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So for those of you who didn't see my post last month on FB, Luke officially got his autism diagnosis from the district's psychologist. I had a lot of feelings about it. We actually had his ARD last week with the whole gang. Everyone agreed that he's just the sweetest kid, which is good since he can be quite a pill at home most days. He's going well academically, but he's still a bit behind his peers in reading and writing, which isn't a great shock considering that his expressive and receptive speech is his #1 issue. So he gets one-on-one help during those times in class. But I question this a bit because apparently he's been "reading" Captain Underpants books during their DARE (drop everything and read) time, and CU is waaaaay above his reading level. We have a parent-teacher conference tomorrow, so we'll probably bring that up. Pleasure reading doesn't seem that effective if he's not actually reading. The big kiddo is doing well at school still. He's currently making straight-As, and 4/5 of his 7 classes are technically honors classes since ALL the core classes are honors classes. (And I say 4/5 because they have one 2 period class they call the integrated humanities program that serves as their language arts and social studies credits, but it's one grade on the reports.) He's also taking biology, Spanish, and geometry/Euclid's Elements as honors classes. He also spent a week in Colorado 2 weeks ago on a 5 day backpacking trip with a small group of boys from his class. Way cooler than anything I ever got to do in school. Pics attached. Mine's the one with the hair. He's also bringing up the rear in the pic where they're actually hiking. His backpack doesn't match because he was the only kid on the trip who actually supplied his own gear as opposed to borrowing it from the expedition company that the school used, and as such, he came home less sore than everyone else, despite his feet problems, probably because his backpack has been properly fitted and he's received more than 15 minutes of instruction on how to pack it.

Yeah, sorry. Not a diagnosis diagnosis. I’ve been explaining this to a lot of family lately, so I’ve had to shorthand and appropriate some verbiage that they relate to. Forgot I was going to be addressing some pros on here Here’s what I wrote on FB.

E was on guanfacine and we just switched him to Strattera because guanfacine hasn't done much, and once when we accidentally bumped his dose, it was a disaster. He did well on Strattera in the past, but he couldn't swallow pills and the insides are horribly bitter (my husband accidentally got a little on his fingers once and said it was awful and he got why E was refusing to take it), so we switched to guanfacine. That said, we might need to increase the Strattera because he is on the lowest dose. We also tried clonodine and OMG, that was a mistake. I'm glad you said it out loud about restorative practices not working for bullying. Our school counselor thinks that's the answer to everything. She also excuses some of it because Q is just not on the same page socially. And honestly, I'm ok with that. I'd rather her be a little weird than mean. But it makes me sad that we protect the mean girls better than the supposedly less socially adept. The mean girl stuff on the soccer team is 100% learning from mom. It took me about a month that I wanted nothing to do with about half the families. They are mean shit-talkers who speak poorly about everyone else. No thanks, I'll hang out over here.

We're not doing so great over here. E is on waitlist after waitlist. We were told likely another 9 months for an autism evaluation. Waiting until December to see the urologist. And I had to fight with the genetic counseling folks because they wanted us to fork out $4k for testing after insurance said they wouldn't cover it unless he was hospitalized. (They did agree to cover 2 other tests, though, but I had to fight the hospital to get them to agree to salad and the main course instead of the buffet they wanted.) He is getting a lot less paraeducator help this year, and I think people are getting frustrated at his attention span, but I can't do much about that. I just want some answers for him. I'm becoming increasingly concerned that we may be looking at an intellectual disorder, not just a developmental disorder. Q is having trouble with friends at school. The friends she had last year ditched her after 2 of the girls left to attend private school (one of them is at her former school). Turns out 1 of those girls really liked her and made the other girls knock off the mean girl antics. One of the girls came to school the 2nd day and announced she was no longer allowed to be friends with Q because her mom said she was a "bad influence". I'd like to know what drugs they caught Q in the parking lot with. I didn't tolerate this stuff when I was a tween, and I have even less patience for it now. Half the girls on her soccer team are somehow even meaner than last year's girls. Like the poor sportsmanship is simply astounding. And they aren't even that good. (They did stomp her old team 6-1 this summer in a tournament. That was pretty satisfying.) They are good athletes but not good soccer players, and they really just care about winning. And they are telling her they are losing because of her when really it's the entire team is making mistakes. So I think it's time to consider less serious teams where she can have fun and the focus is not only on winning but enjoying the sport. (Cue for Ender and I: insert rant on pay-to-play here.) We've offered to let her quit entirely but she said she wants to play soccer (and there are no other teams with openings until May). The sole saving graces right now are her new choir group and Girl Scouts starting up again. This age is just so terrible. I hate mean girls.

I really like the Baylon character. His idea that its essentially a never ending cycle of wars "darkness rises and light to meet it" is the real enemy rather than the darkness itself is what Episode IX should have been about. He seems to somewhat be the old "well intentioned" villain. I can only think that his methods will lead to his ultimate failure.

Not like, suicide done, but like… done trying? I’m tired. I’m almost 50. I have no savings or assets, some years I make six figures, some years I make nothing. My kid had moved out. My health is meh. I just want to eat snacks and watch movies and not work.

Maybe I'm the only one, but personally I loved the last episode. I don't even mind the background politics stuff. That's the tie to the ST, it's setting up the failure of the New Republic and exactly why Leia started to get out of politics. She saw the threat that still existed. I'm able to follow even though I haven't seen every episode of Clone Wars, and honestly, most of Rebels. Granted I've been a SW fan for most of my life. Is the target audience really casual fans? I mean, my dad would have no frigging idea what's going on, but my husband is following along for the most part. Side note: my daughter's therapist asked me to introduce her to Ahsoka through The Clone Wars. She thinks she needs a fictional role model and said when she was watching Clone Wars this weekend with her own kids, she realized Q reminded her so much of Ahsoka.