Birthday with Godzilla

 Gavin's birthday was on Friday. This year he wanted Godzilla cake for his party and Godzilla cookies to take to school.

The Godzilla cake topper, and cookie cutter, I found on etsy. Grandma Pat made the cake. It turned out better than what I would have been able to do. And her frosting was terrific. She also made the cookies. She, and her sister, spent four hours making 30 cookies. The cookie dough did not want to come out of the tail and arm sections of the cutter. I was amazed that they stuck to it. As pictured above, we got the leftover (some arm-less, some tail-less) cookies while the picture perfect ones went to school.

And school. Ugh. Gavin is at school at the moment. I am still looking into homeschooling. I don't really want to homeschool. I feel like I don't have the wherewithal to do it well. Still, I can't keep sending my child to a place that is making him physically ill. The search is ongoing.

Sometimes I feel like there is no right answer.

FRUSTRATION!!!!

Anyone in Michigan that homeschools? I am in need of help, tips, pointers, etc. Today is pretty much the limit of shit I can take from this school. They are actively making my child sick and blaming him. It is one step forward and twelve steps back. I cannot keep sending my child to a place that is making him so miserable.

Done. So flippin' done.

And so it goes...

Where to start? This week is a busy one. Yesterday, Gavin had an appointment that required our going into GR. Today I have Irene's parent/teacher conference. Tomorrow I have Gavin's speech evaluation meeting. Thursday is Gavin's well-child check up (also in GR) and Friday is Gavin's birthday. 

I am still having issues with the school. Friday was a mess of incompetence. I emailed the teacher about what actually happened and got multiple emails of such condescension that I finally stopped reading them. I did save them though. 

Yesterday, Gavin was diagnosed with a form of anxiety disorder. His stressor is school. School stresses my child out to the point of making him sick. Granted, there are two particular things at school that really stress him. Still, I am heartbroken that I have to send my child to the thing that upsets him so greatly. I don't know how, or even if, the school will work with this information. I think I would consider homeschooling at this point just to save him the ridiculous amounts of anxiety he suffers. Unfortunately, I don't know the first thing about homeschooling.

Hopefully, Gavin should have 20 counseling appointments. These will be every other week. They'll deal with working through the stress and come up with ideas to help manage it. The gentleman working with Gavin was very kind. I am tentatively hopeful in regards to the counseling.

In other health related news, my brother has been diagnosed with a fairly rare syndrome. He went from a spinal tap on Monday, to official diagnosis on Friday, to treatment starting Saturday. I am frustrated that, even though we live in the same state, I am not close enough to be any kind of real help. Even something as simple as making some food and taking it over is not doable. Instead I have been sending restaurant gift cards (trying to find places that deliver or do take-out) and texting as much as I can. And knitting him things, but you can read about that on my knitting blog.

It is funny how many forms there are of love and devotion. With Gavin, I want to be a giant bear that eats whatever dares to upset him, then take him home, roll him around, and teach him how to fish. I want him to still be hopeful in this world, but help him to get by. With my brother, I want to cry for and with him, then make a blanket fort, and give cuddles. He knows how the world works. I can't make any of it go away, but I can spread some cushions around to ease the discomfort.

And there it is.

Woe is Me!

"You are your child's best advocate" is such a cop-out. Really, it is an infuriating phrase. I can only advocate so much for my child. If I do not know what is available, or what each institute is supposed to do/be responsible for,  and that information is not forthcoming/readily available HOW CAN I ADVOCATE???

We are into our third year at this school. And for the third year in a row they are completely unhelpful. I am beyond frustrated with them. Unfortunately, I am the one that moved the kids to this school when Henry was being physically bullied on the playground of the other school. If the other school had actually done something about the abuse we would have stayed there. I had to jump through paperwork hoops to get all three moved to another school. The school I wanted to move them to could only get two of them enrolled, so we had to go with the school we're currently at.  And it has been three years of complete shit.

With Henry now in middle school, I really want to move Irene and Gavin. Currently, Irene has an all A report card and has many friends. I hate to take her out of that. I'm seriously considering moving Gavin next year when Irene goes to the middle school.

I am tired and fed up with the lack of any support. I feel like they don't want to address any issues because that messes up their 'affluent and awesome' persona.

Ugh. I'd knit to release my frustrations, but last night, in a bid to relax, I managed to mess up the sock I'm knitting. Okay, Okay. Rant over.

School Picture Day...Oops!

 Last year, two days before picture day at school, Gavin hit his head on his bed and gave himself a black eye and concussion. Last year's school picture features his very black and blue eye lid and cheek. We laugh now because we figure it'll be a great story that we'll always remember.

This year, I figured picture day would be easy. Ha! Not only did we have temps of 100 degrees, making the kids sweaty and red faced, I also got an email from the school office the day before picture day. Gavin got hit in the face with the tire swing. They gave him two ice packs, but there was definite mark on his face. The picture below is the cut/bruise on the day it happened. They next day (picture day) it had darkened and bruised more. 

Once again, we will have a story to tell about picture day. And, as Grandma Pat says, at least he is consistent!

Heat Wave!

We have had a ridiculous heat wave here in lower Michigan. Temps between 90 and 100 degrees. It has been so hot that the schools actually had two half days and cancelled all sport activities. Tomorrow the temperature is supposed to be in the lower seventies. Still high for this time of year, but a respite from the crazy heat. It is supposed be in the sixties by Friday, but next week we shoot back up into the eighties. I really want my 60 degree fall weather. I've got flannel shirts and knitted socks that are ready to be worn!

Henry's birthday was last week. We had a small get together at Lou and Pat's. We used to try to do something special for his birthday. Unfortunately, every year since we moved here we have horrible weather on his party day. We'll try to go to a zoo, orchard, park, etc. and it'll be tipping down with rain. This year I almost felt bad since it was sunny...then the heat climbed up to 98 degrees. Yeah, no one wants to be outside in direct sun with temps like that. Instead we had a nice lunch of hamburgers, salad, and cake while we enjoyed the air conditioning.

Here's hoping that October will bring us some fall-like temps.

Yeah...