade. This has proven multiple times already to be the right decision. Mallory has the same special ed teacher and paras. Her gen ed teacher is new but not to the school. Mallory has had almost no outbursts or behaviors since starting school. She was rewarded with a trip to La Fiesta with her case manager today.

Tunes.

Long car rides. Mowing the lawn. Funerals. Basically anytime we need to keep Mallory occupied. The I-Pod Shuffle has been a blessing. I have loaded some of Mallory's favorite tunes and she will sit and shift between songs just long enough for me to get something done. Brilliant! Now if we could just find some indestructible ear buds!

Still Waiting.....

We are still awaiting the results of Mallory's Holter Monitor. It has been 4 weeks now and we are anxious to hear the news. Our hopes are that we can make a few changes in Mallory's ADHD meds.

Crazy Busy.

It's been a busy couple weeks. Both of Todd's grandparents passed away over the last 2 weeks, so we have been grieving their loss. Mallory seemed to understand that her great-grandparents had died but couldn't appropriately convey her feelings. This was very difficult for her. I was a little worried about how she would handle the first funeral. I packed her I-pod and prayed. She did remarkable well. She listened to her music and stayed pretty quiet. I'm not taking any chances with the second funeral tomorrow. Mallory and Hannah will be staying at daycare and sticking with their routine.