Oh What A Night

Alex had a big night on Friday. We went to the USHL Stampede Hockey game in Sioux Falls and not only did we have front row center ice seats, but Coach Kevin Hartzell also let Alex help him deliver the victory speech to the team in the locker room following the game!


Alex cheering the team on and throwing out some advice for the players



Alex - let's take a picture together!!!


Thanks hon


After helping deliver the victory speech with Kevin Hartzell



Hanging with the players enjoying some PB&J sandwiches



If you haven't been to a game, let me throw in a plug for this team and encourage you to see them in action. Not only are these guys talented hockey players, they are also one group of classy men. Coach Harzell emphasizes the importance of their impact on a community and they take that to heart. The team encouraged Alex and made him feel like "one of the guys" in the locker room. They didn't brush him off or ignore him - they took Alex right in and showed him a great time. #19 Robbie Vrolyk even graduated with a 4.0 and will be attending Stanford in the fall!! So even if your not the biggest hockey fan, go out and see this team because not only are they one stand up group of boys...but I know we'll be seeing some of these kids in the NHL someday

AND - as if center ice tickets and hanging in the locker room with the Stampede Hockey team wasn't enough fun for one night, we also picked up this little guy - Chewy



Look at Alex's face!! He loves that little dog and seeing that pure joy on his face was totally worth it! I was hesitant when a friend of my sister's approached me about this shih tuz. His girlfriend bought him for her aunt, however, she had to go back to NY and couldn't take the dog. He's 21 weeks old and has all of his shots and papers and she didn't want anything for the dog (unlike the $350-$400 fees some ask for their shih tuz), other than to know he would be in a good home so it worked out perfectly for everyone!

Seriously - it was like 1:00am before Alex finally settled down and fell asleep after this eventful evening

Chewy Monster

Perhaps it's the holidays

Perhaps it's me having baby fever

Perhaps it the constant request from my son "please mom, can I get a dog"

Whatever the reason - meet our new dog Chewy

Rekindling Over The Holiday

I had to run to the grocery store on Saturday and since Alex was warm and cozy in his pj’s yet, I told him he could stay inside. We ran through the list of rules…don’t answer the door, don’t mess with the stove…blah blah blah. I gave him my cell phone to use IN AN EMERGANCY.
Apparently, I didn’t make that last part clear enough

Alex wanted to call his dad and also thought it would be fun to talk to another man who was very important in his life, my other ex Brian

Now, for those of you who don’t know, for some reason, I’ve dated a lot of men with the name “Mike” and “Brian”. Don’t know why and it’s defiantly not intentional, but that’s the way it has happened.

At 8:00am on Sunday, Alex called the entire list of Mike’s” and “Brian’s” in my contact book and thanks to caller id, those who didn’t speak with Alex called back in the afternoon to see why I called.

To make it a little more painful, if Alex didn’t reach his “Mike” or “Brian”, he called back immediately…sometimes dialing two or three times making them (I’m sure) wonder why this crazy woman would call them three or four times on a Sunday morning. Thus, most of my Sunday afternoon was spent talking to my ex’s. Some wanted to simply know if I was okay since I called three times that morning, some wanted to know if I wanted to get back together, some wanted to know why they needed to explain to their current girlfriends why Amanda was calling them continuously on a Sunday morning.

I guess this is why people erase their ex’s phone numbers after they’ve ended the relationship

SPD

First of all - thank you everyone for your advice, thoughts, comments, and support. You have NO idea how helpful it was to me!!!

The assessment went as I expected - the psychologist suggested the possibility of ADD. The next step going forward is a TAT team which consist of myself, Alex's teacher, a school physiologist and another second grade teacher. We monitor Alex's ability to concentrate as well as other behaviors at school and home that might help us reach a conclusion. If we conclude Alex may be at risk for ADD, he will then go to see a child physiologist in Sioux Falls who specializes in children with ADD. She added that Alex is doing very well in school and his grades are good, but she's worried that as his education continues and the work gets more difficult, he may struggle.

I took Alex to see his pediatrician to rule out any other issues such as hearing or eyesight and in addition, I wanted to talk about some other health problems Alex has been having. Alex complains of frequent stomach pains and headache and....as some of you who have sat with Alex at night may already now....since the age of 9 months, Alex has banged his head as he falls asleep. I know it sounds weird and when he first started doing it, I totally freaked and talked to his doctor about everything from seizes to autism. Everything was ruled out and his doctor said that he'll probably just grow out of it and I shouldn't worry. Well, he is now 8 and he still bangs his had to go to sleep and I was concerned that the headaches could be related to that.

His pediatrician thinks that Alex is a very high anxiety child - which is true. Alex is a worrier (probably due to living with a neurotic mom) and is very sensitive to people around him. If a kid at school is having a difficult time, Alex takes it almost personally and internalizes it. If another kid is sick, Alex feel sick...if another kid is sad...Alex is sad and does his best to make everyone around him happy. I use to think it was a good thing and actually was quite proud of my little man. He was a do-gooder! However, it seems have turned to being harmful to his own health. For about the last year, I've been working on adjusting his own cognitive mind to shape his thinking by telling him that he's not responsible for other actions/thoughts/behaviors - only his own. He was also very young when I left his dad - less than a year old - but that year was filled with violence and turmoil. I've always wondered if this didn't put Alex's little sensory ability into high alert and it's just never kicked back into "normal" range. I had him see a physiologist for awhile last year because of some of these issues, and she concluded he was healthy and added that if I'm okay, Alex will be okay. In other words - don't be a nut job and be all anxious around your kid....or at least that was my interpretation.

His pediatrician's nurse suggested I research Sensory Integration Dysfunction and look at hypersensitivity to movement. Get this - here is the checklist....
2. Hypersensitivity To Movement (Under-Responsive):



__ in constant motion, can't seem to sit still

__ craves fast, spinning, and/or intense movement experiences

__ loves being tossed in the air

__ could spin for hours and never appear to be dizzy

__ loves the fast, intense, and/or scary rides at amusement parks

__ always jumping on furniture, trampolines, spinning in a swivel chair, or getting into upside down positions

__ loves to swing as high as possible and for long periods of time

__ is a "thrill-seeker"; dangerous at times

__ always running, jumping, hopping etc. instead of walking

__ rocks body, shakes leg, or head while sitting

__ likes sudden or quick movements, such as, going over a big bump in the car or on a bike

Always running jumping....like's spinning...in constant motion? Isn't that every boy? Alex likes amusement rides...he loves to swing high on the swings...likes to take his bike over ramps...but does this warrant a medical diagnosis? None of his behaviors seems to have a negative impact on his life so how much of it is abnormal? And what in the heck is a normal kid?

ADD

I am crazy nervous today. Aside from having finals this week, Alex's teacher stopped me last week and voiced some concerns about Alex's ability to concentrate. She informed me that she was going to have a school psychiatrist shadow him to see if she observes any concentration problems.

ADD does run on Alex's paternal side and I've been somewhat prepared for this day knowing that the chance of Alex inheriting similar problems were high, but unprepared emotionally. Alex has a few uncles and cousins who have ADD, but are not medicated and believe me, the Holidays are eventful on that side of the family. I hate the thought of Alex being on medication, but I hate the thought of him having any additional obstacles when it comes to learning even worse than I hate the thought of medication. He is doing well in school, but his teacher remarked that school will only become more difficult and if ADD is a problem, it's best to address it now.

So this morning I received an email from his teacher saying that she's received a report from the school psychiatrist and she would like to review it with me. I told her that I would be in to talk to her later today since I have the afternoon off from work (my dad is having some medical test done and I have a final tonight) and plus, I'll just sit and fret about these results if I don't find out what they are today. I wish that I had someone to just tell me what is the right thing to do. A magic ball that I can look inside to find answers and have all of my anxieties erased.

Birthday Fun

We celebrated Alex's birthday this past weekend. On Thursday, which was his actual birthday, I woke him up with a birthday cupcake and serenaded him with an exquisite version of Happy Birthday. What can I say...I've been called the songbird of my generation ;)Later that evening, Alex and I went to SF to see a hockey game and then stopped at Applebees for some chocolate cake smothered in hot fudge and ice cream.

On Friday, Alex invited three of his friends over for a party at Chuck'e Cheese. I was so against this idea at first, but with the move, school, and work; I was more than happy to have the cheese staff organize, cook, and clean. We had a great time and the boys played for three hours while I just hung out at the table reading "Business and Society". I can't lie - this was the easiest party I've ever planned. The staff took care of everything including the cake and the goodie bags!



After the party, we drove back to Madtown and the boys spent the night at our house. Of course we can't escape without a little drama....when I unlocked the door, I realized that the top lock somehow latched and we were locked out of the house. The boys immediately started looking for bricks and sticks to break in the windows, but I thought we could come up with a plan that didn't involve broken windows. I tried climbing through the basement window * but...errr....my rear-end was a little too big...which one little boy who shall remain nameless (but it rimes with Blex) thought was HILARIOUS! I ended up breaking the lock on the back door to get us inside.

So, my baby is officially 8-years-old now. I am the mother of an eight-year-old. How does that happen?

Oh The Ego

Sometimes I have trouble sharing the spotlight. God Bless my friends who put up with me.

My little man

He melts my heart

Happy Brithday Alex

Today is a special day!! Alex says goodbye to being a seven-year-old and hello to being an eight-year-old! He announced with excitement this morning, that in only 10 years, he'll be 18!!

He's an eight-year old people!!! Sometimes it amazes me how much he has grown and how he is developing. Alex loves to make people smile and has an inventive sense of humor. He is strong willed and very persistent when determined - a characteristic that I know will make him a fiery force someday. He has a warm heart and an amazing ability to empathize with others. He loves classic cars, fishing, and golf * three things that must have been hardwired because I've had nothing to do with enforcing these interest.

I watched him wake up this morning. He still stretches his arms and smashes his face and if feels like I'm watching him wake up for the first time in his crib 8 years ago. He makes the same facial expression and the same sounds as he did as a baby and it melts my heart to know that no matter how old he gets, he will always be my baby.

Happy Birthday Alex! I love you always....

Making Progress

Hey...we have a floor!

Tell Me What I Want To Hear

There are three words that this single gal yearns to hear

Three words that make my heart jump for joy

Three words that starts my blood pumping

Three words that sends a tingle from my head to my toes

Three words that bring tears to my eyes and places a smile on my face


Those three words….



No assembly required

Phase 1 - Complete

Phase 1 of project Relocation is complete!



Now if I could just remember what box I packed Alex into....

Christmas Photos

If you know my son even remotely, you know of his fondness (or lack there of) for pictures. I scheduled a portrait session for Alex at 4:00 in the afternoon and I informed Alex that I was picking him up early for school assuming he would be excited - after all...most kids enjoy skipping out of class early, right...which would then make the photo session a bit less painful. Alex knew there was a catch, however. He immediately inquired "Why are you picking me up early mom?". I explained to him that we were taking pictures for our Christmas cards.

Disgusted, he says..."Mom, the only thing worse than school is Christmas photos"

He walked out of the room to return a few minutes later with this ensemble for photos



Only my Alex

Alex On Politics

I took Alex with me to vote today and on the way to the voting booth, I asked him if he had any questions for me in regards to the candidates. He confidently said "Nope, I'm voting for Senator McCain"

I asked him how he came to his decision and he explained "Well, Senator McCain is older than Senator Obama so he must be in a higher grade at school and that means he knows more"

My Morning Thus Far

I walked out side and there was a guy standing by my car

Guy: You have a flat tire
Amanda: Well, why aren't you fixing it

So, I drive the car, with the flat tire to work and ask one of my very nice, very sweet coworkers if he wouldn't mind throwing some air in my tire this morning. He asked...."which one is it?"

Um...the one with no air in it?

And we blondes get ridiculed!

The Kid Cracks Me Up!

It has been a long, long week and I am very grateful that it is Friday! Alex was struggling with his spelling last night. He really didn't want to do homework and when he misspelled the word "sleep" (he spelled it sleap), he actually argued with me that the correct spelling was "sleap". We looked it up in the dictionary together to discover that the correct spelling is indeed "sleep"

So this morning, on the way to school, I asked him how to spell the word "sleep"

He looked at me and actually WINKED and said "mom, you just leave the spelling to me"

He winked! Oh that kid cracks me up sometimes!

Two Things Today

First of all, this is what happens when you've gained a few pounds, but refuse to go up in a jean size. WARNING - what you are about to see, may be disturbing to some. View with caution




Don't let this happen to you


SECONDLY - don't ever thing you're too gone to be done. Did you see the baseball game last night???



Down 7-0 in the bottom of the 7th, the Red Sox were considered by many (including this pessimist) to be done for the year. The rallied in the final two innings to take home a 8-7 win over Tampa Bay. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the only larger comeback in baseball history came in Game 4 of the 1929 World Series when the Philadelphia Athletics beat the Chicago Cubs 10-8 after trailing 8-0.

Halloween Will Suck This Year

Pictures

The morning of September 15th was a difficult one in my house. I had a collared shirt matched with a sweater vest for Alex to wear that day since it was picture day!! Presumably, this would not be a difficult sale to sell…..it wasn’t like I had him wearing a pink ruffled dress.

He took one look at the outfit and protested “mom, I’ll look like a dork!” I reassured him that he will look very handsome and sweet. Aunts, uncles, grandpa, and great grandparents will be displaying this picture proudly in their homes and it’s important that he looks his best I explained. In the back of my mind, however, I’m wondering how a child who can strut proudly out of the house with holes in his t-shirt, mismatched socks, floodwater pants, and his hair sticking up all over the place and feeling perfectly fine about himself can honestly accuse a button down shirt and a sweater vest of making him look like “a dork”

The argument ended with a very simple “I’m the mom, you’re the child, and this is what you’re wearing” and he complied….or so I thought. He had a look on his face when he left the car that concealed the mischievous plot he had in his mind.



That turkey removed the sweater vest the minute he arrived in the school! The look on his face reads “hurry before my mom catches me without that stupid sweater vest”

Ignorance is bliss

Update from yesterday: (and remember, we're city people)

Alex ate the BBQ’s!!!! I asked him about his vegan philosophy, and he reported that BBQ’s are not made out of animals.

I’m not arguing with him

Alex the Vegan?

Alex informed me this morning that he is done eating animals. I have BBQ’s planned for supper tonight so we’ll see how that goes. I don’t know where he comes up with this stuff, but I’m fairly confident that it is just to make my day a bit more challenging

Side note: I was actually a vegetarian for 6 years before I got pregnant with Alex.

Getting Even

About two years ago, I met a guy named Jeremy when my girlfriend Steph and I were out having a few drinks. Steph never really liked Jeremy, but I went out of a few dates with him anyway. I soon found out, however, that Jeremy and I really didn’t have much in common and we just sort of went our separate ways but would keep in touch with each other as friends for the next year.

At a softball tournament last summer, after way too many tap beers, I found my lips attached to Jeremy’s. Okay, I thought…we were having a great time together….he was nice….why didn’t I like this guy? I concluded that I should perhaps give this relationship another chance. A week later, I ran into him and his girlfriend of a year at another softball tournament.

A few tear and another verbal commitment to NEVER AGAIN make relationship decisions after hanging with Jim Bean, Jack Daniels, or any liquid substance that is served out of a keg was made. I wanted to out him to his girlfriend, I wanted to smash the lights in on his car, but I held back reminding myself that he and I never had much in common anyway.

Fast forward to this weekend - I received a text from Jeremy on Saturday night because he was heading to Minneapolis for the Vikings game. He wanted to know if I wanted to meet him up there adding that “he is now single”. I loved the last part “PS – I’m single”…did he really think that he would find me jumping around the house, thanking the good Lord above that my prince has arrived? Where do some men (and I'm guessing some woman) get such inflated ego's?

I asked him what his plans were for the evening and he said that he and his buddy's really didn’t have anything written in stone yet and he was wondering if I could give them some tips on the local hotspots downtown.

When and opportunity presents itself, it really has to be seized.

I sent them to a club downtown and told them that there are so many beautiful people who hang out at this hotspot and even if there’s a line to get it, they should wait in it because it’s totally worth it.

Did I leave out the fact that it’s a gay club? Oops, my bad

Goodbye Summer

Challenges

See how sweet my son looks in this picture?



You'd probably never believe that there are times I swear his head spins in a complete 360 degrees

We had a hurdle last night. Alex will challenge me on random things and last night, it was homework. It's never really about homework (or whatever the issue presents itself to be), but more of who's in charge in our home. Example - I told Alex to rewrite the words he spelled incorrectly on his spelling pretest three times. He insisted that he should only have to write them twice. REALLY - is writing the word one more time really that important? No, it's not...but the fact that he argues with me drives me crazy.

After sitting at the table for 40 minutes, he finally gave up and wrote the word "story" (he spelled it "store") three times. UG - it's exhausting. If there is one thing I hate about being a single parent, it has to be the fact that there is no back-up. There is nobody to talk to about whether you're doing the right thing or not, nobody to come in and say "listen to your mother, nobody to take over while you go outside and scream for 15 minutes. It may sound like I need to pick my battles a little better from this story; but Alex is one of those kids who if I let him write it twice one night, he would demand to only write it once the second night, then one time the third night, then fight me to not practice it the following night....get my drift? They could have coined the term "you give him an inch, he'll want a mile" after my dear sweet Alex.

And where did he receive this stubborn personality from anyway? I'm about the most easy going, laid back person on the earth. :-)

Guess What Time It Is??

SKOL VIKINGS!

How Sweet

When picking Alex up from the Community Center's after school program last night:

Alex: Mom, you smell good.....like hot dogs from school!

Drumroll please....

It's official - I am my second graders mom. Yesterday was Alex's first day of the second grade! He was excited to start the day off with pancakes with strawberries which is a favorite in our house. Breakfast went back to cereal and toast this morning, the second day of school but for the first day of school, you have to go all out right?

As we were eating last night, we had the following conversation

Mom: What was the best part of the second grade?
Alex: Lunch and recess
Mom: What was the worst part?
Alex: The school part

It's such a drag when education gets in the way of lunch and recess

Fishing and Star Wars

WARNING - THE NEXT FEW POSTS WILL HAVE TONS OF PICTURES! I'm finally getting around to posting about some of the fun we've had this summer. A few weeks ago, we drove back to the Twin Cities to see my family and to go to the Science Museum in St. Paul for the Star Wars Exhibit. Alex is a big Star Wars fan so when I heard that the exhibit was coming to St. Paul, I knew he would enjoy himself.

I had some errands to run Sunday morning, so Alex, uncle Jerry and aunt Joellen packed a breakfast and ate on the pontoon boat. Alex was so excited to tell me all about his navigation skills when I returned because Jerry let him drive the boat. They also put a few fishing poles in the water, but not biters. It was difficult getting Alex away from the lake - he is all about fishing right now and is all business when he is fishing. Seriously - look at the picture above....that is his "fishing" face. After I finally got him out of the boat, he had to spend a few minutes with cousin Joel's dog Daisy. Daisy has recently been forced to share his domain with a new puppy so he was excited to have Alex's undivided attention to himself.




My bestest girlfriend Steph came with us to the science museum. You know you have a good girlfriend on your hands when you haven't seen each other in a few months, but you're able to pick up right where you left off.


Alex's favorite part was seeing all of the mucus that lives in your nose, armpits,ears, etc under the microscope. We eventually had to pull him away from that exhibit










More fun summer pictures to come tomorrow....

Vegas Recap

So I flew into Vegas on Wednesday and arrived around 1:00, grabbed a Taxi to the hotel that I was staying at, which is the new Planet Hollywood hotel, and checked in. I could have gone shopping, I could have checked into the spa, I could have walked the strip. However, I took a two hour nap! Yummy....


Here is a picture of the suite at ph and a snap shot of a view of the strip from my room. The room was very retro with three flat screen television inside. Who needs three flat screen televison in a hotel room?




I woke up to an angry Michael knocking on the door. Apparently, I was suppose to stay awake to let him in the hotel room because he didn't want to walk downstairs to get an extra key. He had been standing outside for about ten minutes before I awoke. He jumped on the computer right away and started working away. About an hour later, we left to grab something to eat and drove to Treasure Island hotel to see Mystere which is one of the oldest cirque du soleil shows.



What those people can do with their bodies is amazing to me! I wore this very sexy red BCBG dress that slits right up the leg...and all the way up the leg ;) It was a head turner!

Thursday morning, Michael had appointments set to look for new offices for his brother who is expanding his bankruptcy law firm to Vegas. He woke early to work and write down driving directions since we didn't have a printer in the suite. I received a call from a lady who the PTO group is working with for our fall fundraiser so I asked Michael for a piece of paper. He handed me the entire notebook and I wrote some notes and left the notebook in the TV room. We left the hotel and got around the block when Michael started digging for the directions. He couldn't find them and I said "maybe it's on the notebook you gave me". He ran up to the room (on the 34th floor) and 10 minutes later, came downstairs with a notebook frustrated because it wasn't there. Spent another 5 minutes looking before he decided to run back upstairs (we now 10 minutes late for our first appointment) came downstairs 15 minutes later with my pen and the notebook he gave me which had the directions on. Not the best way to start the day.

We spent most of the day driving around Las Vegas, meeting with real estate agents looking at office space. I took care of calling around to find a restaurant that was impressive but not too expensive. Yeah, that's an easy task!

The highlight of the trip for me was seeing Jersey Boys at the Palazzo. I had heard very good reviews on this show, but didn't expect that I would love it as much as I did by the end of the show. It's AMAZING and if you get the chance, go see this play!!! However, don't order a Bacardi/redbull at the Palazzo...it's $20!!! Anyway, back to the show....I even cried, but I won't tell you much more than that because I wouldn't want to ruin anything. Trust me though...go see this show! I thought this would be one of those jukebox singing shows, but it was so much more! I would seriously put this up there with Wicked and Les Miserables.



The shows were great and Vegas was wonderful, but the most difficult part of the trip was me finding myself falling for the guy that broke my heart once already * do I really want to go through this again? My girlfriend told me to not look at this trip as a devotion of his affection for me and that is exactly what I tried to do. However, I found myself at the end of the trip crying because I could feel my head fighting with my heart.